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When Overflowing Becomes a Problem

July 26th, 2007 by Carl Thomas.

So I came together with some of my disciples to reach a certain people group.  There were about 7 people meeting on a patio in the south Florida heat.  The Lord has touched this group and it has grown … and grown … and grown.

We had our outreach The Mission last Saturday and had 110 people show up.  Lots of people got saved.  It was a “Yeah God!” kind of night.

This past Tuesday night we had our normal meeting in a living room.  The problem?  We had 57 people show up.  Imagine 57 people worshiping in the living room of a 1800 square foot house.  When I preached I had about four square feet to move around.  I literally had a one foot by four foot area to move around in.  There were people stuffed into every imaginable spot.

The good part is that when time comes for ministry, you don’t need catchers because you can only fall back a foot before you hit someone.

The bottom line:  I do not know what to do now.  Tuesday night we had several drug addicts cry out for deliverance confessing Jesus.  We had a guy who got out of jail within the last week.  A whole bunch of people responded to the altar call about sexual purity and almost ten responded to a word of knowledge about rage.

I have to find a way to pastor these people.  I can’t continue to bring these folks in someone’s living room and we simply do not have room to grow.

I do not know what to do now.  Please pray.

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5 Responses to “When Overflowing Becomes a Problem”

  1. Will Riddle | 26/07/07

    You’ve got two problems right?

    1. You need someone to share in the discipleship of these young poeple.

    2. You need more space.

    I’m guessing that for some reason the church facilities are not an appropriate place to move next?

    Do you have anyone either within in the group who can share some of the discipleship, or someone of like heart that can join in the work?

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  2. GB | 26/07/07

    Don’t know what city you’re in, but my counsel is sincere: I would ask the Lord and not move anywhere until He either tells you where to go or opens a door in a very clear way. When God is yoking you to His ministry, He is able to lead you if you are willing to listen. I’ve seen it happen where God is healing in a certain situation and the people move the ministry location, thinking its OK, but God does not heal in the place where they move to. If Jesus wants you to move, He will let you know. For real. In the meantime, do the best you can with what you have. Be grateful, always praying.

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  3. John | 27/07/07

    Hey Carl - awesome stuff! Keep the posts comin’ ! ! ! ! !

    Isn’t it great (?) when we are S T R E T C H E D beyond our capacity and have to rely only on the Lord?

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  4. carl | 28/07/07

    @Will I need a way to disciple not only the people who are coming to the Lord, but also those who are to be sent into the harvest and start a similar group.

    Right now there is 0 follow up with the people who come. I am not in vocational ministry and simply do not have the time or resources to do this.

    @GB Good advise and this really rings true in my Spirit.

    @John You are telling the truth!

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  5. Patsy Eastwood | 5/08/07

    You said you started doing this with some of your disciples. Where are they at?

    If you discipled them, then they need to be doing follow-up. If you don’t start releasing them to do ministry, your group is going to die. And guess what? They are going to screw up. That’s the way it is. And I’ll bet if you are honest, you messed up when you started out in ministry as well. I know I did.

    I read a great book years ago from the Navigators called Jesus Christ Disciple Maker. I think it was by Bill Hull. It was really practical in how to help people become disciples and release them. Buy the ones you think are ready a copy and throw them out there.

    What actually happens is they will be scared to death and hang on to Jesus. You encourage them and help them fix things when they mess up. Let them build relationship with people and then spin of each them out as an independent group.

    This will take some time, but not as much as you fear. If you do it right, you will very quickly multiply the effectiveness of your ministry.

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