Assembling the Body

----- Charles Phipps, missionary to Italy, recently spoke at our small congregation to a gathering of men who represented an evangelistic association here in Southwestern Oklahoma. Our congregation is the smallest one among the association members, and sometimes it is easy for us to feel a bit overwhelmed with the attendance figures and the activities of our larger sister congregations. Like our congregation, our community is miniscule: devoid of such niceties as filling stations, schools, stores, and town governments. In fact, other than a small post office, our congregation is the only actively functioning organization in our hamlet.

----- For fun, I decided to reverse our prominently displayed Sunday school attendance figures for that evening meeting and say that those figures represented a "Texas" count, just to rib one of our outspoken Texas preachers who would, without a doubt, be present. Charles had fun with the reversed figures, as did most of the men - except the Texan. But then his eyes filled with tears as he related an experience in Italy.

----- "I remember one of the older ladies who comes to worship with us," Charles
reflected. "And I remember the time she came to me after the service and excitedly said, 'Oh, Brother Phipps, I'm so filled when we meet with the whole body!'"

----- Then tears began to roll down the missionary's cheeks as his voice conveyed the seriousness of his conviction. "There were only eight of us in attendance that Sunday morning," Charles confided. "Only eight!"

----- I know that I have been guilty of preparing better and delivering better for a large crowd than a small one. Sometimes I think that we all seem to look to our larger congregations for our success stories. "Moving up" in the ministry means moving to a larger congregation. It is easy to overlook the small congregation with the trite assumption that "they are just small because they think small." But is that true, or is that fair? It is interesting to note that the epistle writers referred to three small congregations, all meeting in homes (Romans 16:5; I Corinthians 16:19; Philemon 2).

----- How important is the assembling together of saints? Does the importance diminish with the number in attendance? Is the importance of a congregation measured only by numbers or baptisms or transfers? Or do Christians receive their spiritual sustenance, as did the elderly Italian lady, through the assembling of the body? "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is" (Hebrews 10:25). Yes, evangelism is important, but so is the spiritual power received through the assembling of the saints - no matter how small the number - and the preaching of the gospel.

Published, February 16, 1986 "The Outlook", THE LOOKOUT, Christian Standard Publishing.
(c) 1986