Words from the Pastor
Who likes change? Someone (And it wasn’t Mark Twain!) said, “Politicians and dirty diapers need to be changed often and for the same reason.” Now that’s not the same reason that we change things in the church, but change is inevitable. Why? Because the church, which is made up of people like you and me change. Someone said that we go through “life stages,” and I like that. The church is not a building but a living, breathing organism that grows and changes shapes. Now the message is always the same because Jesus never changes, but the church must change or it becomes stagnant.
The early church realized this early on. In the Book of the Acts of the Apostle, in the second chapter and verse 41 Luke writes, “Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.” Can you imagine that? In one day, the church went from 120 to 3,000 people! Talk about change and in a quick hurry! Hoorah for God and His message about Jesus. And, as I stated, God never changes so the church today needs to be growing also. And I believe that here at Canelo Cowboy Church we are growing. Not 3,000 in one day, but we are growing numerically, and that is because of people like you that are sharing your faith and bringing people to church.
I have heard people say that it’s not about church numbers but it’s about an individual growing in Christ, and I do agree with that. But if that individual is growing in Christ and has a healthy relationship with Him, then that individual should be reproducing. I am talking about reproducing Christians as Jesus told us to in Matthew 28:19-20, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen” Reproducing by making disciples!
If a rancher has 100 head of cows and 10 bulls and there is no calf crop then he better figure out why. If he doesn’t he will be out of business in a quick hurry. And I believe it should be the same way in the church, we need to be making baby Christians or the church is going to be out of business. We need to be making disciples like Jesus commanded us to!
Here at Canelo Cowboy Church we have been doing great job of that. We have been reproducing amazingly well and now we have a problem. A good problem mind you, but it is a problem none-the-less. We are running out of room to fit everyone. If you would have told me that we were going to have this problem when I planted this church 13+ years ago I am not sure I would have believed you, but here we are Praise the Lord!
So, that’s where we need the change. The leadership has decided that we are going to need to go to two services starting in October so you can have a choice of when you want to come to church. That will free up some seats and the church can keep growing!
I am looking forward to this Brothers and Sisters! I think that God is going to bless and who knows, maybe down the road a few years we’ll need three services! We will talk about this more, but I did want to give you a heads up. So, thank you for reproducing! It’s a great problem to have. And if you want to talk about it just let me know and we can get together. In the meantime, let’s keep sharing our faith and reproducing!
Please let me know if you need anything. You pray for me and I’ll pray for you. Naomi and I love you all. -Pastor Steve