Mere Missions

158 • M ere M issions : M oving F orward to M ultiply

and treasure, to mature their gift, towards to end of commissioning and releasing them in missions – “the sending forth of authorized persons to unchurched communities to proclaim the Gospel in order to win converts to Jesus Christ, make disciples from the converts, and gather together the disciples to form functioning, multiplying local churches, that bear the fruit of the Kingdom of God in that community.” Like Jesus, who had the multitudes (Matt. 4.25; John 6.2), the hundred and twenty (Acts 1.15), the seventy (Luke 10), the twelve (Matthew 10.2-4) and the three (Matt. 17.1), so we also must distinguish between those we are going to give our time and resource investment for the purpose of apprenticing in missions. There is no guarantee that you will not have a Judas in the midst. Move forward with who you feel the Spirit has identified for you to apprentice. Remember, this is not equipping to make a disciple, but to identify those whom to apprentice, in our case, for missions, keeping in mind that like reproduces in kind. Individuals must already possess the radical minimum of maturity and experience as a disciple of Jesus in order to be considered worthy for either, 1) equipping for the ministry in the local church, or 2) to equip them for the planting of new churches (missions). Great care and focus must be done in advance to guarantee its success. It was Barnabas who identified Paul and brought him to the Church in Antioch for a year of equipping (Acts 11.25-26). The Apostle Paul, though called and gifted by the Lord Jesus Himself while on the road to Damascus, still submitted himself to the leadership of the local church in Antioch. When the equipping was completed, the elders in Antioch, through the Holy Spirit, commissioned Paul and Barnabas, “for the work to which I (the Holy Spirit) called them” and then released them for the Kingdom task given to them. That is why equipping is “from and for” the church.