I met with David Ravenhill yesturday at his house and he said some interesting things I thought I'd share. He is trying to get a book published called The Jesus Letters. Its on the application of the letters in revelation to the church today. In all the seven letters, Jesus never, not even once, commended a church for its size. He said churches are very large in size and yet very shallow. If we went to a preachers conference and meet each other the conversation would usually go like this: "So Jesse, how many are you running now?' and I would say "200. How many are you running Dave?" He might say "700". THen a third guy would come in and say "Oh yes I remember when we hit the 700 point. Now we are running 15 hundred." This is how the modern church measures success, how ever it tells us nothing about the church. The church might be sleeping with each other and living in carnality and having doubts etc. Mr David Ravenhill went on to say that if you sent some of the prosperity preachers over to the church of the Laodiceans they would come back and report that they are strong in faith because they are driving around in Mercedes and Beamers. But Jesus said "Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked."However if you sent those guys to the church of Smyrna they would report that they are letting Satan rob them because they are poor. However Jesus said " know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich)" Our measuring system is all messed up. I spoke to Nancy (Davids wife) and she told me that he wants his ministry to decrease because thats what happened to Jesus. The whole conversation was powerful. He made some very enlightening points. I recorded it and will have it on www.sermonindex.net and my site shortly for anyone to hear.
