Replay: My sister spoke during the church meeting
Three years ago, I wrote a post called “My sister spoke during the church meeting.” I realize there is disagreement about whether or not women should speak when the church meets. For those who think women should never speak, then you probably don’t want to read this post. Otherwise, I hope this post encourages and challenges you.
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Each Sunday, for our church meeting, someone is scheduled to teach from a certain passage of Scripture. Last Sunday was no exception, as I taught from Matthew 8:1-17. After the scheduled teaching, we encourage others to teach from what they had studied during the week, or to share what God has been doing in their lives. Why? Because we want to give all present the opportunity to build up one another toward maturity in Christ as a way of glorifying God.
Last Sunday, after I taught, my sister in Christ spoke during the church meeting. She had made comments before, but I think this is the first time she has spoken in this manner. She told us about her neighbor. She has been building a relationship with this neighbor. She told us that she is concerned because her neighbor is not a follower of Jesus.
My sister has been demonstrating the life changing message of the Good News of Jesus Christ to her neighbor, both in word and in deed. She said that she is concerned about her neighbor because we never know when the end will come, and her neighbor doesn’t know Christ.
This sister in Christ challenged us with her testimony of evangelism and care for someone who is not a believer. This sister encouraged us with her request for prayer for her neighbor, trusting God to transform her neighbor and to reconcile her to himself.
My sister in Christ – the one who spoke in the church meeting Sunday morning – the one who is so concerned about her neighbor – the one who wanted to share this with us in order to build us up toward maturity in Christ – the one who asked for prayer that God would save her neighbor – my sister in Christ is ten years old.
Some would say she’s not qualified or trained enough to speak during the meeting of the church. I thank God that we gave her the opportunity to speak, and that He chose to teach us so much through her obedience.
Alan,
Great stuff! I trust I will see much more of this in reality!
Aussie John,
I pray for the same thing!
-Alan
Alan, this is a great story. Our kids do not have a junior Holy Spirit. If we encourage our kids to participate like this, they won’t find church boring or irrelevant as they grow older. I love the fact that she has already picked up the heart of Jesus for those who don’t yet know Him. Before long, she’ll be leading a group of her friends who have just become believers. Outstanding!
Felicity,
Thanks for the comment. Yes, it’s very encouraging to hear about and to see God work through his children. For me, it’s especially encouraging when my younger brothers and sisters lead the way through their words and their lives.
-Alan
This is awesome. God says the foolish will shame the wise. My 8 year old came to me with several ideas to tell people about Jesus. First she taped a poster she made to the front door. Next she hand wrote fliers to hang from trees in our neighborhood. (had to gently teach her that our condo association would not like that one. Even the poster was a stretch) Ok, no problem, we can go to Wal-Mart and pass them out to people as we shop.
And so we did. I have to admit I was mortified at the thought of this and prayed the whole way there. the responses were interesting as my daughter did all the work. One woman, an employee, actually cried so my daughter prayed with her. Most people just said, thanks.
the whole time I was praying that she was not encounter something that would scare her away from such zealousness.
Her message was simple: Jesus loves you and wants you for His own. And I am proud to say I had nothing to do with any of it except provide transportation, markers, paper and tape.
But her zeal put me to shame.