Leaders Go First

Some time ago I was asking a question from a biblical and theological conviction, but with little idea where it would lead.  

I asked the simple question of my mission expert friend, “How do we plant churches in our community and at the end of the world?”  And then, “Where do we start, here or there?”  My main concern was that people really do evangelism and that church multiplication is intentional.

His quick answer was to tell me to start overseas.  “Why?”  Because there is better transferability in this direction.  Also, the unreached are a higher priority.  The results will be more immediate and observable, which is most inspiring for vision building.  

Besides he said, “where you start, and what you start doing, is where and what you will end up with.”  In other words, if we started here first we might never get overseas.  And if we started by doing service projects we might never get to evangelism and church planting.  So, we followed his advice and started with evangelism and church planting overseas.

Wanting to Do What Paul Did

Acts 14:21–23 ESV “When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.”

Romans 15:20–21 ESV “and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation, but as it is written, “Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.””

The Moment of Decision 

It was not a normal Elders meeting.  We knew God had not taught us all about His Mission for nothing.  We had spent over a year studying the Pauline missionary journeys in the Book of Acts, reading a few books on missions, consulting with mission leaders, and exploring options God was putting before us as a congregation.

Also, we been enjoying doctrines of grace, feasting on Scripture, not yet seeing Mission implications.  It dawned on us that if we are true Calvinists then we have nothing to fear, and God’ glory and success are guaranteed, so we said, “Calvinists especially should be doing crazy things like Missions.”

We had a decision to make to go forward on a church planting mission expedition and just get started.  As David Livingstone once said, “I don’t care which way we go let’s just go forward!”

A Faith Adventure with God 

So, we picked the most adventuresome place available to us at the time.  We announced the plan to the congregation and a few others joined us.  This was a big step of faith into the unknown for us with key people and a lot of money!

We committed to go first as leaders, because this is what leaders do--they lead courageously and decisively.  By going first not only were we able to set an example, but we were able to think strategically about our future mission involvement from a shared experience.  We were able to tell stories and share a new vision with passion and one voice.

We learned how important it is to ask the big questions, the visionary ones, the ones we know are good biblically and theologically, even though we can’t see how they could be accomplished practically . . . at least not yet.

God supplied and made the path plain as we moved forward.  We learned that we could only figure out God’s plan for us in His Mission in the actual doing of it, over there.  We must go, count the cost and spend money.  

That is how we got started as a small local church in God’s big mission in the world.  We learned that living be faith can be a lot of fun, especially as we observe His faithfulness to His own glory through us.