According To Gifting \\

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses...And in the last days I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh...and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.    Acts 1.8a; 2 .17b,21

Jesus had to go away from the earth, but He promised a Helper (paraclete) would come in His absence (Jn 14.16,26; 15.26). In fact, Jesus adamantly declared that it was for the good of those that follow Him that He go away, which likely seemed counterintuitive to His disciples (Jn 16.7). Again, seemingly to encourage the disciples and give them one final send-off, Jesus’ final recorded words were to encourage them to wait for the Spirit- but to what end (Acts 1.8)?

There was one mission for the followers of Jesus- to make disciples. They understood it to mean a replication of what Jesus had accomplished in them. They had become His disciples by following Him, knowing Him, spending time with Him, and living in obedience to Him. They were to do the same (make disciples of Jesus), but with ALL NATIONS. And their Leader was leaving them! What the?!

This must be why Jesus promised a Helper. The Missio Dei was bigger than they could accomplish, and they knew it. Jesus knew it, so He gave them unending reSource- “Wait here until the Spirit comes. When He does, you will receive power; and you who are witnesses of me will be able to tell the world!” What a relief for those people- they did not have to accomplish it alone! Throughout the story of the early church in the Book of Acts, the pattern is clear: simple men and women who followed Jesus moved empowered by the Spirit and accomplished things they otherwise could not. It is that simple.

Paul said that the Church should continue in that same pattern. The Spirit would empower people in a diverse manner toward a singular end- that those gifted individuals would act according to their sovereign gifting, creating an active and unified whole (1 Cor 12; Eph 4). The responsibility for the Gospel then falls on the individual, because the power to be His witness is theirs through relationship with the Holy Spirit (and unity is created through the singular unifying mission of God for which we are empowered).

It is simple. But we miss it. Our churches miss it. We want people to take responsibility for mission, but often on our terms (we have replaced spiritual power with a corporate vision that requires them only to plug into a program, does nothing toward equipping them in their gifts, and gives them no real freedom and responsibility for the Gospel). We train our people to work according to natural strength, often in forced situations of our own choosing. Rarely do we create church environments where people are encouraged and trained to listen to the Spirit of God and move according to His direction and power alone (likely for various reasons too numerous to list here but centered around control). In the end, people often find themselves burnt out and misused and leave the mission altogether. We have created our disciples, not His- robotic followers, not missionaries.

If we want people on mission, we must first teach them personal responsibility for the mission, equip them in their gifting (which is the power to accomplish it), and free them to walk according to that supernatural gifting in the natural communities for which God has sovereignly created them and in which He has placed them.