Thanks for the encouragement you give in this article. We will remain faithful. Please keep us in your prayers.
Our lives are committed to God as true sheperds. We live, teach, and preach the whole true. We are strategically growing our church deep and as a result in the last 5 years we have a fellowship of true disciples that are few. Our congregation has yet to grow wide because of the challenge of maturity, holiness, love, forgiveness, and repentance that we stress consistently. We know that “wide is the gate that leads to destruction and many there be that find it”.
we are humbled by our narrow congregation, because it fits into the narrow way that leads to eternal life.

Stadiums full of people, Church pews empty? Sports have always been a place for a fan, an avid sports enthusiastic to express genuine feelings, etc have always been able to release their true feelings. The battle, the struggle, the game see actual, real, alive players in the dirt fighting for the GOLD. Everyone, the players, the fans know the rules, there is no hidden agenda. People can be real.
In the church, the pews are filled with people who restrain their emotions worrying more about “what other people think”. Also, in the church there are WATCH DOGS, not refs, but, judgemental people that are eager to betray you and your view, your ponderings to the HIGHER AUTHORITIES such as the church council, the pastors, the deacons, the old guard of the church. This is usually under the term:
Accountability. Therefore, the questions are pushed under the surface and hidden. In the traditional church, the conservative believers appear to condemn the so-called Free Thinkers. Second, the rules, the regulations are vague not clearly defined as in sports. In every church, there are conditions of a person’s Christianity that must be altered to include the rules of MAN, very similar when Paul observed that Peter had compromised his freedom in Christ when he was influenced by the Jews that still practised circumsion. Circumsion was an OT condition that God had given the Jews for their covenant with God, himself. In the NT, the traditional Jews influenced Peter that the Gentile believers, now new in Christ had to have circumsion of the male Christians. (Aside: the circumsion referred by the Lord was to take place in the spiritual heart not in the physical body. It was to render the past ideas and belief systems that Gentile believers had lived with thru their life BEFORE Christ). In each church, there are culture conditions that are included in the realm of Christianity for new believers. One: let all your sins hang out for all to see. A young girl had a terrible life, molestation. Even though, she had worked through the process with a different church, she was expected to once again, expose her hurt, her sorrow etc at the new church where she and her husband had joined. The younger members of the old guard in this church after soaking in her sorrow, turned on her and stated that she was stained. Wherever and to whoever, the young members of the old guard introduced this woman to new friends, the tag of molestation was included. She could never forget her tag. Eventually, her husband and herself wanted to start a family, so she had to leave this traditional church. The old guard, young and old members really didnot believe in forgiveness. They believed once stained, always stained: there is no hope for you.
The standard in the church is not the same as in the game. The game is based on rules, the church wants to add man’s Christian written books as a source of inspiration. In the game, books written by retired players are not brought into the arena and cited as a reference; the church constantly refers to Christian writer’s ideologies. Example, the prayer of Jabez. All of a sudden, once the prayer had become public, everyone now wanted that prayer applied to their life. The whole world of God, the Bible, had once again taken the back seat in the church. One church I know, bought the prayer of Jabez book and handed them out as gifts to young people. Was the prayer more important than all the prayers found in the Bible? Think about it….