Last week I promised more to come. Consider this final paragraph from last week’s post:
Try this on for size: If your church is not concerned about the number of people coming to Christ through your ministry, God will not send large numbers of people to your church as He draws them to Christ. Why would He? Why not send the people He’s calling to a church that makes gathering them the priority?
The issue we were discussing was whether or not churches should keep track of the number of professions of faith that occur in their churches during the course of the year, much like attendance and giving are tracked. Here’s a thought: If lost people count you will count lost people who come to Christ!
Evangelicals believe in a sovereign God who reigns in all power and glory. We know from Scripture that a book was written before the foundation of the world, the Lamb’s Book of Life. We know that this books contains the names of all who will ever come to Christ. We know that Christ uses His church, His bride, to gather the lost who are to be found because their names are in the Book of Life. We know that the harvest is plentiful. We know that God is delaying the Second Coming of His Son until the full number is brought into the kingdom. We know that all who are among this number will come to Christ, the vast majority through the ministry of the church. We know that we have been told to go and make disciples of all nations.
Now, if you were a sovereign god with the power to influence people by invading their hearts and minds with your spirit, and you wanted them to come to a certain belief through the work of an organization, say, the church, doesn’t it make sense that you would influence these people to go to a church that does a great job of receiving newcomers and introducing them to such a belief, and don’t you think that church would be aware of how many are coming to belief through its efforts?
OK – I know that was a crazy sentence, but I think the point is obvious. If the lost count then count the lost!
