At the beginning of this summer, I became part of a church plant. Already, the process has been an amazing one. I can feel the growing pains of transition, as God is calling each of us to step out in faith and to go to deeper levels with Him. My favorite part of this whole process is that it enables us to dream. As a team, we get to consider what we want our church culture to really look like. What values will we stand for? What will be our mission and our vision? It’s an incredible honor to be here for the formative stages, to think that later on I’ll be able to say I was there when it all began.
As I have begun to think about all of this, I have considered how my concept of church has changed overtime, especially where it concerns impact. I used to think that serving in ministry, being in church three or more times a week and filling up my calendar with church related functions and events meant I was making an impact. Surely, I was doing my part if I was at church every time the doors were open. But more and more I am realizing that staying within the four walls of the church was actually preventing me from making a bigger impact and seeing more people latch unto the message of the Gospel and begin walking in relationship with Jesus Christ.
Now don’t misunderstand me. I do believe that having a church you attend and that being connected to a local body of believers is important. We need to be able to lean and to rely on one another for support and encouragement. Church gives us a local gathering place where we can worship God as a community and where we can pray and strategize about how we can see the Great Commission fulfilled in our neighborhoods. I love church and I still serve in ministry.
But make no mistake about it, the people we are striving to reach are outside of the church.
The broken. The used. The depressed. The prisoners in bondage. The needy. The desperate. The hungry. The anxious. The ones looking for a way out. The ones looking for freedom. The ones looking for hope. They reside beyond the perimeters of our neat and tidy church buildings. While a few of them may trickle in here and there for the occasional Sunday service, the majority of them we will never meet unless we take time out of our busy church calendar and go and meet them where they are at.
I took an evangelism course a few years ago that rocked me to my core. My evangelism professor walked us through the Bible and explained that we are all called to do the work of evangelism. This challenged me. Prior to this, I really believed that while some might be called to do evangelism, I was not. I wasn’t good at it. It made my heart race and my palms sweat to even think about sharing the Gospel with a total stranger. I was more comfortable serving the youth group. I was more comfortable in a prayer meeting. I was more comfortable going to a worship night. I thought let’s leave the evangelism stuff to the people who actually enjoy that sort of thing. That class changed everything for me. It finally hit me, what is my purpose? Is it not to actually take part in the Great Commission? Is it not to see the blind see and prisoners set free (Luke 4:18-19)? Is it not the same mission as my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10)? Have the requirements for being a disciple changed? Was it only for the 11 disciples that Jesus said, “Go and make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:19)?” Where is the verse that tells us that fulfilling the Great Commission is only a commandment to the select few? If we are to be imitators of Christ, shouldn’t we follow Jesus in His singular mission and purpose, to draw the lost and broken back into relationship with the Father?
I believe that the majority of the church believes the same things that I used to believe. I am going to really step on some toes here, but I think that there is something fundamentally wrong with sitting in a pew every Sunday and never taking the truths of Gospel to the world outside of our churches. I think there is something fundamentally wrong with standing on a platform week after week after week and yet never sitting down with an unbeliever to share the message of hope that we so frequently proclaim. I have heard many say that the platform is their ministry, the Bible study is their ministry, the small group is their ministry. I have heard many say that they are not called to the lost and that there ministry is to other believers. There are reasons why hundreds will gather for a worship night, but only 5 or 10 will show up for a prayer and evangelism outing. I have been guility of this myself and to be honest it is an easy trap to fall into, but I am hard pressed to find Biblical support for this point of view. These things may be your ministry, but they are not your mission field.
Church it is not up to our Pastors to reach our neighborhoods and our communities. It’s up to us. What kind of impact can we possibly be having if we are unwilling to even share the Gospel with our neighbors? I am speaking as much to myself, as I am to anyone else. My challenge to you is this: If you find yourself only surrounded by other Christians, change up your routine. Find areas to get involved that will put you around people who need hope! Be intentional about forming relationships with people who don’t look like you, act like you or believe like you. Get to know them, hear their stories, build trust and share the hope, joy, light and love of Christ with them.
I am no expert at this. I have learned over time how to earn an A+ as a church kid. It’s a role I know how to play well. But I am just in the beginning stages of learning what it looks like to actually take the Gospel to the streets, to the people that need it the most. But I am ready to take on the adventure. I cannot and will not continue to do church as usual any longer. I’ll end with this:
But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in Him? And how can they believe in Him if they have never heard about Him? And how can they hear about Him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news.” (Romans 10:14-15)
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Holy Moly this is good!