"Come into my parlour, said the spider to the fly", said the spider to the fly. Some time ago ago I was looking at a spider web that had been growing on a plant in my back yard. It started off as a single dimensional spider web with only one spider. It caught quite a few insects in the web. Over time other webs started to form around the original web, so much so, it became an intricate web of webs, with a family of spiders and webs growing around the original web. It soon became a three dimensional web which caught far more insects than the original single dimensional one. Hmmmmm, I thought to myself, this is exacty like church planting. We start with a church planting couple or couples, disciples are raised up, others come in to help, all with their own network of friends or contacts. The networks grow, each attracting their own insects. The whole family of spiders each have their space to work in that others can not, but all are working together for the one purpose, namely, saving people from Hell and Satan's power by pointing them to God's love.
loved those outside the church. He loved those who were not in "cooeee" (australianism for close proximity) of the people of God. His life exemplified a real love to reach those who did not know God. His whole life and mission was summed up by His own words; "I came to seek and to save the lost". As people of God we are to have the same love for those outside the church as Christ did. As our church grows our web in our community will increase. Each person will have their own growing sphere of influence and the church collectively will have a growing sphere of influence in our community. The potential for our church to reach more people will increase as each of us play our part in reaching those with the Gospel in our web of influence.
Oh Lord Jesus help us to follow you and you will make us fishers of men.
"Follow me and I will make you fishers of men
