Two Churches For Thirty People And One Wake Up Call;

A town smaller than a football field. Thirty residents. And somehow, two churches. That little detail from Hum, Croatia made us laugh, but it also opened a serious question: why does God place so much weight on gathering with other believers instead of trying to live faith solo? 

We walk through Hebrews 10:24–25 and talk about the kind of encouragement you can’t get in isolation the stirring up to love, the push toward good works, and the steady support that keeps you standing when life gets heavy. Then we turn to Ephesians 4 and the purpose of the church: God equips his people, grows us into maturity, and uses our spiritual gifts to build up the body of Christ. Your gifts are not a badge to admire, they’re a way God strengthens someone else through you. 

We also reflect on how 2020 reshaped church habits and why online ministry, while helpful, can’t replace real Christian community. You can still hear the Word, but you can miss the relationships, the accountability, and the burden-bearing that Scripture calls us into. As the pressures of the next few years grow, we believe we’ll need trusted people of the same faith and purpose to face challenges together. If you’ve been drifting, this is your nudge to come back, reconnect, and grow the way God designed. 

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Transcript

The World’s Smallest Town

Why Believers Need Church

Gifts That Build Others Up

Online Church And What’s Missing

A Direct Challenge To Connect

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Good morning and welcome to Starting Right with Danny Mack. I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great five-minute start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back, relax, and let me help you start your day right. I recently read an article about a town called Hum, which is located in Croatia. This particular town is significant because it is officially listed as the smallest town in the world. The size is actually smaller than a football field. It has a population of just 30 people. But even with that, Hum has a museum and an inn. And it has a couple of other things that actually made me smile a little bit. It says it has two churches. I found that kind of funny because two churches. I guess if you don't like what the pastor says at the first church, you can go to the second one the next Sunday. It just seems kind of funny to me. Two churches in a town of thirty people. In spite of how the two churches in that town sort of struck me as kind of odd, the Bible does teach us the importance of belonging to a church community and to be involved in it. And one of those important reasons is found in Hebrews chapter ten, verses twenty four and twenty five. Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting meeting together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near. God knows that we need this mutual encouragement and support and accountability with each other. Over in Ephesians chapter four, starting verse eleven, it says, Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church, the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and to build up the church, the body of Christ. And this is to continue until we all come to such a unity in our faith and knowledge of God's Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. We not only need each other for fellowship and support, but we need to come together in a church so that we can grow and become what Christ wants us to be. And God has given each one of us spiritual gifts. And those gifts are not just for us to hang on to and say, look what I've got. I've had this gift from God. These are gifts that are be used to and for other people. God works through us and our gifts to help other people become stronger in their walk with God so that they can also use their gifts to help even more people. We are all connected by the Spirit of God working through us for each other, and we need each other to do that. And then over in Galatians chapter 6 and verse 2, it encourages believers to bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. You see, we come together to grow and become what Christ wants us to be. We come together for the fellowship and support that we need from each other, but we also come together to encourage one another, to help us to grow and become what God is desiring for our lives. Back in 2020, when we couldn't go to church, many churches developed a very effective online ministry. And for most of those churches, that online ministry continues today. The only problem with that is that the churches have seen an average of 25% of their congregation not return to the building, but instead staying home to watch church every Sunday. Now I fully agree that when you're watching a church service, you are still being fed the Word of God, which is an important part of it. But we are missing out on all those parts where we grow and learn because we are together with others believers, with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We truly need those relationships. We cannot handle what the world is throwing at us by ourselves. But we need people that we can trust who are of the same mindset, are of the same purpose, who have the same faith in the same God, so that together we can have the strength to go through everything that's going to come at us. Because I know that as we go through the next few years, the challenges that will come against us will be tremendous, and we need to have strength together to face it. We need each other. So, my friends, I encourage all of us today to make sure that we're spending time with other believers, that we are getting to church, that we are encouraging one another, and we're being encouraged by others. We all need it so very, very much. And that's the way God is designed for each of us to grow and to become the people that He wants us to be. We grow through being with Him and being with other believers. I hope you have a great day, my friends. Connect with some of your Christian friends today. Be blessed and be a blessing. Have a great day. We'll talk again tomorrow. Thank you for joining us today, and I invite you to join us every Monday to Friday right here at Starting Right with Danny Max.