“Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. These are the twelve he appointed…” (Mark 3:13-15)
I don’t know about you, but I can’t think of a single task more difficult and daunting than evangelizing the world in a generation. It is hard to argue that any other undertaking proves more challenging and arduous. But it is clear, it must be done. For God, “wants all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth” not later, but right now (1 Timothy 2:4)! That means we must have the same heart as God to see this lost world won for Christ as rapid as the kingdom can advance… and if you read the book of Acts, God’s kingdom evangelized the known world very quickly – in a single generation! It can be seen that the church in the book of Acts was a movement of disciples that wanted the world saved through the gospel of God’s grace. But how did it get there? Who was leading the charge? Why were they so equipped to undertake such a task? The answer is simple: leadership. Simple, but not easy.
When Jesus began his ministry, and it can be said that before he even began his ministry, he knew beforehand the task at hand was significant – total world conquest for the God of heaven! Jesus needed to get the gospel around the world, and keep disciples faithful until their last day, so he needed a plan… he needed a plan that would work and not fail, a plan that could be counted on. Jesus did not evangelize the world by preaching to the masses from the sky so everyone could hear him at once (though he could have). Jesus did not evangelize the world by sending out countless letters to every town and village telling them about this gospel (though he could have). Jesus didn’t even use his miraculous power to cause every person on the planet to come to him (much like the flood with God’s power caused the animals to gather in one place – Noah’s ark) so he could preach the gospel to all of them at one time (though he could have). No, Jesus had a solution for world evangelism that was nothing like this. He believed that if he was going to win the world to him, the hardest task anyone has ever attempted to complete, his solution was simply a few men, twelve to be exact. Hasn’t this always been God’s plan to accomplish his will on earth? Men and women at the ready to carry out his will, was always God’s solution when you read the countless heroic stories of the Bible. Men are his method.
In Mark 3:13-15, Jesus chose his twelve apostles, his evangelistic messengers, his future leaders of the church. The gospel makes it clear what the purpose of this small group of men were, “to be with him [Jesus]… and to send them out to preach.” Jesus’ plan was simple: he would spend his time with these men to make them like himself, and then he would send them out to preach. When Jesus came to Earth, he was in human form, thus, he was limited to the same limita-tions as we are, specifically time and space. Jesus could not be everywhere at the same time. He was limited by the time he had and where he could be. Therefore, Jesus is the perfect example of how a disciple should spend his time, especially a disciple who leads in the similar role as Jesus lead his dis-ciples. And the way Jesus spent his time was with twelve men that he would train to take over the world! Jesus knew his time was limited and he had to make his time on the Earth worthwhile and produce world evangelism, yet, as you read the gospels, Jesus is always with his few men significantly more than he is with the masses, or even the rest of his disciples that followed! Very few had a close relationship with Jesus. Jesus was purposeful and clear. Never for a moment did he lose sight of what he was doing. The souls of the world were on the line. Jesus was counting on these twelve men to be the reliable men to win the world. Jesus totally focused his time and life pouring everything into these twelve men.
As Jesus traveled about the towns and villages, the gospel says, “he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep with-out a shepherd.” (Matthew 9:36) The masses were helpless because they had no shepherds, no one leading them. Jesus knew they were fickle-minded and easily swayed if left to themselves to re-main faithful. Jesus knew he would not be on the Earth forever, but was returning to the Father in heaven. Therefore, when he was gone, who would lead the people to remain faithful? Who would take care of those won by the gospel? The solution was his twelve men whom he trained! There was no point in winning masses of disciples while he was on Earth, to then later leave them to the hypo-critical, dishonest, religious leaders of the day, who would take advantage of them. If there was no one there to take care of them and lead them after he was gone, his work of winning mass amounts of souls would soon dissipate. Jesus needed to focus on a few men who would then be equipped to take care of and lead the masses.
This concept of focusing on a few is even seen in nature itself, because it works. It has been said that “a knife cuts because it has a narrow focus.” Dull knives don’t accomplish anything. But a sharp, very narrow edge of a knife cuts through and accomplishes its purpose. Thus, if we try to spread our focus over too many areas, we’ll have a very dull impact on whatever we set out to do, and not much would be accomplished. Think of a starting a campfire… to start a fire, you need to get just one twig or stick lit, and then it would light the other sticks, and soon you have a large fire, all instigated by focusing on a very small surface area of one stick. Lastly, think of a magnifying glass… most of us have done this as a kid. If you take a magnifying glass and use the sunlight to focus the light into one small little space, the power of the sunlight starts a fire on the surface, whether that be a leaf, a piece of paper or an unfortunate little ant. It is interesting to think that when the sun is shining all over the DMV area, no one, not even an ant, is burned alive by the sun’s light. But when we focus the power of the sun into one small spot, the impact in profound! It is clear: if you want to have an impact on anything you do, narrow your focus and efforts!
We must build God’s church here in DC the same way Jesus did. The DC church is a Jesus ministry, therefore, we must build the church the same way Jesus built his ministry. If we don’t, we will have the same impact as a dull knife. Jesus focused his time and efforts on a few. Some might argue this is wrong and should not be done. Some might even say that focusing on a few is showing favoritism and it neglects the rest of the church… there is nothing further from the truth! That shal-low mindset must be repented of, as it is selfish and is not found in scripture! Someone who thinks like that is not concerned with sustainable world evangelistic efforts, but rather more concerned with how their personal needs can be met by others giving to them, instead of them giving to others. Jesus never sinned, and he chose a few men he would have close relationships with, and not others.
Therefore, if Jesus did it and he never sinned, then choosing a few individuals to be close to for the purpose of world evangelism is not sin. It is incredible, because if we build the church the way Jesus built his ministry of the twelve, everyone in the church is actually taken care of! It is only when the leader of the church or ministry attempts to spend time with everyone in their church or ministry that the church is neglected. In Milton Jones’ book, “Discipling: The Multiplying Ministry” he describes this concept with a modern illustration:
A minister asked his elders to write down on a paper everything they expected him to do during the week. After all the jobs were examined and time devoted to each one of them, this minis-ter would have had to work 180 hours a week (there are only 168 total hours in a week) to do eve-rything that was expected of him. Obviously, this had to be frustrating because once again, it seemed that the minister could not get his job done.
Jones goes on to conclude, “It is a realization of relief when one finally discovers that he cannot do more than Jesus did. Most ministers want to disciple everyone in their congregation at one time and forget that not even Jesus was able to disciple that many people. Ministers will only have peace when they stop trying to do more than Jesus. If Jesus was limited in the number of peo-ple whom he could disciple, everyone else will also be. Once a person realizes that he cannot per-sonally do more than Jesus did in discipleship, then he can narrow down the field and get a proper start.”
What we need in the DC church is for every disciple to get behind this and believe in Jesus’ plan of discipleship, the training of leaders by the ministry couple focusing on a few individuals, and being convinced that this is the solution for world evangelism. Elizabeth and I firmly believe in this, and so we have selected our “twelve” whom we are focusing on, and we meet every Tuesday evening for a few hours, to equip these individuals to go out and lead their ministries and save souls. What’s encouraging is that every disciple in the church actually gets higher quality of care and attention when the leadership couple spends their time equipping and training their few, as opposed to trying to personally spend time with every disciple in the church. If we train our few to take care of their ministries, the disciples in the ministries they lead are better lead. If Elizabeth and I try to have close relationships with everyone in the church, or not even for that matter, if we try to have close rela-tionships with a large group of people in the church as opposed to a few, then no one would get the quality time and attention they need, instead we would have shallow relationships with many that don’t produce anything to evangelize the world. Instead of us being close to anyone, we would end up being not close to everyone!
We must realize that the religious world does not believe in this nor practice this. The preachers and “leaders” of the denominational world are more interested in filling the pews with church attenders rather than the paying the cost of discipleship to make fully-trained leaders who will do what they are doing and take over the world for Christ! It is a costly investment that religious leaders are unwilling to pay. Most want instant gratification of instant results of the masses crowing into a church building to be fed. This will leave the world unevangelized, and the masses left helpless and harassed with no one in their life leading them. Let us never be deceived into thinking the world is won by the masses. Instead, the world is won by the leader making more leaders. Remember, Je-sus’ plan for world evangelism was twelve trained men, and it is still his plan to evangelize the world today! I’ve heard it said that, “great leaders don’t make more followers; they make more leaders.” As a church, let’s believe in Jesus’ solution for world evangelism and win the world for Christ!
Richie McDonnell
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