Planting Churches Among the City's Poor - Volume 2

P ART I: C OACHING U RBAN C HURCH P LANTERS • 113

c. If you are called, God will ensure your gifting, burden, and resources , 2 Cor. 12.9-10 (ESV) – But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

A missionary is acting as a modern-day apostle: Recognize the affinity between the two!

The designation of the Twelve as “the apostles,” which occurs only here in Mark’s Gospel, has specific reference to the mission they have just undertaken. In this context the term is descriptive of the disciple’s function rather than an official title and could be rendered ‘missionaries.’ It was in consequence of their mission of preaching and exorcism in Galilee that the Twelve were designated ‘apostles,’ i.e., those who had been sent forth and empowered by Jesus.

~ William L. Lane. “The Gospel of Mark” The New International Commentary on the New Testament . Grand Rapids: William R. Eerdmans, 1974, p. 224.

Abandon It All for the Sake of the Call

But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles – to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’ ”Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance. ~ Acts 26.16-20

The Bottom Line:_____________________________________________