Pushed into life
David Henderson in Culture Shift says that the Bible pushes
us into life rather than pulling us out. Isn’t what this Jesus said in the
great commission? To go and make disciples. We need to meet people where they
are. Be it bars, homes, workplace, street, wherever there are people we need to
be there.
Alan Hirsch states that we need to follow Jesus’ command “by
going out rather than just reaching out.” By the end of the third century there
were 20,000,000 followers of Christ. Think about that. There was no transportation except your two feet pretty much. No means to spread the message except one on one communication. The zeal the early Christians had to spread the message was amazing! Hirsch lists some of the "handicaps" these
Christians faced as they spread the message of God:
They
were an illegal religion throughout this period: At best, they were
tolerated; at the very worst they were very severely persecuted.
They
didn’t have any church buildings as we know them: While archaeologists have
discovered chapels dating from this period, they were definite exceptions to
the rule and they tended to be very small converted houses.
They
didn’t even have the Scriptures as we know them:They were putting the canon
together during this period.
They
didn’t have an institution or the professional form of leadership normally
associated with it. At times of relative calm, proto-typical elements of
institution did appear, but by what we consider institutional, these were at
best pre-institutional.
They
didn’t have seeker sensitive services, youth groups,worship bands, seminaries,
or commentaries, etc.
They
actually made it hard to join the church. By the late second century
aspiring converts had to undergo a significant initiation period to prove they
were worthy.
So what is your excuse? Why are you not out
among the people of your neighborhood, state, or world engaging them where they live as you
live out the Gospel of Christ?
בְּרָכָה
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