In this blog I’ll address the fourth Big Idea that can change the way we do church.
Big Idea Four: Being a person of spiritual influence is every Christian’s calling, not just the responsibility of a gifted few. The greatest communication success story in human history is how the gospel message spread across the Mediterranean world. Followers of Jesus grew from a few hundred on the day of Pentecost to more than six million people by the end of the second century. That’s an amazing number, considering the only media were word-of-mouth encounters and hand-written letters.
The evangelists of the first century were the nameless thousands of men and women who followed Jesus without fanfare or notoriety. Even the Apostles were quite ordinary men. Before they were biblical heroes, they were someone’s neighbor just trying to make a living. They were street-level men with a noble mission that moved them beyond their fears and beyond themselves. Yet while their efforts were important, more important was the attitude of ordinary Christians, who recognized that sharing the message of Jesus was everyone’s mission. The gospel spread like wildfire from house to house (the workplace of the day) as men and women personally gossiped the gospel to friends, relatives, acquaintances, colleagues, masters, slaves, students, teachers, customers, shop owners, and fellow soldiers in their everyday networks.
Because ordinary men and women lived out and then shared the gospel with their colleagues, customers, and clients in their workplace, the early church grew as it did. If men and women in the workplace today seize the spiritual opportunities they have and work together to have an impact for Jesus, who knows what extraordinary things God will do with the ordinary workplace moments they give to Him.
These four Big Ideas are discussed in detail in Going Public with Your Faith. To order a copy click here.
4 Comments »
- Hi Bill, you recently picked up on a blog post I made about workplace witness. Thank you for connecting. Over the past few years I’ve been trying to develop principles and ideas that make evangelism more achievable for the non-evangelist, much of which connects with the principles in your book.
Here in the UK, the workplace is often undervalued and misunderstood when it comes to reaching and influencing people for the kingdom. Thank you for your insights and the help they are in developing the process of change that needs to happen if we are going to make the most of the larger part of most people’s waking hours. - Richard, I didn’t realize you were from the UK. I’m sure you are aware of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity and Mark Greene. I met with them last year when I was in London. Also, you may want to connect with the Christian Medical Fellowship (http://www.cmf.org.uk/). Kevin Vaughan there teaches a course for medical professionals entitled The Saline Solution which I co-authored and formed the basis of Going Public. Kevin is very “keen” on these ideas and a good friend.Comment by Bill Peel — February 11, 2008 @ 8:28 pm
- BillWonderful piece. I used it to springboard to a piece called “What’s my excuse” found over at
http://redletterbelievers.blogspot.com/2008/04/whats-my-excuse.htmlIt’s amazing that God used such ordinary people to spread the first century message. I wonder what is holding us back from a similiar success today?
Thanks for your heart and your ministry
David
Comment by David Rupert — April 2, 2008 @ 12:07 pm
- “ordinary Christians… recognized that sharing the message of Jesus was everyone’s mission.” In my job I study what makes word of mouth campaigns effective. People have to believe in the message. Really believe it. Enough that they can’t help but talk about it.Sometimes I wonder how many of us Christians really believe this stuff in our guts. And I’m including myself in that.Comment by Mark Goodyear — April 3, 2008 @ 9:29 am
