Less is More

I was in John 3 this which, which includes John's statement in response to some of his disciples leaving him to follow Jesus, "He must increase; I must decrease." I generally get what John's statement means for an individual, but then I wondered what it means for a church. Is there a sense where a church says, "He must increase; we must decrease"?

In a sense, yes. Of course we want every local church to grow (increase), which means that Christ is increasing. But like John, we also want "our" disciples to "leave" us and follow Jesus directly - meaning that they become less disciples of Grace Fellowship (and her elders) and more disciples of Jesus directly. They leaders become less - the people become less dependent on the leaders, who become less of their connection to Him. Instead of a church that builds a following of the leaders, we want to "lose" our following like John did. Just the image of disciples leaving the tutelage of John specifically to go follow Jesus directly is a clear picture in my head of our task - to "lose" disciples to Jesus. This can happen while we grow in numbers - we still "decrease."

As one of the leaders, I want to eventually become less important in your life as a leader (but more important as a friend!).