Pleasing God, Attracting People

“ ...praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” Acts 2:47

Praising God: Those who are bought with a price naturally feel like praising their Redeemer. Thanksgiving is an essential element of effective prayer.

The faithful church devotes itself in two directions – upward and outward. Upward is our devotion and sacrifice for the Lord, and includes our praise, worship, prayers, thanksgiving, and even our obedience to his commands. The upward devotion must be in first place – otherwise the outward devotion starts to infringe on it.

Our upward devotion, when it is given the first place of priority, fuels our outward efforts (evangelism). When we are faithful to the Lord, we have a good example to those around us. Those closest to us, like neighbors, are in the position to glean the most from our testimony. Our testimony (example) is the most effective preaching or persuasion technique in the world. Large-scale evangelism reaches a wider audience than one-on-one contact, but there is a huge tradeoff, because the testimony of someone near and known to an unbeliever is much, much more effective than advertisements and marketing.

It is worth noting that the early church experienced both persecution and good reputation, often at the same time. The religious and governmental leaders were trying to make life difficult for the primitive church, but the people closest to them respected them. This respect involves two elements: knowing what the Lord’s servants believed, and seeing them live those beliefs consistently. The implication is that the servants were faithfully sharing their faith with those around them, and showing their neighbors and other around what the faith looks like in practice. Although we are often more timid about sharing with people we see most frequently, they are also the people we are most likely to reach if we can get past our inhibitions.

It is strategic for the Holy Spirit to grow the church by reaching the members’ neighbors. Servants of the Lord who have fellow believers living nearby are often healthier spiritually, because they encourage each other, easily enjoy informal fellowship outside of regular services, pray together, and even help each other attend the church more consistently by carpooling, watching/bringing each other’s children for church events, and so on. In addition, clusters of members in one neighborhood can be the foundation for a new church there; it is much easier to start a church with a group of people who live near each other than if they are really spread out. The testimony effect for the others in the neighborhood increases by orders of magnitude: a given unbeliever now has two neighbors from the church sharing with him and praying for him, and eventually may have three, or four, and so on. Because of the geographic proximity of the church members, the same lost ones are surround them both, allowing for something like spiritual teamwork or compound effects in evangelism.

When we set aside a month to pray especially for neighbors, we should pray not only for our own, but for the neighbors of the church itself. They have many opportunities to observe the behavior of various church members – often we are being watched and we do not even realize it. They walk or drive past the church every day and have a fresh reminder that they could visit there. They have an ongoing testimony before them. This is one reason we remind our church members to maintain a good testimony to those who live and work around the church itself: our members (including adolescents) should never litter around the church (it looks ugly and ends up blowing onto the neighbor’s property), make excessive noise outside the church before and after services, or linger late at night talking or singing (often this is right under the neighbor’s windows and disturbs their sleep). We have to be careful when parking – never driving on even a little of the neighbor’s property, parking in a place that blocks their driveway, or honking at church friends as they drive by (or at our family members to hurry up and get in the car!). Disturbing or annoying the neighbors brings a lot of trouble on the church (this cannot be overstated), whereas a good testimony brings conversions around the church. Our goal is to have the neighbors be thankful that we are nearby, and this happens when they feel we improve the appearance and character of the neighborhood.

There is also a strategic reason for the Spirit to want to convert those who live around the church: it is incredibly useful for the local congregation. Members who live within walking distance are able to arrive earlier to open the church and prepare for services; they attend early morning prayer meetings more faithfully than those who must drive through bad weather; and they watch the church for vandalism or other problems between services. More spontaneous fellowship occurs when members live around the church, because people can conveniently go there for meals or dessert before or after a service. Finally, members living near the church often have an easier time bringing their other neighbors to services, because the invitees know the church is located nearby (is convenient), are familiar with its reputation, and can more easily envision attending there regularly than a church some distance away. All this to say that we should be mindful of our testimony outside and around the church, and mindful to pray for the people who live, work, or own businesses in the vicinity.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact askapastor@maranathacentral.org.