As Christians in the West, we have a "gathering" mentality. If we can just get them to our church service, our youth ministry, just somehow entice them onto our property...Of course, we have all seen a lot of good done in the lives of those who will come. IF they come. If they aren't willing to meet us on our own turf, we are at a loss. And the number of people who aren't willing to show up to our services is growing every year.
Even our evangelistic outreaches are tied to this one hurdle: Will it get people in the seats? More than one pastor has rebutted a testimony of salvation and deliverence "out there" among the community with a pithy, "but if they don't come on Sunday, have we really accomplished anything?". We are very suspicious of any sacral activity that doesn't occur in sacred spaces, overseen by rightly ordained and duly appointed clergy. Our measurements belie our values: Does it show up on the Sunday attendance? Does it show up on the giving records? If not, is it really even ministry? This is the downside of the "church growth" movement. Our churches are fixed points with their own gravity, pulling people into them. There is little sense of being sent, and even less emphasis on sending ministers into our own neighborhoods. “We don't need a missionary to the south side of town, we already have real estate in this metro area. All legitimate ministry should culminate in a visit to the Mothership.”
I have heard this explained by referencing Luke 14: 16-24, often called 'The Parable of The Great Supper'. The feast is prepared, but the honored guests did not come. The master sends his servant to compel the lame and blind to come in. With too many seats still empty, he then sends the servant out into the highways to search the countryside for more guests to invite. So, obviously, we are supposed to provide a well-curated Sunday worship experience and compel them to come in. Case closed.
I have one major problem with this interpretation: We do not see this program in the New Testament. The concept of a church building to house all ministry activities is foreign to the Church as described in the Acts of The Apostles. They never brought people anywhere to minister to them. The disciples just ministered to them wherever they worked, lived, or gathered. The temple was used often, but it was in Jerusalem. The Church quickly grew ever farther from its birthplace. The majority of "church" activities described in the New Testament happened in homes or out in public places. What if, instead of inviting the lost to a building, we are inviting them to a relationship with Jesus Christ? What if the church is a network of relationships and we are inviting them to walk together with us as we follow Jesus? This changes the instructions drastically.
The first people the servant is sent to are members of the same social class as the master. Then he is sent to the outcasts, those geographically near, but relationally foreign. Finally, he is sent to the highways, representing those who have travelled from farther off. This actually sounds a lot like Acts 1:8, where the disciples are sent by our Master to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and finally to the "ends of the earth". Their near kin, then those close to them, but "not the right kind of people", then out to distant places. The parable of the Great Feast is about going out in an ever-growing circle of Gospel preaching, inviting all to come and dine, not in our fellowship hall, but with the King himself.
As Gospel laborers, we have two choices: We can be light in the light or we can be light in the darkness. We can preach to the saved or preach to the lost. If we are going to impact "lostness" in our community we will have to find ways to carry the light to dark places. We can no longer just keep the home fires burning and hope that those far from God will show up to listen.
How does this work out practically? We find a great example in Acts 16:11-34. Paul's team responds to the Macedonian Call and shows up in Philippi. There is no synagogue in town. The Jews there were meeting at the riverside out of town for prayer every Sabbath. There they meet a woman who "worshiped God" named Lydia. She believes the message of Jesus and wants to be baptized. Awesome! Let's start a riverside ministry. We can put up a tent and start a building fund to get a "real" church going posthaste. Well, actually, they go to Lydia's house. Before they leave town in Acts 16:40, they return to the house of Lydia and encourage "the brethren" there. They had started a church in Lydia's house!
Of course, they wind up in jail. As Paul and Silas pray and sing hymns, God opens all the prison doors. The jailer asks, "What must I do to be saved?'. This is where we share the Four Spiritual Laws, pray the Sinner's Prayer, and invite him to join us at Lydia's house for church (while assuring him that the house thing is just temporary until God blesses us with some real estate). And that's where we would have missed an open door. Taking the opportunity to push the light farther into the community of a lost but hungry soul, Paul tells the jailer that they are going home with him and that his whole household was going to be saved. He baptized all of them that very night. And it wasn't even Sunday! He should have at least waited till they could come to the services at Lydia's house, while inviting all their friends and family to check out his hip and cool church model -- Sorry, there's my gathering bias coming out again.
Instead of pulling people out of their relational circles to gather in one official Gospel presentation every week, Paul followed each new convert home and established a Gospel outpost among them. Where did he get such an idea? Probably from Acts 2:46-47. They were daily in the temple and in every house. Paul echoes this in Acts 20:20, where he reminds the Ephesian elders how he preached both publicly and in every house.
What if every time God connects us with a precious soul who's been walking in darkness we don't just invite him to come and join us, but we see them as the doorkeeper to a pocket of lostness in our community where our light has not shown? What if we join them where they are as lightbearers for Christ?
Lord, open doors for Your Gospel among the lost and give us the courage and wisdom to push Your light farther into the darkness! Amen.
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