Our Annual Meetings were held on 9 October 2010 at Potton. Barry King of Grace Baptist Partnership was our speaker.

Barry is a native of Arkansas and came to the UK in 2003. He was involved in church planting ministry in the USA and came here to continue that work.

His text was Proverbs 30:24 - 28

His introduction was that he is often asked "Is this not a day of small things?" He said that for many years he did not know how to answer (and in any event it is only with the perspective of the passing of time that we can answer correctly) but having reflected on this passage he now says "I do hope so!"

He had two points

(1) Four extremely small but exceedingly wise creatures

The Ant. They are small. They possess no strength yet they make provision for winter. We may be small but we must provide for the next generation.
(2) The Rock Badger. We do not even know for sure what this animal is. When historians come to write their accounts of 21st century Christianity they will not know for sure who did what as we are so small! We serve and then disappear from the records of men. The rock badger is small. They cannot defend themselves. They have to be find protection in safe places. We must be discerning about where we find safety.
(3) The locusts. They are small. They have no great and powerful leader. Yet they advance. We have no great figurehead to lead us. Many churches think that they lack leaders. There is concern about who will lead in the future. This need not be a reason to stop us progressing.
(4) The lizard. They are small They can be caught in a hand yet they cannot be stopped from sharing the throne with the king. We are small and weak but we cannot be stopped.

Being small and weak does not stop PROVISIONING, PROTECTION, PROGRESSING, and PREFERMENT.

Barry continued with his second point. Now when asked whether this is a day of small things he answers "I certainly hope so." This is why he says that.

Four extremely simple but exceedingly important truths.

(1) Small things often have proportionally greater strength than large things.
An ant can lift fifty time its own body weight. A small church proportionally can do more than a large church. A church with ten people that sees one baptism a year is, proportionally, seeing more growth than a church with a thousand people that is praised for fifty baptisms in a year. A church with ten wage earners that gives £5,000 gives, proportionally, more than a church of a  thousand that has a budget of just under half a million. A small church has great strength and can use that strength to provide not only for the present but for the seasons to come.
         
(2) The smaller you are the more important it is that you find protection in right places.
A large church may fall into the trap of thinking that tradition or isolation can offer sufficient protection. But a small church can only find protection in the right place. It finds protection in truth and in interdependence with other truth loving churches.

(3) You can make progress even without prominent leadership. 
There may not be in these days a Spurgeon or a Lloyd Jones but this does not mean that there cannot be progress. Without prominent, nationally recognised, leaders all progress made by the church is to God's glory and his alone. Locusts without a king can lay waste to a land. Grace Baptist churches without a leader can march across the land and change it forever through the planting of churches.

(4) Small things are with us to stay.
The king in his throne room would not want the lizard or spider to stay. The servants would be told to sweep them clear. But no sooner is it swept away than it returns. The powers that be seek to sweep away the church and they think they make progress but we remain. God has ordained that small things will stay no matter what great powers the devil brings against the church.

Tomorrow some of you will be in small churches. This may bother you. Do not let it. Do not seek just to 'maintain the cause' but seek to advance and thrive. To seek to provide for the future. Seek strength in inter-dependency and the word of truth. Stop looking for leaders who will never come. Look to those who are already here and join with them in their work. These are the men that God has given for this time. Be encouraged that although so many want to rid the world of small, troublesome churches they - with all their power and might - will never succeed. Small things last for ever.

Be encouraged by this but do not be fixated on your smallness. Rather fix your eyes on the greatness of God. We may be small but the gospel is great. God is advancing and the very gates of hell cannot prevail against the church.

The sermon and the whole service was much appreciated. It was simple, clear, heart warming and biblical preaching. It blessed the hearers and was well received by all who heard it.