God is Working and I am Clueless
March-April 2021. This is really when starting a new House church started but I was clueless. God starts working on my heart. I had fallen into serving Him on cruise control. Doing the same thing month after month out of routine. A man had recently visited for a few weeks in a row the church plant I was helping. He went out with us on a Saturday and hounded some lady at her door until he finally got her to pray a prayer. He comes back and the Pastor and everyone is excited. But one problem that lady never came to church once. Never called, never asked a single question. She had no interest in the things of God at all. It was obvious to me that there was no real victory there.
God uses this to get me thinking. I have been walking the streets of Phoenix since 2002 putting tracts on doors and talking to people. In 2002 thru 2004 I was part of building a church. Putting tracts on doors and simply inviting people worked. I mean it really worked. We had a rundown building, in a rundown part of town, on a dead end side street. No visibility to the general public. We went from about 25 people to having to have double services cramming about 120 to 130 people in that small room for each service. God was convicting people and opening eyes. And lives were visibly being changed. Real changes and real interest in the things of God. Not like this lady.
And the material we were putting on doors back then was just simple church invitations with a part of the Romans road in them. Just a sentence or two and a map to the church on the back. By 2006 that pastor went off the rails, ran everyone off, closed the church and ran off with the money. I joined another church and kept putting the same type of church invitations on doors. And for years we still saw results. One time in about 2012 (I might be off a little time wise) the Pastor asked everyone to raise their hand if they started coming because they got a church invitation on their door. Hands went up all over the room. This church also grew until it had to have double services. Just from people faithfully putting simple church invitations on doors.
God was putting me thru a trip down memory lane. But things were different now. As I thought back it dawned on me that the last year that I was at that church the visits from church invitations was down to almost nothing. The return had been slowly diminishing for years. Then for the next 3 years I helped two church plants. And for the last three years I put out the same kind of invitations on doors and saw basically nothing happen.
I started getting grieved in my heart. What was wrong? My first thought was it the lukewarm attitude of the pastor. Only putting invitations out twice a month. Jesus has some harsh things to say about being lukewarm. I could not blame him for God had shown me that I had become lukewarm also. I was also guilty of that. What once was a fire had slowly faded over time, little by little.
So I decided to let God work on me. I started going out every week even if the church would not go every week. I started going out twice a week. I was still seeing no results but going out was fresh. It was joyful. It was something I started looking forward to again with great expectation.
I was being prepared, but was clueless as to what God was going to do.