Vision for Mission: Nurturing an Apostolic Heart

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Vi s i on for Mi s s i on: Nur tur i ng an Apos to l i c Hear t

B. The response of the apostolic heart to the shortage of workers

1. It redoubles its own efforts to make the Gospel known to every person within their “ web of influence ,” Col. 1.27-29.

2. It exhorts every Christian to be ready to share the Good News and prepares each for the task of winning their “ households ” (i.e., oikos ), 1 Pet. 3.15; Acts 16.30ff..

3. It seeks to multiply the number of workers by equipping the faithful to pass the truth on to others, 2 Tim. 2.2.

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Christ wants us to embrace a cause that will sweep to the ends of the earth before it is finished. This cause is the humanly overwhelm ing task of getting the whole Church ready for a massive spiritual awakening to Christ among the nations. No cause the world has ever known should be more consuming or more satisfying. . . . Our lives as believers can seem incomplete because we are sectioned up like a Time magazine into a compartmentalized Christianity. Prayer does not seem to have much to do with ministry to the homeless; missions seems to compete with building programs. If our churches seem sluggish because they are fragmented into 12 equal but unrelated programs – then Acts 1.8 provides the new “cover” to bind up all those themes into the adventure for which we were made. Christ only asks us to “staple” the whole thing together with our faith – faith working through love. ~ David Bryant. Stand in the Gap . Glendale: Regal, 1997. p. 82.