The Church Is Unstoppable

There’s an old story about a preacher and a congregation one Sunday. The preacher was preaching on the nature of the church.

“In order for the church to crawl, we’ve got to read the Bible more.”

To which one of the faithful exclaimed, “Crawl on, preacher.”

The preacher continued, “In order for the church to walk, we’ve got to pray more.”

“Walk on, preacher, walk on!” a man called out.

“In order for the church to run, we’ve got to serve more,” the preacher declared.

“Run on, preacher, run on!”

And finally, crescendoing in volume the preacher shouted, “In order for the church to fly, we’ve got to give more!”

After a pause, a voice from the congregation was heard, “Walk on, preacher, walk on.”


It is all too easy for us to see our limitations as a church. We get caught up in “the natural.” “The natural” is looking at challenges and situations only by what we think we can do, only by the resources on hand, and only by safe measures.

Sometimes, folks, we need to get caught up in the supernatural. We to need to consider what God has done through us, what God is doing through us, and what God wants to do through us.

Is the church merely the sum of people in the pews, money in the bank account, and projected income for the year? Is this all there is to the church?


Well, let’s consider what Jesus intended the church to be. After all, the church is His idea. In our Gospel lesson Jesus asks a question about his own identity.

“Who do people say I am?” Different answers are given – none of them are bad, but none are correct either.

Then Jesus asks, “Who do you say I am?”

Peter correctly answers, you are Messiah, the Son of the living God. Well done. But here’s the thing – is Peter the only one who knew or suspected this? Did Peter have special Bible training that all the other Jews of that day, including Pharisees, Rabbi’s and Scribes, didn’t have?

Of course not. What makes Peter special is he is the first one to make the commitment. He dared to say what no one else yet would – You are the Christ. You are the One.

Jesus blesses Peter for his commitment. His blessing is, “Here, you are the Church!” Your commitment is the foundation. Here’s the keys to the Kingdom.”

“You’re a rock, Peter. You’re the church. Nothing can stand against you. Not heaven, not Hell.”

Somehow Peter’s commitment to Jesus unleashed the commitment of Jesus to the Church. It follows that anytime and anywhere the Church fully commits to Jesus, Jesus blesses the Church.


The blessing is not a blessing of “You’ll never face anymore problems.” No, the blessing is one of God’s presence – “Lo, I will be with you always.” That’s God’s promise. In fact, when we experience difficulty and resistance, this is often a sign that we are in God’s will and doing the right thing.

Look at the Israelites in Egypt. They were led there by God. They found a good life there for many years. But things began to get harder. Pharaoh piled burden after burden upon them, made them second class citizens, and then made them slaves. Pharaoh pushed them and pushed them – they worked harder and harder with no end in site. But what Pharaoh hoped would happen never happened. He hoped the Israelites would give up and die. They kept on living, and in fact, living stronger in the face of the persecution. They kept growing. And what God promised would happen did happen – God was with them all the way.

George Whitfield was perhaps the greatest evangelist this country has ever seen. Whitfield was a colleague and friend of John Wesley. Thousands of people came to Christ through his ministry. But Whitfield also faced a lot of hostility as well.
Some skeptics would come to hear him preach only to heckle and jeer and throw things. Apparently one hostile crowd brought some dead cats with them and began to dismember and throw the cat parts at the evangelist.

“I can put up with. . .”

Now I know we believe in Jesus and believe He can do anything. Do we believe in the Church as much as Jesus believes in the Church?


I know all about limitations. I know all about obstacles. But never are we called to fix our eyes on the problem, but rather, on the prize.

Hicks Church as been through some lean times in its history, both distant and more recent – which bills are we going to pay, what currency – eggs or chickens – is the preacher gonna be paid in, that sort of thing. But we never closed the doors.

We faced building project after building project, renovation upon renovation. Every time some doubted that it could be paid for. Some said it wasn’t responsible, times were too hard. But every time the project was paid for. Somehow the church found a way.

The most recent renovation was the Sharing the Vision project. It was probably the most financially ambitious project we have attempted since this building was built. But you paid for the project. You did this even though you changed pastors, which is never an easy thing to do, especially in the middle of a financial campaign.


We have quite a record of success. Do our attitudes reflect this success? Or do we project an image of failure and weakness? Do we act poor and needy most of the time?

Here’s a remark I over heard the other week - and let me say that this was in a positive context – this person was saying what a great service we had the other week with Dave Felty. It was a great service! His music and testimony was a blessing. But this person expressed that by saying that it was “something quite above our station!”

What? What is our station? Why should we not expect God to rain blessing down upon us? Be thankful. Don’t take it for granted. But don’t stop expecting good things either!

Now I’m not saying that there are never times to be prudent or to say no to a vision or a goal. Of course there are those times. But the question we must answer in those times is, “Does God want us to do something about this or not?”

Questions like, “Do we have the money?” or “Do most of our people approve of this?” are really secondary questions. I’ve been pastoring for seventeen years – from 1991 to today. Economists tells us that roughly that period up until the last two years was one of the most prosperous economic periods in the history of our country. It was boom time. By almost every measure, the U.S. economy did well.

But in all that time I have been a pastor, in those very years, not one of those years, I think, has gone by without me hearing this in the church, “Times are tough. People are on fixed incomes. We can’t afford this.”

Maybe it’s one of those things that “times are always tough.” But thankfully, God is not limited and the Church is not defined by tough times. We work harder. We pray more. We grow more.

The Church is an unstoppable force. But only if we let her be. The only thing that can stop us is . . .us.