"Follow me, everything is alright"

I have been reading through the book of Acts for a bit and I have noticed something about Paul. As he goes around to different cities, planting churches, strengthening churches, and preaching the Gospel, he always has guys traveling with him. Titus, Timothy, Apollos... there is always someone with Paul. Why does this matter?

One of the most influential books if have read is Robert Coleman's The Master Plan of Evangelism. Coleman presents what he believes is Jesus' method of evangelism, built upon discipleship. He presents 8 elements that constitute Jesus' method of evangelism. I'll save you a long summary of the book, you should pick it up and read it. The gist of what Coleman presents is that Jesus lived life with the men he was discipling. As they traveled around, Jesus taught them theology, ministry methods, and all kinds of other things. He gave them a reproducible, relationally based model for evangelism and discipleship.

What does this have to do with Paul and his companions? Well the way I see it is that what Paul did was much like what Jesus did. He brought guys along with him as he went from town to town, teaching them, equipping them, and empowering them to continue the ministry. We can see in 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus that two of his disciples actually did continue the work he started and trained them to do.

This idea has been really challenging to me in thinking about church planting. If we want to see a movement start in Fargo we must seek out men we can train, equip, and empower to do the work. It is easy for us to build the work around ourselves, but I believe if we are to see the Church grow rapidly, we must learn from Jesus as Paul did. Whether we are planning our sermon, visiting a potential contact, sharing with a lost person, or what ever else it may be, we should seek out men who will walk beside us.

So my challenge to you who may be reading this: for those of you living as a missionary, take someone along with you, train them, equip them, and empower them; for those who are new to this missionary lifestyle, find someone you can follow and be a sponge as you follow them. Pray that God will bring about a movement as we seek to train, equip, and empower believers to live as missionaries.