THE PARABLE OF THE ONE-WINGED CHURCH-Bill Beckham
There once was created a church with two wings. One wing was for large group celebration and the other wing was for small group community. Using both wings the church could soar gracefully anywhere in the world fulfilling the creator's purpose. Because of this special design the Creator could show Himself to His church as God the Most High in the heavens above and as God the Most Nigh in the earth below.
One day the jealous wicked serpent who had no wings challenged the church to fly with only its large-group wing. The serpent applauded loudly when the church became airborne (though it was a clumsy effort) and convinced the church that with practice it could fly just as well using only that one wing.
Deceived, from that day forth the two-winged church began to see itself as having only one wing. (This happened during the earthly reign of Constantine after the Creator had used the two-winged church to thwart the plans of the wicked-serpent-who-had-no-wings.)
The small-group wing through which the Creator could show Himself near became weaker and weaker from lack of exercise until it atrophied into a useless appendage beside the oversized large-group wing. The two-winged church that had soared high in the heavens was now for all practical purposes one-winged, neutralized by the wicked serpent who had no wings.
The Creator of the church was very sad. He knew that the two- winged design had allowed the church to soar in the heavens into His presence while doing His bidding. With only one wing the church had to try even harder to just lift off of the ground. Even if it did manage to become airborne it was prone to go in a circle and to lose its sense of direction and balance. And the one-winged church could never fly very far from its original point of departure. Spending more and more time in the safety and comfort of its bird house it grew fat, lazy, and contented with an earth bound existence.
From time to time the church dreamed of flying high in the heavens into the presence of the Creator and doing His work. But now the strong large-group wing was so dominate that it would not accept help from the weaker side. It was too late.
The Creator finally stretched forth his hand and recreated his church so that it could use both wings. Once again the Creator had a church that could fly into His presence and soar high over all the earth fulfilling His purposes.
Come experience the beauty of the second wing of our church. We're calling it Neighborhood Life groups! If you would like to find a group contact me at
michael.sove@comcast.net and I would love to help you find a neighborhood life group to connect with.
Neighborhood Life Groups
“A Place to Belong, Grow and Serve”
