The .1% by Becky Dietz

.1%.  That's not much...or it doesn't seem to be until there's a problem being created by .1% of the people in your church.  But that's actually how it works most of the time.

I was recently teaching the story of Moses to the children in our church and I got to the part of the story where Aaron had been talked into crafting the golden calf and then Moses came down from the mountain and crushed the idol and put the gold in the water and made the people drink it.  After that, he told the people, "Whoever is on the Lord's side, come to me."  The Levite priests were the first to come to Moses' side.  But 3000 stayed on the other side.  3000 out of 3,000,000 (this is the number of Israelites the  scholars believe came out of Egypt).  That is .1%.

So .1% of the people probably led the people into a revolt when Moses didn't come down from the mountain right away.  It could have been an even smaller number who began the crusade, but .1% ended up following and marching in the war against God.

Those are two things to remember whenever there is havoc being created in your church.

1. It's probably only .1% of the people leading or joining the crusade.
2. It's a holy war against God, not you.

Remember there are 99.9% of the people who have come over to the Lord's side.  They may not be vocal, but they love God and want to follow Him.

I've never seen trouble being stirred up in churches like it is today.  Maybe it's always been there, but it's at least more vocal, upfront, and visible.  The .1% motto seems to be, "Don't get in my way!"

A word of advice from a pastor's wife who has been there:  Hold tightly to the 99.9%!!  I went to friends whose husbands who had an opposing view of my husband and said, "We will NOT allow this to affect our friendship!!"  It will be the elephant in the room until you address it.  I encourage you to address it.  There are so many people who love you but just don't want to get involved in any drama.  And honestly....aren't we all tired of the drama?  I encourage you to LOVE the people---even the .1%.  God wiped out the .1% in Moses' day--the priests were instructed to take their swords and kill them all.  But today, He tells us to love our enemies.  I won't lie...this way is harder.  We'd love to take the swords of our tongues and destroy them.  But God commands us to love them.  And if it's a holy war against God and His instruction is to love them...what right do we have to disobey?   As you express love to them, keep in mind the 99.9% really love God...and most likely, you.  Forgive and love the .1%.  And then leave the results to God.