Just finished reading yet another article on church planting and Jim Collins book Good to Great. I’ve read the book and found it interesting, but I have a hard time imagining Jesus opening it with his disciples to prepare them for the incredible missionary movement recorded in the book of Acts.
Was it vision, leadership, or communication skills that caused the Good News to spread like wildfire and Christian communities to multiply across the Mediterranean world? Or was it something far more powerful?
- What would cause fishermen, tax collectors, and women to go against the religious establishment and conventional religious teaching?
- What would enable Jews, Greeks, and Romans to eat together in a society deeply entrenched in religious, racial, and class division?
- What would drive men and women to lose their lands, money, families, and lives?
- What would inspire men and women to give to the point that it hurts in order to care for the needs of others and spread their message?
Something earth shattering must have really happened. They must have believed something unbelievable.
That something was the resurrection of Jesus. What else could account for their behavior? If Jesus really rose from the dead, then this changes everything.
Regardless of economic, cultural, or political opposition, Christian communities will multiply and grow when people are confronted with the reality of the resurrection. Where does that fit into our church growth strategies?
This week is Christ the King Sunday – the last Sunday in the Christian year. On Easter we celebrate the resurrection, but this week we celebrate Christ is Lord. We’ll be looking at Revelation 1:1-8, which begins a book that was meant to inspire and guide Christian communities that were facing dangerous opposition. It’s a revelation of Jesus, ‘the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.’
Good to Great is fine. But nothing beats a vision of Jesus.
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