"Beyond the Box Score"

“Beyond the Box Score”

 

An outfielder hustles to the foul line to stop a ball going towards the corner and holds the hitter at first base. A catcher throws his body in front of a pitch headed for the backstop to keep a baserunner from advancing. A batter intentionally hits a ground ball to the right side of the infield to allow the man on second base to move to third to increase the chances of scoring a run. What do all these baseball situations have in common? You won’t see then recorded in the game’s published box score. But you can rest assured that they won’t go unnoticed by the manager.

The story of the birth and first years of Christ’s church is told in the Book of Acts. The growth in those early days was phenomenal—by Acts 4:4 the number was up to 5000. Afterwards such phrases as “…more and more men and women believed in the Lord….” (5:14), “…the number of disciples…increased rapidly….” (6:7), “…a great number of people were brought to the Lord.” (11:24), and “…the churches…grew daily in numbers.” (16:5) are used instead of hard statistics. (In passing, I remember once hearing a conference speaker comment that a lot of preachers won’t be happy in Heaven because Revelation 7:9 says, “…There…was a great multitude that no one could count….”) In any event, I believe it would be safe to say that the 5000 increased many times over.

Of the thousands of believers who made up the first century church how many are named? Comparatively few—someone has put the number at a little over 100. Does this mean that all those clothed in anonymity did nothing significant? Of course not—they prayed, served, and gave to make the church effective. In his book on the Pastoral Epistles (letters to Timothy and Titus) entitled Be Faithful, Bible Teacher Warren Wiersbe observed, “We do not measure the fulfillment of a ministry only on the basis of statistics or what people see.” In other words, everything God’s people do doesn’t show up in earth’s box score. But, as with the baseball manager, God takes note and will reward jobs done well for His glory.

Rather than worry about the box score, make sure your name is “…written in heaven….” (Hebrews 12:23) by trusting in Jesus.

Blessings!

Jim McMillan