1. See the end

 

This is the first in a series of posts that will unpack the Movements diagram. We'll begin with See the End.

When Jesus looked out on the crowds he was moved with compassion and urged his disciples to pray for workers. When he looked out around Galilee he saw every town and village, 175 of them, and proclaimed the gospel in everyone. He saw a world wide missionary movement and he trained workers and commissioned them to go to the ends of the earth. Jesus saw the end. He surrendered his life to God’s purposes.

If you don’t see it yet, don’t worry. It’s God’s mission, not yours. Peter didn’t see the mission to the Gentiles until God intervened through Cornelius. Paul didn’t see his calling to reach the nations until Jesus took him apart on the Damascus road. 

Eventually Paul was able to say,

From Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ

Romans 15:19b

His work was done because there churches established in major cities along the important trade routes of the eastern half of the Roman Empire. Now he was ready to go on and repeat the exercise in the west.

Paul knew what it looked like for his job to be done.

Seeing the end is a work of God. But there are some things you can do.

Start by obeying what God has already revealed in Scripture. You don’t need a special revelation to share the gospel and make disciples.

Study the Scriptures to know the heart and the will of God. Read through Acts and identify the key characteristics of a disciple making movement. Then write your own Acts 29 statement.

Don’t get stuck on the vision thing. Just begin Connecting, Sharing, Training, Gathering and Multiplying and God’s purposes will become clearer. We'll cover each of these in future posts.

Want to learn more? Pick up a copy of What Jesus Started and download the Implementation Guide. Find some other crazy people and get started.