“Go therefore and make
disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded
you.� -Matthew 28:19
Go… and make disciples.
The Great
Commission…The famous last words of Jesus.
We may have heard it… but have we obeyed it?
This month I realized
to a great extent, that for myself, no, I have not really obeyed it. Well, perhaps I was doing it, I just didn’t
feel full joy in it. Let me take a
moment to be vulnerable.
Ever since becoming a
Christian at the age of 12, I have had this deep desire for ministry. This deep desire to make an impact for
Christ. To live for His glory and His
fame alone.
There’s nothing wrong
with the desire, I affirm the desire, but here’s what I want to share. In the midst of my dreaming, ministry became
this “far out there� sort of thing. This
“thing� on the horizon, something beyond me.
In high school I remember thinking about what ministry I’d be doing in
college… then arriving to college, something I would be doing when I graduated,
then something a year ahead, five years ahead, ten years ahead. A perpetual looking forward to doing the
“real’ ministry. Maybe it would happen
when I leave America for the mission field.
Maybe once I take the gospel to an unreached people group and lead an
entire village to Christ, then…maybe then… I’ll be doing real ministry.
So in the midst of
always looking ahead, I see that I have failed to give myself completely to the
people that were right before me. Ministry
is not this on-the-horizon sort of thing, it’s an always-at-the-front-door sort
of thing. What opportunities have been
lost? Preoccupation with the future has
robbed me in some measure of loving others in the present. How easy it can be to run off doing ministry
somewhere else and not see what’s before us?
So why am I even
talking about this?
Meet Peter and Carroll,
a beautiful couple, restaurant owners, passionate for Jesus, and a love for
discipleship. Receiving a call to
abandon their life of retirement, they have moved back into the city of Kuala
Lumpor, Malaysia to live nonstop for the glory of God. I can only say they have been so refreshing
to my soul!
We ten guys (this month
we split up the girls and guys), stayed above their restaurant. Due to our short stay of three weeks, no one
ministry was set up, so they decided to let us instead get a taste of
several. So a brief rundown of Malaysia:
Received teaching on
Islam and Christianity
Led worship and fellowshipped
alongside an upper class home church
Participated in
outreach and feedings to the homeless
Participated in an
outreach to prostitutes and sex traffic victims in the area
Spent four days in a
remote jungle, white rice and fish head as the staple, working on a farm with
locals
Attended a university
bible study, a marvelous display of multiple nationalities born of God!
We ten guys had time to
pour into each other, share testimonies, pray for one another, and take time to
discuss biblical manhood.
Took an evangelism
outreach class.
Worked with Mayanmar
youth refugees, taught and led worship.
Preached and
participated in worship at a Philippine church
Observed Peter and
Carroll running their restaurant for the glory of God as a place of outreach and discipleship.
Attended a Malaysian
mega church.
So through it all I had
one of those revelations that is like, “Of course.� However, maybe it’s not so much an issue of
learning new information, but of learning old truth more deeply. I felt like this month was far less about me
actually doing ministry, and more about me observing ministry, just soaking it
all in. And as I observed the many
varied ministries, a common thread began revealing itself in everything: Discipleship!
The ministry may look
different, but the call is the same, to raise others up in the knowledge of God
and in the power of the gospel. It hit
me with a force I had not previously known.
Every ministry’s focus was build relationship, share gospel… and
disciple.
So what’s the point?
Well, I realized I have
taken for granted the ministry God had for me back in the states these past few
years. Almost in a way that I felt I was
not doing “real� ministry… and for whatever reason, fill in the blank.
This month a deep love
began forming in my heart for people back home.
I think for too long I saw ministry at the ends of the earth somehow
more acceptable to God than ministry in middle or upper class, Savannah,
GA. I have seen my error… Discipleship
is discipleship, wherever it happens.
And not only in matters of location was I convicted, but God gave me a
two by four to the heart in regards to “numbers.� I’ve been too focused on affecting the
masses, which I see at some level, only possible at a surface level, and I have
in some ways neglected the deeper, and often, harder work of pouring my life
into a few individuals.
Who knows where God
will call me in this life after the Race, but this month has served to let me
be more open to His call, less concerned about the where or what of ministry,
and more concerned with what ultimately matters, obedience… making disciples of
Christ.
