Travel Light

Matthew 10: The First Commission
Each day this week, I'll be posting comments on the 10th Chapter of Matthew, as a follow-up study from our February 3 service. You can listen to the service in its entirety on our website, www.cometothesprings.com

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Matthew 10:9-10 (The Message)
Don't think you have to put on a fund-raising campaign before you start. You don't need a lot of equipment. You are the equipment, and all you need to keep that going is three meals a day. Travel light.

Beginning with this first commission in Matthew 10, Jesus and his disciples literally changed the course of human history. They did it on a tiny, essentials-only budget. They did it without press coverage or advertising campaigns. They did it without mass transit or mass media communications. They had no publishing company, books, television, or radio. No buildings or facilities, no administrative offices, no headquarters. They didn't even have electricity!

In our celebrity-obsessed culture, it's hard for us to truly believe in grass-roots movements. We're convinced that Billy Graham and mega-church ministries drive the expansion of the gospel in the world. After all, with their stadiums full of people and international television broadcasts, they can reach millions. What difference does a neighborhood make?

Billy Graham's ministry is an excellent case in point. Billy Graham crusades have reached over 200 million people in person, but the real power behind the ministry is its strategy of mobilizing Christians to reach out to their friends and neighbors for one full year prior to a crusade in their area. Billy Graham has always maintained that he only did what he did because Christians and local churches tended not to do it without his help. When hundreds of people flood a stage to receive Christ at a Billy Graham crusade, television viewers get a false impression that these folks wandered into a football stadium or flocked in due to Billy Graham's celebrity. In fact, the vast majority of them have had a friend or relative who has been praying for them, loving them, serving them and sharing the gospel with them for a long time. And that same friend or relative is still there when the stadium is empty and the crusade has moved on to another town. There is no substitute for a good neighbor.

Don't be distracted by the bright lights and the side-shows of the Christian circus. The real power to change lives is in the same place it has always been: God using a person or a group of people to carry His message of hope to people they know and care about. Not only is it an incredibly efficient strategy, requiring almost no overhead, it's virtually unstoppable. You could take away every church building, budget, staff, and para-church ministry tomorrow, and you could not stop people from loving their neighbors and introducing them to Christ.

"Travel Light." Jesus wasn't just trying to save money. He was establishing a precedent for ministry into the 21st century. Nothing else is required, and nothing has ever been more effective than people who are willing to follow His lead and prepare the way for Him in their community.

The first disciples changed the world this way. Do you believe it's possible for us to do the same? There's only one way to find out.