Julie and I have a great privilege.
I’m not just talking about the opportunity to spend my “work day” focused on establishing churches among the world’s unreached people groups. That’s huge, and Julie and I are hugely grateful to those who give so we can do this work for which we do not receive a paycheck.
What I’m talking about is the privilege to do that in the USA, and therefore to have the opportunity to also be involved in a local church.
This first quarter I’m traveling a lot, disrupting my opportunities to be involved locally, but I’m determined to find more ways God can use me in my local church, because of what happened in Thailand the last couple of weeks.
Being around people who spend their lives working with unreached people groups, who have a “whatever it takes” attitude, prompted me to begin asking myself, “What am I doing today to make disciples of all nations?”
If my job as a believer is to make disciples of all nations – and since Jesus commanded it, I think it is, for me as well as for you – then I need to be truly involved in that. Not just giving it lip-service, but to be sold out to the task, because I’m sold out to Him, and I want to respond to His unconditional love for me and the grace He pours into my life.
It would be unconscionable to try to do that and to not be involved in a local church, wouldn’t it? It would be hypocritical to say I want to find more and more ways to make disciples of all nations and not look for ways to do that in and through my local church. It would be silly to think that “all nations” doesn’t include my own people.
But I have to wonder … is the other way around OK?
If we’re all called to make disciples of all nations, shouldn’t it also be unconscionable to just be involved locally? Wouldn’t it be hypocritical to not be looking for more ways to be involved in establishing churches among unreached people groups? Isn’t it silly to be called to “all nations” and focus on only one – your own – while ignoring all the unreached people groups?
I don’t think my praying, giving and teaching in my local church is enough, and I’m going to try to find ways to do more.
Do you think what you’re doing to make disciples of all nations is enough? Will you look for ways to do more?
Julie and I have a great privilege, and I hope you see your opportunities to be involved in our ministry as a great privilege for you. Here on our blog, you can find opportunities to pray and to give.
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