The Miracle of You

Church planting series, Part One.

I was reading Acts 19:11-12 yesterday: “God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.”

This was during the establishment of “The Way” in Ephesus and all of Asia. God moved in mighty and miraculous ways to bring the grace and power of Jesus to a lost world.

It got me thinking: In this secular, post-modern, Christ-attacking, Jesus-denouncing, Bible-watering-down, afterthought-spirituality kind of world, how is the Kingdom of God being established?

One reaction to the troubles and barriers of today might be to hunker down and be afraid that God will be pushed out of the picture. You may feel like you need to circle the wagons and try to protect God who is on the edge of extinction.

Another reaction is to remember that “the One enthroned in heaven laughs” as the kings and rulers of the earth take their stand against the Lord (Psalm 2:4). God is still at work. In fact, Jesus told us that the gates of hell cannot prevail against His advancing march (Matthew 16:18).

What does this mean for church planting? It means that Jesus still makes His way into new territory in extraordinary ways—many times through THE MIRACLE OF YOU!

I was visiting with Pastor Mark Seeger recently. He serves the deaf community in Austin, Texas. God is working through him to bring the message of the crucified and risen Christ to children and adults, to people near and far, to people with a wide variety of religious backgrounds, and to many who have never had a chance to hear the Good News of forgiveness and eternal life in Jesus. Pastor Seeger operates a mission outpost in a world that would otherwise be separated from the Gospel. With Holy Spirit creativity, he faces each challenge from the standpoint of being in mission for Jesus.

As I thought about his ministry and my reading from Acts, I realized that the deaf are truly hearing through the miracle of His humble service. He’s being the miracle of Jesus for many.

As a church planter, it is necessary to trust that you are helping to form a mission outpost in the community. It is essential that you realize the miracle God is working through you as you bear His gifts to the lost world. What does this truth do for a core group? It causes a body of believers to be ever reaching outward, ever infiltrating the community with a clear purpose, ever confident that they have something to offer that is not available anywhere else, ever convinced that their existence in Christ brings miraculous change for eternity in the lives of others.

A key component that fuels church planting is seeing clearly that God works through the MIRACLE OF YOU in a lost and dying world.