There’s a beautiful little text in 1 Thessalonians where Paul talks about how happy he was to hear Timothy’s update concerning the church in Thessalonica. In a period where being a Christian wasn’t easy, where God’s people were a true minority and were often persecuted for practicing their faith, it was with great delight that Paul heard how beautifully the Thessalonians were faring…
But now when Timotheus came from you unto us, and brought us good tidings of your faith and charity, and that ye have good remembrance of us always, desiring greatly to see us, as we also to see you:
(1 Thessalonians 3:6)
In short, the church in Thessalonica was thriving because they were a people full of faith, sacrificial love, and a respect for the Apostles’ teaching of the Word of God. That’s the recipe for a growing church.
I thought of that verse last night as I stood to lead singing after class. We always have “good” attendance on Wednesday nights, but the crowd last night was exceptional. It’s not often the case that the two wings of pews on the far ends of the auditorium have a great number of people in the mid-week, but that was the case last night. I was told after we concluded that we had 196 people in attendance, which is as many as we had for Sunday morning classes a few days prior.
This is incredible and you deserve to be praised for making our mid-week assembly a priority.
We’ve been running between 300-350 for worship on Sunday mornings, which means having about 200 people for Wednesday night represents about 60% of our regular attendees. Not to get too “inside baseball” here, but according to statistics (74% of which are usually made up) most congregations average about a 50% retention rate from Sunday worship to Sunday morning/Wednesday night Bible class. That we’re doing 10% better is a credit to the leadership of our elders, the hard work of our deacons, the tremendous effort our teachers put into making their classes fun, engaging, and Bible-focused, and to you for driving up the hill, week after week, because you want to study the Bible.
North Heights is a congregation full of faith, sacrificial love, and a respect for the Word of God. That’s the recipe for a growing church.
Keep it up.
And if you’re a member here who we only ever see for Sunday morning worship, don’t take my word for it; there are two-hundred others who can tell you that you’re missing out. Happy as I am, I won’t be satisfied until we’re out of room entirely, until people are sitting in chairs in the hallway to listen to our Bible class teachers, and until we have to knock down walls and add more pews to make room for all the people who want to learn the Word of God.
See you Sunday. Bible class starts at 9am.
~ Matthew