by Pastor Patrick Cho

Not long ago, my family and I had the opportunity to hang out with some of the newer collegians over dinner. It was a fun and simple event hosted by our college ministry to give newcomers a chance to get to know the pastor. There weren’t too many details in the planning. We munched on pizza and salad and just asked each other questions to get acquainted. Even still, it was one of the more enjoyable events of the year for me. The college ministry has been doing this for a little over a year now. What’s great is that when it first started, the staff didn’t even know about it. A few collegians just wanted to help freshmen and newcomers get acclimated to the ministry and so they planned this informal event.

I don’t know how many people realize this, but many of our ministries started much the same way. Members took a look around at what was going on and thought more could be done, took the initiative to get things moving, and ran with their idea. Care Ministry was a member idea. Sports Ministry was a member idea. Refreshments Team was a member idea. Local Outreach was a member idea. It is fun to look back at how these ministries have evolved over time, but it is most encouraging that these weren’t ministries that the leadership simply began in some meeting.

Many churches today are plagued with the “invisible member.” These are the individuals who went through a membership process at their church, agreed to commit themselves to that local body, and then subsequently disappeared. Sadly, while many churches boast of large membership rolls, when you visit their services on Sundays sometimes even the majority of the members aren’t there. Their members don’t participate. Their members sadly don’t even attend.

This is not my attempt to say that Lighthouse is so much better than those churches. The leadership certainly knows that this church still has much to learn and far to grow. But one of the things the leadership at LBC has been able to see over the years is that oftentimes our members are busy serving each other and meeting the needs of the church. They are involved on a week to week basis and are actively investing in the lives of others in the church. If you were to visit Lighthouse on a given weekend, you would most likely see almost all the members there.

What’s even better is that a lot of ministry is happening at the church without the leadership even knowing. We hear things through the grapevine about people meeting up with one another for accountability and prayer, or members serving each other with impromptu meal ministries and visitations. It really is a great joy to see because a healthy church is vibrant with activity. But it isn’t just any activity. It is a Christ-focused, people-loving ministry that is part of what it means to be in a congregation that is growing.

Paul told the Ephesians that the body would grow as long as the members committed themselves to this kind of service. Members should work together in unity (Eph. 4:1-6), exercising their gifts and abilities (Eph. 4:7-11), causing the body to build itself up and mature in Christ (Eph. 4:12-13). This would be accomplished through edifying service and speech (Eph. 4:15-16), and would result in a strong, healthy body that would be free of harmful ideas and doctrines (Eph. 4:14, 17-19).

I’ve been so blessed that our members at Lighthouse understand this body dynamic. When you walk into LBC on a Sunday morning, you are immediately encountered by a number of these coordinated moving parts of the body. While the church is growing and it could become easier and easier to simply blend in and observe, you’ll find that most of our members aren’t content with that. They don’t want to be spectator Christians, but would rather invest in others’ lives and love them like Jesus. One of our recent visitors made an encouraging observation and communicated it to me, “You can tell that the people here really love God and want to grow.” I certainly hope that will always be characteristic of the membership at Lighthouse.