In last week’s Message About Purpose and Strategy, I mentioned a meeting with Growth Group leaders. Let me tell you about something cool we did together, besides eating dessert. In our training meeting, I tried to get the group facilitators to picture the potential of exponential growth. I don’t want to boggle any anti-math minds, but a comparison between arithmetic progression and multiplication is eye-opening. When you start with one and add one nine more times, you end up with a grand total of 10. But if you start with one and start to double it, look what happens: 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1,024! The difference between arithmetic progression (adding) and exponential growth (multiplying) is amazing. In 20 generations, the total is 1,048,576!

The potential for growth of this kind can be illustrated by folding a paper in half and in half and in half over and over. Incredible as it may seem, after 30 folds its thickness would be beyond the limits of the atmosphere! (Do the math!)
 
Why the emphasis on numbers? Someone will say: numbers aren’t important. I’d answer: it depends what the numbers represent. If we’re talking about numbers of people, then yes, numbers matter! Think and pray about the potential of spiritual reproduction and reach people who can reach people for Christ! As I wrote last week, follow Christ in a way that leads others to follow. Disciples are disciplemakers.

Jesus said, “I am the bread of life.” He used this figurative language to convey that ultimate satisfaction is found in him. It is a great illustration because most people can relate to the way bread is so satisfying. A loaf of bread comes into play in the story I’ll tell you today. It definitely met a need.

I usually use these weekly Message About Purpose and Strategy to motivate you concerning what we do here at Dayspring and why we do it. This week I’ll simply share the first chapter in an unfolding success story.

Last weekend I met a family in the lobby between services and we had a very nice conversation. They had heard about Dayspring and were hesitant about attending at first, but have now been around for a month and they say they love it here. Since then, I’ve had some email contact with the Lopez family and they have expressed their appreciation for us in a very encouraging way.

“We have enjoyed attending the Sunday service as visitors and were warmly welcomed by many members each and every time. We were so surprised when we got home one evening on the last week of August when there was a nice letter from Dayspring thanking us for coming to the service. Under the letter was a delicious loaf of Zucchini chocolate chip bread which all four of us devoured in a couple of days! I immediately laughed and jokingly told my wife, ‘I guess Pastor Larry couldn't get rid of all the zucchini so they decided to make some bread out of it."

” No, I didn’t bake the bread. A more talented woman here at Dayspring named Paula Miller got the idea of making bread and delivering it to people who visit our church as a gift. The Lopez family was blessed by this simple expression of hospitality. What a good reminder of the importance of relational warmth!

In another note, they conveyed this wonderful encouragement: “We've been searching for 15 years to find our church home, and I think our search has finally come to a happy end. Thank you, Dayspring.”

How can you bless someone this week? Try walking across the lobby with a genuine smile and greet someone you don’t know.

The other day I was encouraging an individual about his future. I told him that his success in life would be dependent upon his progress in the process of maturation. So many people get fixated in adolescence with its self-absorption and entitlement syndrome. I was calling him to step up and spelled out three facets of maturity. After we talked I got to thinking how the advice I gave him is applicable to the church as well. I write these weekly Message About Purpose and Strategy to train and motivate you. This week I’ll list these same three facets of maturity and I want you to think about how they apply to us here at Dayspring Fellowship.

1. Maturity involves the ability to offset reward. I’m talking about discipline. We need to be able to make sacrifices for a future benefit.

2. Maturity involves the ability to “own your stuff.” This expression means to take personal responsibility - to not blame anyone else or hide behind excuses, but to rise up and do what needs to be done!

3. Maturity involves the ability to operate under authority. I don’t know of a job where this is not important. Everyone needs to learn how to demonstrate respect. This applies to Christians in a big way because we call Jesus Christ our Lord. If he is the King, then we are subjects in his kingdom and must submit to his rule in our lives.

Just as individuals mature, so must a church grow up and demonstrate discipline, responsibility, and respect.

One of the highlights of the recent Global Leadership Summit was a simple talk by a young pastor named Steven Furtick. The most powerful part of his presentation was an account from the Bible that describes a wonderful miracle. In this week’s Message About Purpose and Strategy, I’ll call your attention to this passage. It is in 2 Kings 3:9-20. Check it out. The people were in desperate need for water and God’s Word came with the odd message: “Make this valley full of ditches.” I’ll tell you, if I’m thirsty, that last thing I want to do is to swing a pick into dry dirt under the hot sun! God was planning on blessing them with rain, but he told them to get ready to receive the miracle. People are responsible to do their part, but they are dependent upon God to do his part. Only God can send the rain. Let’s get ready for the blessing of God. 3:17,18 - “For this is what the Lord says: You will see neither wind nor rain, yet this valley will be filled with water… This is an easy thing in the eyes of the Lord….” We can learn more about techniques and become more efficient, but ultimately, we are reliant upon God to accomplish what only he can do. While we wait for revival, let’s get ready by digging some ditches.

I passed a restaurant and noticed its name on the sign. The place is called, “Almost Home.” That’s an interesting name. I don’t suppose they want to convey that the food is not quite as good as what is at home in your fridge, otherwise you would just drive by and go nuke some leftovers. My impression is that they want you to think of warmth and acceptance. They want to portray an ambiance that reminds you of good memories and better times. People remember fondly the sights, smells, and feelings associated with being at home. Home is the place you feel safe. Home makes you think of consistency and that produces security. That’s what I want people to experience here at Dayspring. In this week’s Message About Purpose and Strategy, I’ll challenge you to consider how you can contribute to our church feeling like home for more people. We want the kind of atmosphere where no one is left out. There should be the feeling of familiarity and the sound of laughter. You can play a part in making our church more hospitable. Look for someone you don’t know in the lobby and walk across the room to extend your hand. Learn their name and help them to feel happy they came to Dayspring. May we experience the blessing of family, even in our large setting by each doing our part to treat others like they matter. Love works! Try it.

God grants us certain success stories from time to time, and I think that Eddie and Chelsey Franz are a gleaming example of what God has been doing here at Dayspring. They recently relocated to Louisville, KY and they love it. But they loved it here as well, and our church played a big part in their lives. In this week’s Message About Purpose and Strategy, I’ll share some excerpts from a note they wrote that clearly communicates about the importance of getting involved in ministry. Here’s what they said: “Dayspring has been an essential part of our marriage and our family. We feel truly blessed to have been a part of it the past several years. We didn’t fully get involved until about 6 years ago when we joined a growth group for the first time. The group became a second family to us and, as our relationships strengthened, we began to see the church in a different light. No longer did we look to the church as an outside entity that we visited once a week with the purpose of serving our needs. Instead, we began to look at the church and our community and extended family. We sought different ways we could we serve the church and the community (Mark 10:45). This church is full of individuals who week in and week out use their “special gifts” (1 Peter 4:10) to serve others. Seeing that dedication has prompted and encouraged us to be more involved and to use our own gifts in a similar manner. We learned first-hand, the more you get involved, the more focused you will be on serving the church rather than looking for the church to serve you.”

What matters most? What are we really striving for in life? Is the aim simply the enjoyment of pleasure, or is there more in store for us? I think we want to enjoy healthy relationships and make a difference in our community. Let’s not live lives of apathy and ineffectiveness, self-absorbed and pitifully ingrown. Let’s rise up and love God and others with passionate abandon! In this week’s Message About Purpose and Strategy, I’ll telling you why I’m teaching this new series of messages. I’ll be revisiting our theme for the year (Love Works) for the remainder of the summer. The Bible tells us that without love, we are nothing (1 Cor. 13:1-3). It is the essential distinctive of the Christian life. Remember Gal 5:6? It is posted on the wall in our Celebration Center: “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” Let’s gear up to make progress in loving God and others, just as Jesus taught. Picture how Dayspring can impact our region when we are living lives of authentic, active Christian love! Now let’s do it!

Sometimes a typo can appear to be what psychologists call a Freudian Slip, or parapraxis - an unintentional error revealing subconscious feelings. There is a theory that some mistakes can disclose what we really mean. I’ll tell you about a particularly meaningful mistake in this week’s Message About Purpose and Strategy. Beyond our giving to support the ministry of Dayspring, Annie and I support some missions organizations, such as World Vision, and some missionaries, such as Dean and Ada Overholt, country leaders in Thailand with Reach Global. In the Overholts recent prayer letter they were explaining what people could expect in their sent-off service (they are about to leave Pennsylvania for another few years in Thailand). In addition to other items on the agenda for their meeting, they said, “we will show lots of pictures from our loves over the past 25 years….” What they meant to write was that they will be showing pictures of their lives over the past 25 years. The fact that they accidently wrote, “our loves,” rather than, “our lives” is meaningful. They’ve given their lives to love God and love others. They have served in places that are hot and humid and dangerous. They’ve eaten snakes and lizards on purpose and many flies on accident. They’ve survived a huge tsunami and angry militants. Every effort has been a labor of love. When they show pictures of their lives, they are showing pictures of their loves! Our theme for the year here is “Love Works.” I’ll be returning to this theme with my next series of messages, “Summer Love,” with weekends on loving your mate, your kids, your parents, your job and your country. We will open the series next week with a message on your first love, God.

I read to learn and I read for fun, but sometimes when I am reading for fun, I end up learning. I needed something quick and light, so I picked up “The Silver Chair,” by C.S. Lewis. It is Book 4 in the Chronicles of Narnia. A single sentence jumped off of page 19 and moved me to prayer. In this week’s Message About Purpose and Strategy, I’ll share what made such an impression on me. In the book, a girl named Jill finds herself in the enchanted land of Narnia. She talks with Aslan (a lion who represents Christ in the stories) about how she got there. He says he called her into his land but she is sure he is mistaken. From her perspective, she came because she asked to come. His answer is theologically deep: “You would not have called to me unless I had been calling you.” The most important part of my preparation for the services this weekend is to pray that God would call people to himself. I will be challenging people to call out to God, but the ones who come will be people God has already been drawing to himself. Join me in preparing for the services by asking God to call many people so they will call out to him.

In last weekend’s services we took a look at Christ’s command for us to invest what we value in a way that pays eternal dividends. In this week’s Message About Purpose and Strategy, I want to point you to what the Bible says about God himself being pleased with what we invest in heaven. Our financial support of ministry is ultimately an offering to God. In Phil 4:18, Paul refers to a financial gift as “a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.” God is the real recipient when we give. God won’t forget what we’ve entrusted back to him. “God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.” He takes it personally when we obediently prioritize his values and give. “Whatever you did…, you did for me (Matt 25:40). The Bible calls us to present our first and best to God. “Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits…” (Pr. 3:9,10) not with the leftovers. When we consider the challenge to live the Christian life with eternity in mind, giving and serving with abandon, it is easy to hold back in fear, thinking that the cost is too high and the sacrifice is too deep. Paul, the Apostle, gets us back on track: “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Cor 4:17,18).