How closely do we follow the commands of Jesus?
For many years I followed the examples and patterns of people I observed in ministry and the teachings which have been handed down for generations. Take one phase of mission, for example. In at attempt to reach entire communities early in my ministry, I had participated in door-to-door ministry, with mixed results. Upon my arrival to Australia I was warned that door-knocking would not produce desirable results – and would even cause more damage than good – so I reverted to letter-dropping and newspaper advertising. After many years of seeing little response, I became confused as to which method to use, or where to find the middle ground between these extremes.
Over the past 5 years, I have given much closer attention to what Jesus teaches and the way He mobilises workers into action. Do we go and saturate a community by confronting people face-to-face? Or do we keep our distance and go fishing with letters and ads? The “sending narratives” of Matthew 10 and Luke 9-10 give some clear directives. Jesus actually does send us to make face-to-face contact, but He said that when we find the man of peace, we should stay there to accept their hospitality and to declare the news of the Kingdom (Lk. 10.7). But that same verse also says that we should not go from house to house, but to stay there and invest in the receptive, influential man of peace in our midst. The assumption is that this person would then become the change agent in that community. It is no coincidence that this strategy is a primary vehicle for the gospel in many church planting movements today.
Amazingly, Jesus actually modelled this methodology Himself. We read of His incarnation in John 1 and Philippians 2, that in submission to God He became flesh and lived in our midst. Born in Bethlehem (“house of bread”) in the tiny land of Judea, He revealed during one of His infrequent trips outside His homeland that He was “sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 15.24). Just as He instructed the workers in Luke 10, Jesus came to one nation, a lamb in the midst of wolves, without personal possessions, and declared His peace upon that “house.” He ate and drank what was set before Him, declaring the Kingdom, and refusing to go from house to house—that is, He remained in Israel to invest in them and equip them for His mission. These faithful few took the message to other “houses” around them, impacting the nations one by one in the very same way.
The more I see the example of Jesus and read about His strategies, the more I want to shed old ways and patterns. Let us not fear letting go of old wineskins but put our complete trust in the One who goes before us in mission.