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 An
effort was made to establish a church in a rough mining town of
Arizona. Preachers were sent in, supported by other churches;
personal work campaigns were conducted; a place for assembly was
provided. Nothing seemed to "jell," and finally a
preacher who had pushed the work, and preached there frequently,
reported through a "brotherhood" journal that the
whole work was "dead, and needed only to have its funeral
preached."
So,
the ballyhoo stopped, the high-powered preachers quit taking
their "messages" down there, and the few brethren who
remained were left to shift for themselves. One of them, a
worker in the mine, began to "make talks" and carry on
as best he could. The work grew — became self-supporting in
every way, and the gospel began to reach the hearts of others.
A
"poor wise man" "by his wisdom delivered the
city; yet no man remembered that same poor man." Solomon
said, "The words of the wise heard in quiet are better than
the cry of him that ruleth among fools. Wisdom is better than
weapons of war; but one sinner destroyeth much good."
(Eccl. 9:13-18) Surely there is a lesson in this somewhere. Who
will hear??
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Then
there was the fellow who had a good job offer — in a town
where there was no functioning church. I urged him to go, and
start a congregation. Of course he protested, "I can not do
that — I never did anything like that in my life."
But
he went. He put notices on the billboards, in the papers, etc. A
few began to meet with him and his family, to read the
scriptures, pray, sing, and partake of the Lord's Supper. He
wrote me to know if they should send their contributions to us.
How absurd can one get? They began to give with God's purposes
in mind, and soon they had purchased an old barrack as a
meeting place to accommodate the growing assembly.
Our
friend, who "never did anything like that in my life"
baptized his first convert. He wrote me of the plans to expand
their facilities, and how they needed a preacher to "take
over" the work.
And
I wrote that they were "fixing to make a mess out of that
church." No, I am not against preachers, or any scriptural
effort to grow. But we underestimate God's power to use the
small, poor, willing man to His glory.
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