Different from present habitual pursuit

Much of what is thought of as ministry today is better categorized as institutional advancement facilitated by both managing and suppressing the fickle appetites of come-and-go-consumers, in the power of human ingenuity. We are in danger of telling ourselves that we are indeed alive (or believing it because we’ve built such a reputation) simply because we are busy, complex, and “state-of-the-art” (see Rev. 3:1).

I share that last part because the first Christians did not have our “ministry delivery system” and they grew by millions and millions of people in a matter of decades. They had (and they lived) the (five) Great Commission(s) in organic, every-day, intentional ways.

These five texts tell us our focus, our activity, and our mission no matter who we are or where we live. The Great Commission is utterly non-dependent on so many of the things we have come to see as essential to the work of the Church of Jesus. In fact, I am in a place in my own life where I am convinced that doing without many of those things will allow me to finally do what these texts envision without all the clutter, baggage, and diversion of resources away from the mission of God and His people.

Kenny Burchard