A Church Planter Celebrates Christmas Part 2

 

Hello my brother; hello my sister, my name is Dean Davis, and this is a word of encouragement for village church planters.

I remember my first formal ministry assignment.  I was sent to lead a group of youth in a small church in a tiny village. I was only 21 years old. When I went to that place I felt so small and insignificant in God’s big world.  I knew God has sent me there, but I couldn’t help but dream of other places ministering to other people in other ways. I felt small and insignificant.  But I knew the Gospel and I knew Jesus. I worked and prayed and did my best to help those young people follow Him.

I wonder if you ever feel the way I did when I was in that tiny village: small and insignificant.  If so, I have a word of encouragement for you.

You may be small, but your are not insignificant.  You are the start of something big. This Christmas season I want you to take time to connect with Jesus personally and worship him.

Take time to remember how He came into the world.  Reflect on Jesus in the stable with the animals, with his mother Mary and his adoptive father Joseph. He was not in the national capital. He was not even in a provincial capital.  He was in a little village that had been famous long ago, but had lost its importance over the years.  He was in Bethlehem in a stinky stable with stinky animals. And the people who came to visit him and his family were not very important people.  They were a bunch of shepherds with soiled hands and stinky clothes.  I can imagine his mom, who had heard from an angel that he would be a king in a kingdom that would never end, I can imagine his mom asking herself, “What is this all about?  This is not where I wanted to be when my first child was born.

But as you meditate on Jesus’ birth don’t forget to remember the angelic visitation which announced his coming intot he world.  The sky was full of glory.  There was a terrifying multitude of angels who worshipped God. In that moment, in that place, heaven broke through and people on earth got a glimpse of the glory of God.  That was the beginning of the greatest transformation the world will ever see.  From that moment onward, everything is leading to the day when we can all say “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever.”

So don’t despise the day of small beginnings. Don’t spend your time dreaming that you were someplace else.  The Kingdom of God which came on earth at the birth of Christ is the same Kingdom that you are a part of today.  Jesus was the King then and He is the King now.  Rejoice and worship Him!

This has been a word of encouragement for Village Church Planters.

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