A.C.T.S.

Tonight we had a get together with some of the folks at church. I always seem to come away from those little meetings feeling kind of bad about things. Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed the fellowship. We got together and went out to eat. Then we went back to the church building for a bit of brain storming. ACTS is an acronym for Active Christians in Today's Society. I hope the number that showed up tonight isn't a true count of how many active Christians we have in our congregation. We only had 15 show up. And isn't it always the same handful of people that are willing to show up for something outside of their normal Sunday morning and Wednesday night?

We are great about coming up with some good ideas. I've heard all kinds of great and wonderful ideas in my years attending here. But our problem is the follow up; following through with all those great ideas. And as great as they are, I'm not sure any of them will actually cause the numbers to increase. One problem I see with a small congregation (we're about 130 members) is that we just don't have all the activities that so many people are looking for when they start looking for a church. Especially when they have children. But how do you build up your class sizes and your youth group when they won't stay? We have a pretty decent teenage group because all our children are growing up!

So, how do you get a congregation to grow? How do you get the members you already have to get involved? It seems to me that's the key to growth...having members who care and who are willing to be involved. Because it's not about the numbers. It's about each one of us sharing our hope in Christ with others. It's not the preacher's job, or the elder's job; it's something we should all be doing.