SimpleChurch Journal

Followers With Passion--Not Clones

I still see the tendency, in myself and others, to want to follow someone else’s model: the successful organic church guy’s strategy, or the hottest apostolic disciplemaking methodology, or the latest book on how to perfect the house church gathering, or someone else’s ministry whom we revere.

Yes, I think we must learn from each other.

But let’s not discount the unique persons that we are.  I believe we will go further investing in the lives of others if we honor the passions that are stirring within us rather than trying to clone ourselves after the likes of others.

Bob Pierce prayed “Lord, break my heart with the things that break your heart.”  He followed his deep compassion for neglected children, founded World Vision, and reached thousands of people for Christ through that ministry.

William Booth’s passion propelled him to care for the poor in London and work to right injustices out of which the Salvation Army was birthed.  Again, thousands upon thousands have been impacted for Christ over the decades.

My point is that these two men, as examples, had differing passions that moved them into different kinds of settings where they each made an impact for the Kingdom using very different methods.  And each of them differed from the passion that moved Billy Graham to gather tens of thousands into crusades.  These men did not model their ministries after one another, but they followed Jesus with the passion that gripped their own hearts by the Spirit of God.

It seems to me that we would do well to do the same.

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We Must Dream Bigger

Big things happen, really big things, when there are enough small, collective things taking place.

We are not dreaming big enough.  No, I’m not talking about how big each one of us can become, or how important each one of us can be, or how big of an organization or ministry each one of us can grow.  That’s backwards.  That turns God’s thing around.  We always think God wants US to be BIG.  He’s not into that.  He’s into HIM being BIG.

God is the one doing something big, way bigger than any of us are yet seeing or dreaming. 

But when we see that dream of His and it stirs us and motivates us to do our part with all of our heart, then we become one of the many that He collectively uses to do something big with.  We become part of HIS BIG.

For sure, God is up to some BIG stuff: “My kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.”  That’s BIG. “The oppressed set free, the downtrodden lifted.”  That’s BIG.  “The Gospel of the Kingdom proclaimed to every nation (ethnic group).”  That’s BIG.  “The knowledge of the glory of the Lord will fill the earth.”  That’s really big.

Are we dreaming that big?

I believe we need to dream BIG with God in order to step with our whole hearts into the small, but divinely orchestrated, part that is ours to play with all of our gusto.  We are not small when we give our all to HIS BIG.  We are not unimportant when we do our part in HIS BIG.  We are needed more than ever to do all that He has called and gifted us to do with joy and passion so that His BIG collective purposes come to pass. 

And, frankly, there’s nothing better than that!