If you were offered the choice of a $10 million dollar immediate payout or a penny that would double in value every day for the period of two months, which would you choose? The $10 million ‘seems’ like it would be the obvious choice, but is it?
At the one week point, the person who opted for the doubling penny option would only have 64 cents in his pocket…but if you allow the multiplication to continue, at the end of the first month, that 64 cents will have multiplied to $21,474,836. At the end of the two months (62 days)…a staggering $461,168,601,842,739!
A couple months ago, Spring Lake leadership introduced us to an exciting new vision statement for our local church body: Spring Lake Church, through the power of the Holy Spirit, will develop and equip tens of thousands of people to be Christ followers and disciplemakers, resulting in an enduring legacy of God’s love in Northeastern Wisconsin and the world.
The ‘tens of thousands of people’ caused many of us to pause for a minute. Is this an unrealistic number? Is this something that really could be accomplished through us? My curiosity got the best of me and I decided to do a little number crunching. My hope is that you find the following possible scenario encouraging.
Average attendance is higher than this each weekend, but let’s be a bit conservative and start with the number of 800. These 800 Spring Lakers, empowered by the Holy Spirit, faithfully and courageously reach out within their sphere of influence throughout the year. By the end of the year, the 800 have each been blessed to be influential in at least one person’s life and the number has doubled to 1600. If this pattern would continue, by the end of 6 years, there would be more than 50,000 new Christ followers and disciplemakers!
Before his ascension, Jesus shared these words with his eleven disciples, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28: 18-20) These eleven, empowered by the Holy Spirit, obeyed these commands of Christ. As a result of their faithfulness and of others throughout the generations that have followed, today there are over 1.9 billion people who profess to be Christians. This is an amazing example of the power of multiplication!
The tough reality is that there are still billions represented in Green Bay, Northeast Wisconsin and in the world who are living without the hope we have as Christ followers. In fact, approximately 40% of the world population has very limited or no access to the gospel.
Spring Lake Church, this is our time, our chance to invest and be multipliers together. Will you join us?
Kristin
Outreach Director
Spring Lake Church 