Alisha and I, along with everyone on our mission team, attend Memorial Road Church of Christ. MRCC is also serving as the overseeing congregation for our mission to Vienna, Austria. As a member of a congregation of approximately 2500 people, it becomes easy, if not convenient, to criticize the problems of ministry which accompanies being such a large group of Christians. What about the people who fall through the cracks? Should they be encouraged to find a smaller congregation because “big congregation” just doesn't fit them? I don't know of anyone who thinks that's acceptable. How large to we get before we decide that we're too big for effective ministry? Edmond, Oklahoma is growing so quickly, surely if MRCC broke into several medium sized congregations, these, too, would soon become large churches.

As I begin to work more closely with the leadership of MRCC I am impressed by how these issues and concerns are neither ignored nor disavowed. These are the real struggles of being a large congregation and ministry to our fellow Christians, as well as to those who don't know Christ, weighs heavily on the hearts of the church leaders at Memorial Road.

Memorial Road is known as a great missions church: they build strong relationships with their missionaries, they seek to give good care to their missionaries, they desire for their missionaries to be successful. As someone soon moving to proclaim the Gospel overseas, it is comforting to have that type of congregation supporting you, praying for you. But, the most exciting thing about Memorial Road, the reason that really makes me thrilled to be a member of this congregation, is that the church never fails a challenge that our leadership sets before us. I don't think you'll hear anyone apologize for us being a large congregation, but we do acknowledge the challenges that our sheer size brings, and we seek to meet those challenges with Godly solutions.

July 16 was the day for our Special Missions Contribution. The goal that was set and the dollar amount reached are not important. But what is important is that every year our leadership challenges us to give to missions, and every year we surpass the goal. That's exciting. Every year our church members are compelled to give money for one explicit purpose: missions.

At a time when many churches of Christ are reluctant to engage in European missions, and are even pulling support from European missions, Memorial Road is expanding their European missions. In 2007, we will depart for Vienna, Austria, and in 2008, MRCC will expand their current mission effort in Warsaw, Poland by sending a new mission team there as well. There's a challenge in European missions and we need churches to accept those challenges. We need churches that aren't afraid of being challenged so that those who don’t know Christ may find him.