Everyone Going Series

Another Edgewood member told me he was at Logomarcinos before Valentine’s Day to pick up some candy for his wife: “As the attendant reached for the heart-shaped boxes, they all came tumbling down! A fellow next to me said, ‘gravity’ to which I replied it is usually a good thing. He answered back that if it were off just a fraction we wouldn’t exist. I replied yes, and the same is true for the entire earth, which is perfectly designed. I added I believed God made the world. He said, ‘What church do you go to?’ I said, ‘Edgewood.’ He held out his hand and said, ‘I do, too!” I love how both of these guys were trying to witness to each other while buying chocolate for their wives!

Another Edgewood member passed along an article called, “Your Tribe, Your Mission” by Ron Hutchcraft: “People from a tribe are the key to reaching people in that tribe…I’m convinced that tribal rescue is the key to breaking through to countless people in every culture and every subculture. Moms listen to moms. Soccer players listen to soccer players. Hunters listen to hunters. Cancer survivors listen to cancer survivors…you’re in an occupational tribe, an educational tribe, a generational tribe, a neighborhood tribe…you’ve been positioned by God to represent Christ in your tribe as no one else could…you are a tribal ambassador to reach your tribe for Christ…just think what could happen in our country if every believer claimed their tribe for Christ.” In light of that, Beth and I are going to our block party Sunday afternoon. This is probably the 10th one we’ve had with our neighbors.

Because God is a going God, going also means crossing tribal boundaries – going across the street, going to have dinner with an unbeliever, going to the west end, going beyond one’s comfort zone, or going cross-culturally to another country.

“Make disciples…” A disciple is literally a “learner,” one who is being mentored by the Master. It also denotes “one who follows another’s teaching.” Thus, a disciple is a life-long learner who lives out what he or she is learning from the teacher. There is one main verb, one main command in this passage and that is to “make disciples.” This is our singular imperative.

“Of all nations…” When Jesus first sent out His disciples in Matthew 10:5-6, He told them to go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But now He inaugurates an explicitly worldwide mission. This was not only new and novel to many Jews, even though it was taught in the Old Testament; it had become abhorrent for them to think about going to pagan lands.

The task of making disciples must extend to the ends of the earth. The word “nations” is the Greek ethne, where we get the word ethnic and refers to “people groups,” not just the 195 countries in the world today.

Ponder this:

It is estimated that of the 8 billion people alive in the world today, 3.4 billion of them live in unreached people groups with little or no access to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. According to Joshua Project, there are approximately 17,428 unique people groups in the world with more than 7,400 of them considered unreached (over 42% of the world’s population!). The vast majority (85%) of these least reached groups exist in the 10/40 window and less than 10% of missionary work is done among these people.