The godliest people you know are probably invisible to the greater world. Ordinary souls who are generous beyond their means and encouraging beyond that which most deserve. These are the workers who labour in our congregations wanting neither recognition nor reward.
By contrast, those selling their “success” to the world place themselves at the centre of their messages. They teach a philosophy of Submission to Personal Desires. Therefore, with so many making ‘Self’ their religion, it is little wonder the world has become such a miserable place!
Good churches are stable churches. They sustain no less blows, but they survive them.
Good leadership invests in the invisible army, bad leadership is sustained by it. No matter the season, fellowship events are taken care of, the Word is taught, broken things are fixed, the sick are tended to, and the visitors are made welcome, (to name but a few things they do without a second thought).
Grow this group and expect great things. Lose this group and expect to lose the soul of the congregation.
The apostle John spoke against Diotrephes, who had set himself up as the dictator of the congregation (3 John 9). John told Gaius to look to Demetrius, a fellow servant of the truth. He couldn’t have spoken more glowingly of a brother:
“Demetrius is well spoken of by everyone—and even by the truth itself. We also speak well of him, and you know that our testimony is true” (3 John 12).
Churches thrive with servants of the Lord like Gaius and Demetrius. Without them they are overrun by the Diotrephes of this world. Add to them the many hardworking saints named throughout the New Testament, and we build a picture of those who were content, but for the fact that they were named for their good deeds, to be the Invisible Army of Christ.
John Staige
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