Go Small to Grow Big
Christmas and the Power of Small
It’s a very good thing that Christmas comes every year.
Every year we need a reminder of the power of small.
God started out with a bang. The epic stories of the Bible come from the Old Testament. Floods and famines. Wars and destruction.
But at some point, God shifted gears.
You can hear his exasperation in the prophetic words of Isaiah.
Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also?
Therefore, the Lord God will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.
God turned away from the epic solutions with casts of mostly unnamed thousands.
“Thunderbolts and lightening. Very, very frightening.” wasn’t working.
God, holding all the power in the universe, went small.
It was dramatic—earth-changing.
Suddenly, the cast of thousands become known to us by name. There are 12 male apostles with names and a bunch of women with names, too. Suddenly, our scriptures have us looking into the crowd. We see the boy with the fish and loaves of bread, the woman who is bleeding, the crippled man, the dying girl, the fisherman, the merchant, the rich young man, the priest, the widow, the soldier, and the tax collector. Many of them are named. Suddenly, they are all equal in importance.
Our all-powerful God went small. He bundled all his power into a tiny baby and let it loose in the world. He came to earth and joined us. Immanuel. God with us. Large and small. Rich and poor.
Wow!
The Church is always tempted by big. We feel secure when there are big congregations making big contributions to support — who knows what? We can look across our large congregations as they pass the offering plates at three or four Christmas Eve services and feel a sense of accomplishment. We’ll know some of the names in the crowd. Many will be strangers and will stay strangers.
We look down at the little neighborhood and country churches who struggle to find a supply pastor on Christmas Eve. They are seen as a drain on the hierarchy without clear evidence that they are costing hierarchies anything. The Church will set unrealistic expectations, making the mission of every congregation to equal the financial capabilities of the very few large churches.
The Church, in its own interests, has a hard time valuing small.
But once a year, we are reminded.
Every Christmas we remember the power of small—the power of knowing the person sitting in front of us in church and the ones behind us as well — the power of every person being able to contribute in worship and mission with the gifts God gave them, not the gifts the church perceives it needs for its own survival.
The power of the Church is in strengthening small churches—not focusing on growing numbers but in empowering influence.
We can do that best when we look across the congregation and know the names.
Once a year, at Christmas time, Christians return to our roots.
It all started with a baby and love.
His name is Jesus.