Inside Today's Church

3 of 6 Pages

Faith Like A Mustard Seed

Growing Faith in a Fearful Church

Jesus told His disciples that if they had faith like a mustard seed, they could move a mountain. (Matthew 17:20) The mustard seed is tiny, but Jesus used it to illustrate something powerful: faith may begin small, but it is not meant to remain small.

A mustard seed grows.

And I believe there is something important for the Church in that picture.

When one Christian has faith, that faith can make a difference. But when Christians come together in faith—when they gather around Christ, trust God, encourage one another, serve one another, and step out in obedience—that faith begins to spread.

One seed becomes a plant. That plant grows. And as it grows, its influence reaches farther.

This is what can happen when the Church lives by mustard-seed faith. One person's faith can encourage another. One person's obedience can inspire another. One person's testimony can strengthen another. And as believers gather together, what began as a small seed can become something that reaches far beyond the person in whom it first began.

The early Church gives us a picture of this. They gathered together, shared what they had, prayed together, served one another, proclaimed Christ, and lived out their faith. And the result was not a faith that stayed inside the walls of their gathering. Their faith spread. The gospel went from Jerusalem, to Judea and Samaria, and eventually to the ends of the earth. (Acts 2:42–47; Acts 4:32–35; Acts 1:8)

That is the power of a Church filled with people who have mustard-seed faith.

We may begin small, but when we gather together in faith and allow God to grow what He has planted in us, He can spread it farther than any one of us could ever reach alone.

The question is not whether our faith is big enough.

The question is whether we are willing to plant it, nurture it, live it, and gather together so God can make it grow.

Because a mustard seed may be small, but it was never meant to stay a seed. (Matthew 13:31–32)

Faith Strengthened

A mountain climber finds himself dangling from his rope after slipping and falling. He is helpless, unable to save himself, and realizes that his life is completely in God's hands.

In desperation, he cries out, “God, please save me!”

God answers, “Do you love Me?”

The climber responds, “Yes, Lord, I love You. But please, can You save me?”

Again, God asks, “Do you love Me?”

“Yes, Lord, I do. But please, save me!”

Then God says, “If you love Me, cut the rope.”

The climber looks down, holding tightly to the very thing he believes is keeping him alive.

The question is no longer whether he believes God can save him.

The question is whether he trusts God enough to let go.

Faith is like a muscle—it needs to be exercised and strengthened. God is the One who does the work, but He often strengthens our faith by placing us in situations that require us to trust Him.

Abraham was asked to leave his home and go to a land God would show him, trusting God without knowing where the journey would lead. (Genesis 12:1–4) Later, Abraham was asked to offer his son Isaac, trusting God even when he could not understand what God was asking of him. (Genesis 22:1–14)

Noah was told to build an ark when there was no visible evidence of the coming flood. He had to trust God enough to obey before he could see the reason for what God was asking him to do. (Hebrews 11:7)

Faith grows when we exercise it.

The more we trust God, the more opportunities we have to see that He is trustworthy. Each step of obedience strengthens our confidence in Him. Each time we trust Him through something we cannot understand, our faith becomes stronger.

God doesn't simply give us faith and leave it untouched.

He grows our faith by teaching us to trust Him—one step, one trial, and one act of obedience at a time. (James 1:2–4; Romans 5:3–5)

Fear Defeats Faith

What defeats faith is fear. And I believe the Church’s failure to grow up has left it struggling to learn how to truly trust God. Instead, we have learned to trust human tactics, strategies, resources, and abilities.

If God told the Church to feed five thousand people, would we trust Him to provide, or would we immediately begin calling on men to figure out how to make it happen? Jesus asked His disciples to feed the five thousand, and their first response was to look at what they had and calculate what was possible. Jesus, however, already knew what He was going to do. (John 6:5–13)

That is what happens when faith is replaced by fear. We stop asking, “What can God do?” and start asking, “What can we do?”

When a Church is built on man rather than faith in God, fear eventually takes over. It becomes a church built on invitations, plans, programs, ideas, degrees, money, and human ability rather than on people who are willing to trust God and step out in faith.

We begin choosing those who appear qualified over those who are genuinely called. We look for credentials instead of character, resources instead of faith, and what a person can bring to the table instead of what God can do through someone who is willing to surrender everything to Him.

The Church begins to measure what it has instead of trusting the God who provides what it needs.

And once fear takes root, it begins controlling everything.

The Church becomes afraid of losing people. Afraid of being rejected. Afraid of offending someone. Afraid of failure. Afraid of what people will think. Afraid of lawsuits. Afraid of making the wrong decision. Afraid to speak the truth because someone might walk away.

But fear will always tell you to protect what you have, while faith will tell you to trust God with what He has given you.

The Church cannot become what God has called it to be if it is constantly making decisions based on what it is afraid might happen.

Faith does not mean we ignore wisdom or responsibility. It means we refuse to let fear become our master.

If God has called us to do something, then we need the courage to trust Him enough to obey—even when we cannot see how He is going to provide.

Because the Church was never meant to be built on what man can accomplish. It was meant to be built on faith in what God can do. (Matthew 16:18; Hebrews 11:6)

Fear Spreads, but So Does Faith

The Church’s fear will, without a doubt, spread to its congregation. If the Church lacks faith, how will its sheep learn to have faith? If those leading the Church continually operate from fear, relying on human strategies and protecting themselves from every possible risk, the people sitting in the congregation will learn to do the same.

This is why many churches can eventually become self-focused. They turn inward, concentrating on protecting what they have, keeping people comfortable, maintaining attendance, and taking care of their own needs. Somewhere along the way, they can forget that the call of the Church is to bear fruit and be salt and light in the world—not simply to exist inside a Christian bubble. (Matthew 5:13–16; John 15:8)

But it takes faith to live that calling out.