MOBILIZING CHRISTIANS - 2

MOBILIZING CHRISTIANS

Jesus was a ‘full time’ carpenter before he became a full time “Rabbi”. He served as a rabbi for only three years but was a carpenter probably from his teens. He started as an apprentice to his ‘father’ Joseph. He was later entrusted with the responsibility of supporting his mother, brothers and sisters through his trade. He knew the struggles of earning a livelihood. When Jesus chose his disciples, it was no surprise that they were either accomplished fishermen or tax-collectors. He found them better suited for ministry than the Pharisees and Sadducees of the day. They knew the struggles of day to day living better than the theologians and missiologists of the day. The message of the Kingdom needed to be lived out in the daily life of the market place than just repeated in the pulpits of the synagogues.

Have we lost the true essence of the Great Commission by handing over the role of proclaiming the Good News, discipling the believers, pastoring the flock, leading in worship and serving the neighbours to the so called “full time ministers - pastors & missionaries?” Why should we leave the task of the Great Commission to the ‘priestly clan’ or the ‘super-evangelists’? Why are bishops, moderators, missionaries, pastors, evangelists etc. put on a high pedestal and given honour more than even Christ himself? I am not against full timer workers, serving as one but should we not be the servants to mobilize the whole church rather than perpetuating ourselves?

The whole communities of believers are called to fulfill the Great Commission, not just the few who claim to have received the ‘call’. If only we can get today’s equivalent of carpenters, fishermen, tax-collectors, tent makers, traders etc. to become proclaimers, disciplers, pastors, bishops, evangelists, apostles and leaders - our churches and missions will be very different. They are the people who will turn the world upside down. The balance needs to be tilted in favour of the so called ‘lay’ people. We need to equip, envision and empower all believers to fulfill their calling. We need a paradigm shift. The ordinary Christians in the market place will make better ‘Proclaimers’ of the good news whether full time or part time.

As you read this issue, are you ready for a paradigm shift in your mind-set about how to be obedient to the Great Commission? How many believers would you be able to influence to become ‘proclaimers & disciplers’ in the market place? Our goal is not to increase the Christian population in India by one or two percentage, but rather to see the whole nation transformed by the Good news of Jesus Christ. This can happen only when the whole church is mobilized to become proclaimers & disciplers, not just another fifty thousand full timers!  John Amalraj

December 2015 InFocus

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Discipling the Nations!

Discipling the Nations! The Great Commission (as rendered by Matthew 28: 23 & 24) dominates most of our mission motivation. We always place our emphasis on obeying the command to ‘Go’ and ‘Baptize’. Discipleship then becomes just a task in the process. Unfortunately, many of our mission fields illustrate our failure in providing adequate discipleship. Melba Maggay a Filipino theologian and social anthropologist during an Interserve Leadership conference in May 2008 said that discipleship lays its emphasis on building relationships and not just programs that we organize. We assume discipleship means discipling individuals one at a time. Recent literature on missions by several missiologists says that we are called to disciple ‘nations’. ‘Nations’ does not just mean ethnic communities or people groups as it is popularly known. As much as the word ‘nations’ mean ethnic or linguistic peoples it also means political nations. We see this emphasis when we read the whole of the script...
Read more

Role of Media in the ‘Great Commission’

Role of Media in the ‘Great Commission’   The train was chugging along as I sat with a magazine in hand. Suddenly I heard my neighbor who said “excuse me sir, can I borrow the magazine”. I happily gave the magazine and then began to observe the rest of the passengers. Almost all of them had a newspaper or magazine and were engrossed in their reading. I vividly remembered my travels during childhood. There were loud conversations among the passengers on most occasions. Comparatively now the railway coach was quieter with more people reading. It reminded me of the fact that the literacy rate has increased considerably. Missions and churches have always focused on serving the illiterates which was good. But the need for quality, contemporary and contextualized literature for the literates has been ignored. The variety of newspapers and magazines being published in India in several regional languages is mind boggling. India has the largest English speaking population in the world an...
Read more

Why Strategic Goals Are Important?

Why Strategic Goals Are Important? Every mission agency has a mission. Yet many agencies, organizations and institutions have become irrelevant when they lose sight of their vision. In every organization’s growth, there is a time when people seem to forget the vision and lose the passion. However, if the organization periodically examines the context and renews itself, then it becomes alive. Developing strategic goals is such a process of renewal. Interserve’s vision is to see, “Lives and communities transformed through their encounter with Jesus Christ.” Our purpose is “To make Jesus Christ known through wholistic ministry, in partnership with the global church, amongst the neediest peoples of Asia and the Arab world.” Our core values are inclusivity, integrity, humility and relationships. Based on these foundations, we want to face today’s challenges in India and have corporately developed goals for the next three years. These new goals do not mean that we stop pursuing goals tha...
Read more