Someone Has to Get the Word Out

SERVING & GROWING

"And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him?"
(Romans 10:14)

Good Ideas Are Only the Beginning

A few days ago, our church family gathered to talk about outreach. We considered our strengths and weaknesses, the opportunities around us, and some of the challenges we face. Most importantly, everyone had an opportunity to participate. We heard many good ideas about ways we might serve our neighbors, strengthen our church, and welcome new people into our fellowship.

There was another question, however, that we didn't spend nearly as much time discussing. Suppose we decide to hold a community dinner, begin a Bible study, organize an activity for families, help people experiencing a particular need, or simply create more opportunities for neighbors to visit our church. How will they know about it?

That may sound like a marketing question rather than a spiritual one. Churches can understandably be uncomfortable with the language of marketing. We aren't selling a product, and we certainly don't want to treat people as customers. But there is an important distinction between marketing a product and making something known. Christians have been trying to make something known for nearly two thousand years.

We aren't called to be salespeople, but we are called to be messengers. … And somebody has to carry the message.

Jesus Went Where the People Were

When we read the Gospels, it is easy to focus on what Jesus said and did once people gathered around Him. But notice how often Jesus was actually on the move. Matthew tells us that He "went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom" (Matthew 9:35). Jesus taught beside the sea, entered homes, visited synagogues, walked roads, attended meals, and traveled from one community to another.

Even more interestingly, Jesus did not always travel alone. Luke tells us that He appointed seventy others and "sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go" (Luke 10:1). They went ahead. They entered communities. They met people. They prepared the way for what Jesus was about to do.

There is something wonderfully practical about that. The message was from God, but God chose people to carry it. The Kingdom of God was at hand, but somebody still had to walk down the road to the next village. The Apostle Paul would later ask the question very directly: "How are they to hear without someone to proclaim him?" (Romans 10:14).

The Gospel does not spread because Christians have good intentions. Somebody has to go. Somebody has to speak. Somebody has to invite. Each of us is BLESSED with the opportunity to do so!

Paul Had a Message—and a Plan

Paul certainly trusted the Holy Spirit, but that did not make him passive. His missionary journeys required extraordinary effort. He traveled enormous distances in a world without automobiles, airplanes, telephones, or email. He entered cities, established relationships, preached in synagogues, reasoned in public places, trained leaders, revisited congregations, collected money for Christians in need, and wrote letters to churches scattered across the Roman world.

In Athens, Paul went into the marketplace where people were already gathering and engaged them in conversation (Acts 17:17). In other cities, he began in the synagogue. He worked alongside people such as Priscilla and Aquila and depended upon an expanding network of Christians who carried messages, welcomed travelers, opened their homes, and strengthened new congregations.

Even Paul's letters remind us how practical ministry can be. We now open our Bibles and effortlessly turn to Romans, Corinthians, or Philippians. But the original letter to the Romans had to be written by hand. Someone had to protect it, carry it over a considerable distance, find the Christians for whom it was intended, and deliver it. Then someone had to read it aloud when the believers gathered.

God inspired the message; people have the opportunity to roll up their sleeves and get it where it needed to go.

The Message Stays; the Methods Change

That pattern has continued throughout Christian history. The Gospel does not change every time the culture changes, but the ways Christians communicate it certainly do.

The Apostle Paul benefited from Roman roads. Early Christians relied heavily upon personal relationships, hospitality, letters, and travelers moving between communities. Later Christians painstakingly copied manuscripts. Missionaries learned new languages. Churches established schools and hospitals. Evangelists preached under tents. Christians eventually used newspapers, radio, television, and other forms of mass communication.

One particularly dramatic change came with the development of movable-type printing in fifteenth￾century Europe. By the time of the Protestant Reformation, the printing press had created possibilities for communication that previous generations of Christians could hardly have imagined.

Martin Luther and other Reformers did not simply develop theological ideas and hope someone eventually heard about them. Sermons were printed. Pamphlets circulated. Hymns carried Christian teaching. Books moved from city to city. Most importantly, Scripture increasingly became available in languages ordinary people could read.

The printing press did not make Luther's message true. It made the message travel.

What Does That Mean for a Small Church?

Our tools are different – websites, Facebook, email, community calendars, local newspapers, signs, flyers, neighborhood groups, and resources that would have astonished earlier Christians. The basic challenge is surprisingly similar. Imagine that we decide to hold a community supper. People in our congregation spend hours preparing food. Tables are arranged. The church looks wonderful. Everything is ready, and 56 people come because almost everybody outside the church
knew it was happening.

Was the supper a great idea? Maybe but not necessarily. Perhaps it succeeded because we did the work. Someone created the announcement. Someone put it online. Someone contacted a community organization or submitted the event to a local calendar. Someone put up a sign. Most importantly, twenty-five people in the congregation personally invited someone. Those activities may not sound particularly spiritual. Neither does carrying a letter from Corinth to Rome, yet both can serve the same purpose: helping a message reach a person.

Do we need to expand the way we think about ministry? Perhaps. The person cooking the meal is serving, but the person who creates the Facebook announcement, hangs the poster, contacts the local newspaper, or tells five neighbors about the event is serving, too.

Living It Today: Rolling Up Our Sleeves

Our recent Church Family Meeting gave us many things to think about. Some ideas may eventually
become ministries. Others may not. We cannot do everything, and we probably shouldn't try. But
when we do decide that something matters, we should be prepared to do the practical work
necessary to make it successful.

That might mean writing an announcement, creating a flyer, updating the website, posting
something on Facebook, contacting community partners, placing a notice where neighbors will see
it, or simply picking up the telephone. None of these activities replaces prayer. None replaces the
work of the Holy Spirit. And none replaces genuine relationships.

They are simply tools. The Roman road was a tool. Paul's letter was a tool. The printing press was a
tool. Our website is a tool. The question is whether we will use the tools God has placed within our
reach. Then there is the tool every one of us already possesses: a personal invitation.

For Further Reading

In Scripture

• Matthew 9:35–38 — Jesus goes through cities and villages
• Luke 10:1–9 — Jesus sends disciples ahead
• John 1:35–42 — Andrew brings Simon to Jesus
• Acts 17:16–34 — Paul enters the marketplace
• Romans 10:13–15 — "How are they to hear?"
• 1 Corinthians 9:19–23 — Paul adapts his approach to reach different people

From Church History

• Martin Luther, Ninety-Five Theses
• Martin Luther's German New Testament (1522)
• Reformation-era sermons, pamphlets, hymns, and vernacular Scripture

Recommended Books

• Justo L. González, The Story of Christianity, Volume 2
• Andrew Pettegree, Brand Luther
• Alister E. McGrath, Reformation Thought

Faith Through the Ages Timeline

○ Apostolic Church (A.D. 30–100)
○ Apostolic Fathers (A.D. 70–150)
○ Ante-Nicene Church (A.D. 150–325)
○ Imperial Church (A.D. 325–590)
○ Early Medieval Church (A.D. 590–1054)
○ High Middle Ages (A.D. 1054–1517)
✓ Reformation (A.D. 1517–1648)
○ Evangelical Awakenings (A.D. 1648–1900)
✓ Modern Church (A.D. 1900–Present)

Reflection

Our recent meeting generated good ideas. Now comes the less glamorous part. Once we decide that something is worth doing, somebody has to help make it happen—and somebody has to make sure the people we hope to reach actually know about it.

That doesn't mean turning the Church into a business or the Gospel into a product. It means recognizing something Christians have understood since the first century: messages need messengers.

Paul walked into marketplaces. Christians carried letters across the Roman world. Reformers put words onto printing presses. Generations after them used newspapers, radio, television, and eventually the internet. We have inherited still more tools.

Though, Andrew may still have shown us the most important one. He found someone he cared about. He told him about Jesus. And he brought him.

Perhaps church outreach begins there—with each of us caring enough about someone else to roll up our sleeves and say:

"Come with me."

Our Commitment to Faithful Adherence to God's Word

We seek to present Scripture as the final authority for faith and practice while drawing upon the best available historical scholarship to help readers understand how Christians have interpreted and lived out biblical truth throughout the centuries. Historical sources illuminate the Church's witness but never supersede the authority of God's Word.