From Eric Daniels, Director of Development for Mission Alive:
I’ve been talking with our church plant leaders and had an epiphany!
The mornings are getting chilly in central Texas. You can sense that things have changed. We’re no longer left hoping the season will change, that summer heat will relent – the atmosphere has changed.
As I was reading the Word yesterday it hit me. We all know that Jesus started his ministry with twelve disciples. He spent roughly three years instructing and discipling these twelve to welcome The Way. The way to a new covenant. The way to a new savior. The way to a new forgiveness. But what Jesus did next changed the atmosphere of his ministry.
“After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.” Luke 10:1-2
Jesus didn’t stop with the first twelve.
Our Lord and Savior discipled twelve, but things didn’t stop with those twelve. As we see in the gospel account of Luke, a replication and multiplication is taking place as seventy-two others are trusted, equipped and sent out two by two.
While talking with the leaders of our Innovative Faith Communities (IFC) across the country, I was struck by accounts of how their ministries are multiplying in a similar way. One such example is the account of an indigenous woman called “Ayana”, a former addict whose life was completely transformed by the love and service of Christ and the IFC leaders serving in her First Nation community. Since receiving the forgiveness and wholeness that only Jesus can bring, she has now started serving Him in her own community. Like the seventy-two, she has gone out and recently encountered three women who were then joined by a fourth, all of whom were caught in the debilitating life on the street and addiction. Ayana shared her first-hand experience on the streets and the freedom she found in Christ. “Jesus is my best friend… I used to be just like you… Jesus changed my life… He can help you, we want to help you.”
The seventy-two are serving in the streets.
Like the seventy-two who followed in the footsteps of the original twelve, we now have the “Second Generation of Missionaries” being sent out from our IFCs. Those initially served and saved in their communities have now been equipped, trained and sent out to share the gospel of Jesus.
Your partnership with us makes possible the service of Christ to transform the lives of the lost and confused like Ayana. Whether you have supported us financially, lifted Mission Alive in prayer, or encouraged us with your words, you are a key part of the redemptive story God is writing in these otherwise hopeless communities, and together, we are advancing His kingdom.
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