Where is that damn narrow gate?

When Jesus said: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” I don't think he meant that we should try to disciple everyone...

After Jesus had healed the demon possessed man in the region of the Gerasenes, sending the demons into a herd of pigs (a much more dramatic conversion story than that of the apostles) the once possessed man wasn't even invited to follow Jesus. “The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying “Return home and tell how much God has done for you.” So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him.” Luke 8:38- 39. For one reason or another this man was not disciple material. Luke even tells this story following the parable of the sower in which Jesus tells us that there is good and bad soil. I have found that Luke is very intentional in how he crafts his writings, so I don't think this combination is a coincidence.

This teaching difficult to adopt in our current “more is better” culture. Jesus clearly tells us that more is indeed not better. And yet we are consumed in our 'evangelism' efforts with numbers. The amount of people we baptize or have in service on Sunday mornings defines our success. It has become an extremely daunting task to develop a culture of quality in our church family. It is a discussion we have weekly, something like: “we need to set a goal of 200 souls saved by October of next year!” While I appreciate the ambition and passion that accompanies this statement, I am not sold it is what Jesus asked us to do.

Pleas don't misunderstand this to mean that I will not Goodnews anyone I come into contact with, but not everyone will find that mysterious narrow gate. I feel the biggest problem with our discipleship efforts is that we get constipated on evangelism. The Gospel is not something we should take time out of our busy day to do, it is our purpose for our busy day. The business is our ministry, and until we understand that 12 people completely sold out for Jesus are far more dangerous than 200 people who are not, we are swimming up a waterfall trying to accomplish the incredibly large mission Jesus gave us.

I am thankful Yahweh is big enough that the mission can be completed some day, but we better follow Jesus.

And by the way...

the reason we didn't move back to Portland is because our pillar of cloud/fire is still here in Redmond. I am confident that Yahweh will lead us back eventually, but we will only move when he says “GO!” and it won't be only to be with our friends and family again, but to plant a church in SE Portland. Until then we will wonder in the wilderness.