The Israelite’s made piles of stones to remember what God had done for them in a particular place. Not huge towers like Babel but 12 stones piled where they would be seen and where people would pass by and remember what God did in that place. A simple pile of stones, when remembered and rehearsed brought a lasting impact as many people celebrated what God did in that place over the years.
When we teach our classes and congregations, whether of 5, 12, or 100 people, we often worry it is not enough. Just a small pile of stones. We feel that to have a big impact for the Kingdom of God, we need more people, bigger ministries. But we do not know the impact of our small words for eternity. Perhaps one person who hears our Bible message will be transformed and affect 10, 1000, or 10,000 others. On and on it goes, spreading over the years. This is what happens when God is at work in our ministry, when the teaching is Biblical and empowered by the Holy Spirit a 12 words can have a lasting impact. That is what deep ministry looks like, transformational, replicating, growing deeper if not always visibly wider. Deep Bible teaching can grow a still deep ministry wider invisibly. No one but God may ever know on this earth the impact being had.
George Verwer, who founded Operation Mobilization, a mission organization that is worldwide and over 50 years old, likes to tell the story that everything he has done in the ministry started with a neighbor lady who prayed for him when he was a young boy. One lady’s prayers have literally changed the world and spread the gospel to untold numbers of people.
Just because a ministry is small does not mean it has a small impact. Small ministries have the blessing of being able to take people deeper. Deep ministries won’t dry up and in fact can be built little by little over weeks, months, and years. It is difficult to grow very large but shallow ministries deeper. It can be done, but you can expect push back from the members. It is hard to turn a large ship.
This is not an excuse not to grow our ministries but a reminder that the Spirit blows where we cannot see and we don’t know the impact of our work until one Day we hear Christ say, “Well done good and faithful servant.”
So grow your ministry, but focus first on growing it deep for greater life transformation and worry about the wide part later.
