Call to Front-runners – We Need You!

Now, the church I belong to is a second generation church; 'chapter two' of the story, we call it. Perhaps you get the picture, the fire has died down a bit - we all acknowledge that.

I've noticed the tendency is to panic a little to preserve; there's an inclination to a knee-jerk reaction to create rules to safeguard what we have; I can understand this but believe it's not the best way to stoke the fire.

I think we need pace setters, front-runners in the race, people we can follow. Yes, we know who they are. Steven, the  first martyr, was one in the early church; he wasn't an apostle but he was a pace-setter. People like that around convict us of our selfishness, show us we've slowed down and hopefully make us want to run faster too. After all, the writer of Hebrews didn't say walk the race, jog along as best you can; he wrote, 'run the race'(Hebrews 12:1).

“Hey, hey I can't keep up;” “I feel, well, just a little threatened by this one’s zeal.” This is no time for feelings of inferiority but rejoicing in another's strength; followers become leaders. One of the marks of Christ-likeness is the joy in seeing others do better than ourselves: John the Baptist was a true hero when he said of Jesus, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30 NKJ).

Isaiah, prophesying Messiah’ s golden age said:  “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb ... and a little child shall lead them” (Isaiah 11:6 NKJ). These pace-setters need not be recognised leaders; they’ve just got to be lovers – of God, of His people, of every sort of person.

Young generation lead us on; we’ll try not to mind being followers; we just want to get there together!