Lausanne World Pulse – Churches in Homes: New Efforts in Reaching Today’s Globalizing/Diversifying World
By David G. Wyman
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God surely has many more ways for us to extend his kingdom and establish his Church worldwide than we have even thought, much less developed and implemented. |
It all began with Moses. God spoke to the old man. He said it was time to die. The years of discipline had passed. Now God’s chosen people would cross the Jordan River and take the land they could have had so many years before. Moses, however, could only look and die. Yes, he also took a final opportunity to speak to his rebellious but beloved people. Of all the advice he might have chosen to share, he called them together and said:
“Assemble the people, the men and the women and children and your alien who is in your gate, in order that they may hear, and learn and fear the Lord your God, and be careful to observe all the words of this law. So that their children, who have not yet been born, will hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as you live on the land where you are about to cross the Jordan to possess it.” (Deuteronomy 31:12-13)
When Jesus came, Israel survived under the rule of Rome. Their challenge was to maintain their Jewish identity under the Roman oppression. They remembered the final command of Moses: Assemble everyone so that they will hear so that they will learn so that they will fear God so that they will obey God’s teaching so that their grandchildren and generations yet to be born will continue to be blessed and, in being blessed, will bless all the peoples of the world. Today, we too need to remember that God’s command always consists of “reasons and consequences”—God’s “so that…” These precepts are important to world transformation and provide the foundation on which churches can be planted, grown and reproduced anywhere in the world, within any people group and at any point in time. God chose them as his consistent and universal plan for his kingdom. They provide the key to worldwide spiritual intervention and transformation without the burden of cultural interference.
Jesus chose not to change any part of God’s command given through Moses. He led his followers to:
- worship God
- proclaim his salvation
- teach each other and those beyond
- minister to a sinful and needy world
- take care of each other
The command includes doing these things in such a way that even future generations will still do them the same way. Evidence of this command flows out of every story of every church discussed in the New Testament, both when they did obey and when they did not. New Testament writers taught these as the irreducible basics for Christ’s Church. They presented them as universal and time transcending.