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We have certain people in our chruch that are simply consumed with adding more memebers to the list. A couple of us were talking about this and the thought came up, "Is this considered coveting in a sense?" The thought is, If were focused on more, more, more, more and not content with that God provides for us is this wrong?
I believe the question you should ask your church is "Why?" I believe it depends on the reasons they desire more members..In my experience with organized religions the desire for more members usuaslly got back to the subject of money for expansion, more programs, more equipment, more entertainment all to bring more memners,which , imo, are very wrong reasons to want more members..
I know in some denominations (we used to belong to a United Methodist church), maybe some individual churches as well they are told by the district that they are expected to recruit x number of members in the coming year. I don't think its right at all because first, its not the right motive and second, the churches will often resort to spending tons of money on special programs, buildings, etc. to bring these people in (I know my former church actually spend thousands on a TV ad). As far as the actual recruiting goes, I think they tend to try to recruit mostly from the unchurched population, but of course they'll take anyone they can get.
"our church as X number of members..."
'how many do u have...'
I agree with Nay: it's not so much coveting, as it is pride. So many people want to be able to say "our church is BIG, and it's getting BIGGER! Pretty soon we will be the BIGGEST in the city!!!"
Coveting generally means wanting something that rightfully belongs to someone else. Like, I covet my neighbors new Mercedes, or I covet the local milionaires bank account. (I guess if some church had 30,000 members, we could covet those members)
However, if we would stand back for a minute, and look at the big picture, then we would understand all Christians worldwide form the body of Christ, even though everybody is part of different denominations. When you think of the church at large as a body, then you see that it doesn't make much sense for a foot wanting to be TWICE as big as the other foot, and you don't want one eye 3 times larger than the other...because the body wouldn't function well. Therefore it isn't all that surprising if often God doesn't answer our prayers to get bigger. What you want is for the body to be perfectly symmetrical and balanced...
Instead of asking God to make our particular chosen church the biggest, "bestest", and grandest, perhaps we ought to be praying for perfect size and balance of the Christian churches in our particular city...
Just a thought...
Bud
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