Numbers

As many of you know, I like math. Simply because you can proven anything with math. Some people thought it was fun last night when we were talking about how Stephen Hawking uses imaginary numbers to prove his findings.

Anyway, last night we laid out our theme and goal of the year: Everyone Involved, Everyone Inviting. That's what we'd hope everyone in FIRE & WATER is doing, being involved in some way be it through serving, Bible Studies, even just taking part in the discussion on Sunday nights, and everyone would be inviting someone they know to be a part of what we do and get to know Jesus for themselves.

In the midst of our discussion I threw out a math fun fact I heard years ago. If a freshman student were to invite just one person to church, but really help them feel involved for the rest of the semester, then the two of them each do the same thing for the spring semester, by the time this student graduated there would be 255 people in a relationship with Jesus because of them. Really only witnessing to one person a semester, but focusing on growth not numbers.

Well, here's some more fun. We at FIRE & WATER have what we call the Insider Club. Basically you sign up and you get text alerts, prizes, permission forms early, etc. But the idea is that these people are the ones who would be more involved. If that's the case:

If each Insider did what was mentioned above, focus on befriending one person a semester and duplicating that relationship, by the end of the school year we would have 93 new people in our ministry learning about Jesus. If seniors invited seniors and they graduated, but all remaining people kept this up, by graduation the next year, we'd have 300 new people learning about Jesus. The class after them, 567 (those keeping a running total, that'd be 960 people who would have been introduced to Jesus). And so on.

It's not about numbers, but it is about something we're all called to do:

Matthew 28:18-20 ~ Jesus told His disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and earth. Therefore go and make disciples in all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and then teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you; and be sure of this—that I am with you always, even to the end of the world.” (LB)

If we were all focusing not on numbers, but making disciples, the only number we'd have to worry about is the maximum people the fire code allows in the room...

Something to think about.

T