Keeping Up with the Jones

It's funny that I would think of this during our Indiana James Series (trust me, there was no pun intended). Anyway, I was at Jurisdictional Conference this morning (that's basically a meeting of the Northeast Region for the main purpose of electing a bishop) and I noticed how our conversations always got back to local churches and how well they were doing in this ministry or that ministry and I realized that not even the church is immune from "Keeping up with the Jones".

We're always trying to out-do one another. If you've ever seen a bunch of parents talking, you know that when someone says how great their kids are, everyone else chimes in with their own precious moments stories. Or maybe they're talking about houses...have you ever noticed that no one ever lives "IN A VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER"? We live in a world that says, "if you can't keep up, we'll just run you over." But that doesn't have to be the case!

As followers of Christ, our goal is not to "Out-Do" the church down the street. Our goal is to join with the church down the street to spread the Word. In fact, that is the beauty of Multi-Site ministry. It takes the strength of a mega church and unites it with the agility of the small church to create a truly successful church. When I think of my campus at South Hanover, I know that we have a great worship experience and I know from our visitor cards that we are regularly reaching new people who might never have heard the Gospel if it weren't for us. However, that said, if it weren't for Colonial Park and Rutherford, we at South Hanover might never have had the resources to do what we do. We are proof that cooperative, multi-site ministry works, and God's hand is at work here at CrossPoint.