"The Starfish and the Spider"
While both a spider and a starfish have multiple legs, there is a major difference in the source of their power. A spider has a central brain and can be easily destroyed, but a starfish has all of its major organs replicated in each leg. A miracle of creation, the starfish legs somehow cooperate and move together. Cut the starfish in half, and it will not die – in time, two starfish will form. In much the same way, when empires tried to stop the
Christian movement, the deaths of thousands only strengthened the resolve of those who remained. Joe Tamel uses this and other illustrations to reveal the secret of the early Church’s phenomenal effectiveness. Rather than the top-down suppressive organization many tried to make it, the early church was a decentralized, small group fellowship that encouraged laity to lead, to
use their individual gifts, and to have confidence, through the Holy Ghost, to reach their world, one household at a time. |
- "The Starfish and the Spider"
