A Radical Idea by David Platt

Author:David Platt [Platt, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-60142-416-7
Publisher: The Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2011-12-13T00:00:00+00:00

From that point the impact of our church in the community changed radically. Now our people are busy leading Bible studies in their workplaces and neighborhoods, helping addicts in rehabilitation centers, supplying food in homeless shelters, loving orphans in learning centers, caring for widows in retirement homes, providing hospice care for the elderly, training men and women in job skills, tutoring men and women in reading, helping patients in AIDS clinics, teaching English to internationals, and serving in a variety of other ways. And now our leadership team understands that it’s good when people are so involved in ministry where they live that they don’t have time to participate in the programs we create.

If you are a leader in the church, think about the individuals in your care. See their faces, hear their names, and picture their lives. Consider how God has written a different story in each of their lives, filled with varied circumstances and challenges, trials and temptations, experiences and encounters. He has sovereignly led them to the life stage and situation where they now find themselves, surrounded by people you will never meet and opportunities you will never have. And you have been called by God to serve them in the accomplishment of God’s purpose for their lives. If you’re like me, the last thing you want to do is sideline them to sit during a performance while you do the work or to participate in a program you have created. Instead, you want to equip them, train them, support them, and set them free to use everything God has given them to make his glory known in ways you could never design or imagine.

And if you are a member of the church, start dreaming and strategizing. Consider where God has placed you, whom God has put around you, and how God desires to use you for his glory where you live and work. If you are single, how can you make the most of your singleness for ministry?8 If you are married, how can you serve together with your spouse in your community? If you have kids, how can you make your home a ministry to children in your neighborhood? If you work outside the home, how can you share Christ in your workplace? Be careful not to let programs in the church keep you from engaging people in the world with the gospel. Make the most of the opportunities for ministry that God has built into your life.

I think of Darren and Julia, a married couple in our church. Darren works in automobile service, and he intentionally uses his work as an avenue for sharing the gospel. He often tells me stories about guys he works with who have come to Christ and whom he is now personally teaching to follow Christ. Meanwhile, he and Julia serve together in a residential facility that provides shelter and rehabilitation for women. Christ is transforming numerous people’s lives in our city through this one couple.

Imagine the spread of the gospel for the glory of God if every follower of Christ were involved in ministry like this.

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