Faithfulness in Small Things

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   As I was sitting at my desk this morning checking my email, I noticed one email from Church Answers included a blog article from Thom Rainer, entitled "The Urgent Need for Smaller Churches." The article opens with this interesting statistic, "In a report titled 'America: A Nation of Small Towns,' [the United States Census Bureau] noted that 76% of all incorporated places - nearly 19,500 of them - have fewer than 5,000 residents. Even more astonishing, almost 42% of incorporated places have populations under 500." The blog article goes on to lay out the case for the need for faithful ministry through small churches in small locations.

   In one of His more familiar parables, Jesus tells the story of a wealthy man who brought three of his servants to him and gave them each a decreasing amount of money: 5 talents, 2 talents, and 1 talent to invest on his behalf while he was off on a journey. Upon his return, the rich man called his servants back to see how they handled what he had given them. After questioning the first two, he told each of them in turn, "Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master (Matthew 25:21, 23)." The third servant, however, hid his master's money out of irrational fear and had nothing to show to him. So the rich man punishes the lazy and worthless servant and gives his money to the servant who had the most.

  The point of this parable is not the amount of money that was entrusted to the servants; instead, it is the faithfulness of the servants with whatever they had been entrusted. At times, I find myself looking around at the things that I don't have, looking at the bigger church in the bigger community or the ministry that is larger and more influential than mine. I become paralyzed into inactivity like the unfaithful servant in Matthew 25. Perhaps you are in a similar situation as well. Other people seem to have more abilities, resources, or time than you do to invest in God's kingdom, so you do nothing. The question isn't what we have or where we are. Instead, the question is whether we will be faithful with what we have where we are. Those who are willing to take whatever you have and uses it for the glory of God will be invited to enter into our Master's joy.