Is 1 > 99?

 

A little while ago, I was meeting with one of the students and we were sitting on a dock over a lake at a nearby park.  It was a pretty spot and easy to focus on God in the midst of His creation.  While we were processing some of the complexities of parenting, a woman came up.  She apologized for disrupting our conversation but said she just wanted to snap a picture because it just looked so beautiful.  One thing led to another and by the end of the conversation she’d poured out a lot of the pain she’d been going through and as we prayed for her, the tears flowed.  Eventually we parted ways and as we reflected on the opportunity to minister to her, a stranger yet another believer, I thought about the parable of the lost sheep.

The Parable of the Lost Sheep Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”  Then Jesus told them this parable:  “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. - Luke 15:1-7

I took this from the window as we were heading out to ministry in the camps in Lebanon.

This student wants to bring revival to churches, to see transformation among masses, to not just make a difference in her community but also nationally and I posed the question, would you be satisfied leaving the 99 to minister to the 1?  It’s a question I struggle with myself (which is why it’s still with me a couple months later).  I want to see entire families come to Christ, I want to see whole communities transformed, I want revival too.  But am I willing to leave the masses to tend to the one who is lost or wounded?    We sing the song and are thankful when we’re the one that was brought into the fold… but sometimes it still feels like numbers are important and mathematically 99 > 1.   It’s hard because church growth means a good thing right?  Yet it’s sometimes the leaders of mega churches that fall (and fall hard) bringing their ministries crashing down with them.   Or maybe it’s just that we hear more about those (there’s an interesting and thought provoking podcast series called The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill that goes into that much deeper).  Missionaries always feel the pressures of sharing how many people are coming to Christ but it’s harder to get people excited when the role might be less direct and intangible (ie- admin or pastoral care).    What happens though when we start measuring church growth by people discipled and discipling rather than just coming?  What happens when we look for ways to help the hurting instead of entertain the bored?  What would church look like?  What would we look like?   When is 1 > 99 when that 1 isn’t ourself?