Would you join us in stepping outside your door each morning while declaring this prayer: “God, may your Kingdom come to my neighborhood and may I play an integral part in it’s coming?”
In Acts 1:8, Luke writes:
You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. And you will be My witnesses, first here in Jerusalem, then beyond to Judea and Samaria, and finally to the farthest places on earth (bold emphasis mine, The Voice Bible).
A mission leader of a church in the USA, who goes to several places in the world to teach on disciplemaking movements, made this vulnerable and revealing statement: “I don’t make any effort to meet my own neighbors, let alone make disciples among them.”
A mission agency leader shared this thought with me, “I don’t share the gospel with my neighbors in the USA; I find it way easier to share the gospel in Africa.”
Once a Bible College student told me she was headed to Cambodia. I asked her, “What do you plan to do?” She responded, spend time with widows and orphans.” I inquired, “Do you have dinner on a regular basis with a widow or take a struggling kid under your wing for mentorship in your own neighborhood?” “No,” she replied. “I don’t take initiative in that way.”
Oswald Chambers gives us this fitting challenge:
We have to take the initiative where we are, not where we are not.
Many churches and Christians from North America break the healthy chronological flow of Acts 1:8. In this case, they go to the ends of the earth as experts and doers in those things that they neglect in their own neighborhoods and networks of relationships at home.
It is a bit ironic. God couldn’t seem to get the disciples out of Jerusalem, hence persecution and God-given miraculous events such as with Peter and Cornelius. Now, American Christians are going to the ends of the earth in droves through short-term endeavors, while completely ignoring their God-given directive to be witnesses to those they rub shoulders with on a daily basis.
Part of living missionally for Jesus’ name sake is living out the Great Commission faithfully, each and everyone of us, in our own neighborhoods. Then out of that obedience, some of us will step out to make disciples in the farthest places on earth.
Again, would you join us in stepping outside your door each morning while declaring this prayer: “God, may your Kingdom come to my neighborhood and may I play an integral part in it’s coming?”
Then keep you eyes open for a neighbor, a widow, or a lonely kid that God will put in your mind or on your path.
Very well put Jean. Of course it is much more difficult doing ministry among one’s own people. Just why that is? Or perhaps a more apt question: just why is it easy to do ministry among ‘distant’ people?
Hi Jim! From my experience as a white American Christian, my wealth and status in many places creates willingly recipients. Who resists someone that might be a link to the American dream!? Or what Asian person wants to cause a visitor in his/her midst to lose face?! On the other hand, when on equal footing, uncomfortable persecution and push back is a more likely response. How fun is that?!
Thanks Jean! I am greatly encouraged by this prayer and awareness challenge. My wife Liz and I have been praying a prayer similar to this for the last several years and have been amazed how the Lord Jesus has opened doors for us to share the story of His glory with our neighbors.
Thanks Dan! A prayer like this could keep us quite busy in a good, kingdom sense.
I have said this very thing to many people and all I have gotten was confused looks.
Hi Chuck! It is hard for fish to describe water. May God reveal things to us as He sees fit. We all need a good dose of His revelation.
Thanks, Jean, this is a good reminder of our directive and admonishment for most of us. Luke 16:10 says we must be faithful with little things to be trusted with BIG, so we should be faithful to love our actual neighbors before spending funds to do abroad what we do not do locally. This is appropriately a test of many sending organizations. I am guilty of fearing avoidance by family and neighbors who don’t believe they need Jesus… so the trick to remember is that my job is to winsomely plant seeds — and remember that the Holy Spirit will do the harvest. (Not my job to “close the sale!”)
Hi Beth! Great insight! Thanks for sharing your heart and experience.
I was just talking to a colleague at our church today about something similar. Our people do see themselves as “believers,” “donors,” “volunteers (for church programs),” etc. If/when they think about being a “missionary” or “mission tripper,” they think about it as if it were an additional pigeonhole. They are not thinking of being “witnesses” or “kingdom-bringers” in the definitive, integrative sense you are talking about. I love your kingdom-bringing prayer, and I’m going to try that out with some friends in a class next Sunday.
Hi Stan! Sounds like their is a need for integral thinking beyond the typical: Gospel and Social Action integration.
I’m sad to say you’re words are powerfully challenging to me Jean. Our excuse in the military is that we move too often to get to know our neighbors….this is just a lie though. I’ve never forgotten Jerry Falley challenging us on this too. Thanks for the reminder & your faithfulness! Here’s to sharing the good news with renewed vigor!
Hi Steve! I hear you! I struggle with my own justifications. Here’s to renewed vigor, Steve!
The Bible does not set and order of priority for evangelism and discipleship. The verse you quoted is not any Bible I have seen. You quoted from Voice Bible: You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. And you will be My witnesses, first here in Jerusalem, then beyond to Judea and Samaria, and finally to the farthest places on earth (bold emphasis mine, The Voice Bible). First, Then and finally are not in the Bible.
This sets a priority of action and importance that is not in the Bible. We are all responsible for The Ends of the Earth at the same time as places closer to us. I see very little prayer and giving towards the Ends of the earth in America. We naturally focus on what is close, but have little or no vision for the ends of the earth. When we look at where the gospel has not gone it is in the 10-40 window. We need to lift our eyes to reach those who have never heard. I agree that we need to reach our Jerusalem in a personal way. We are not trained to do this by modeling and practice in the American church. This is a Jerusalem failure. But we have not been trained to pray and don’t pray about salvation for the ends of the earth. (Pray for all men / pull down strongholds for anything exalting itself above God.) You have to consider the hardening of hearts by those who have heard the Gospel in America vs. those who haven’t rejected it yet. Steve
Hi Steve,
Thank you for taking time to share your thoughts.
If someone reads the Bible through Western eyes–linear in nature, one might conclude that sharing the gospel occurs in a sequence of time: first in one place and then another over a long period of time. But this it not a linear command from Jesus (even in the The Voice), rather it is circular/all at the same time–as you say. This blog is referring to a different kind of mixed up priority–a different kind of first or lack of first. Meaning, people showing up in other countries (the ends of the earth) to try to evangelize-disciple and love others, while not doing this first in their own neighborhood, school, work place, etc. (their own Jerusalem). This STM phenomenon (of going to the ends of the earth for a couple weeks) actually is counterproductive to reaching the unreached for many reasons. Also, we have had a “making disciples” crisis in America for a very long time; very few people have been trained to do so. If people are not trained to make disciples in their own “town,” they will not readily pray or go to the 10-40 window/to the ends of the earth (that is unless it is a mission trip). I have found that vision comes from a Great Commission lifestyle and that has to start where you are. Those who I have been able to train to live a Great Commission lifestyle in their Jerusalem (wherever that is) are the ones who give, pray, and go to the ends of the earth. So our hope for N. Americans . . . take initiative among your Somalian, Central and South American, Karen, widows, neighbors, etc. where you are and from this Great Commission lifestyle will come those who go to where they are not–the ends of the earth–because it is in their DNA.
Again, thanks Steve for sharing your concerns.