Living Church - Follow Him

I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”

IMAGINE YOUR CHURCH. If you had nothing but people—no buildings, no programs, no staff, and no activities—and you were charged with spreading the gospel to the whole world, where would you begin? Would you start by spending millions of dollars on a building to meet in? Not if you really believed God’s Word. The Bible never tells us to construct a “house of worship.” Instead, the Bible says that we as God’s people are the house of worship. The New Testament never tells us to build a place for people to come to us; instead, it commands us to invest our lives going to people.

Similarly, if we really believed the Bible, we probably wouldn’t limit ministry to a team of ministers who lead the church. Instead, we would all go. Every single one of us. We would scatter as rapidly as possible to make the gospel known to as many people as possible as quickly as possible.

It would be difficult, though, and probably costly. So even as we scattered, we would gather together periodically. The purpose of our gathering would not be to sit in a class, it would be to share our lives—to share the hurts and joys we are experiencing as we spend our lives spreading the gospel to the ends of the earth. We would encourage one another, teach one another, worship with one another, give to one another, and then we would scatter again to make the gospel of Jesus known to more people. We would do this week after week and year after year, and we would not stop until the Good News of Jesus spread from our houses to our communities to our cities to the nations.

Real disciples want to be part of a movement like that. They want to be part of a people who have forsaken every earthly ambition in favor of one eternal aspiration: to see disciples made and churches multiplied.

This kind of movement involves all of us. Ordinary people spreading the gospel in extraordinary ways all over the world. Men and women from diverse backgrounds with different gifts and distinct platforms making disciples and multiplying churches through every domain of society in every place on the planet. This is God’s design for his church, and disciples of Jesus must not settle for anything less.

Confess your dependence on God. Ask him to use you and your church for the accomplishment of his purposes.