MICHAEL W SMITH makes a challenging call to Christians young and old to move up to missionary level.

Michael W Smith

"As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." (John 20:21)
"Go and make disciples of all nations..." (Matt 28:19)
"What I whisper in your ears, proclaim from the housetops!" (Matt 10:27 TLB)
"Let your light shine before men..." (Matt 5:16)

Jesus said, "Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am my servant also will be." (John 12:26) Then the Lord went out, touched the leper and loved everyone who let him; holding nothing back. It's clear then that the Church must go into the world because that's where God is. Just as he told King David not to expect him to live in the temple because "Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool" (Acts 7.49), God is likewise too big to be confined to the buildings we use for worship. I saw this idea become a reality a few summers ago.

A Nashville radio station invited me to help celebrate its seventh anniversary, so I signed on to headline a concert down at the city's riverfront. A crowd of at least 30,000 welcomed me warmly when I crossed the deck of an anchored barge to begin the concert. As I scanned the faces, I could tell there were people present from all walks of life, Christian and not. The more 1 sang to them, the more I knew this was the right place for me to be. This was an environment where I could really sense God's Spirit at work.

The thought crossed my mind that Jesus looked out once on an audience a lot like this one, and Matthew recorded his reaction:
"When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless... Then he said to his disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out more workers into his harvest field." (Matt 9:36-38)

I fed off the energy of the riverfront concert the whole next day. And for days after that I couldn't shake the feeling that God wanted me to have more experiences like it. He had pierced the darkness with the light of his love for a few precious hours, and I was hungry for more. I felt like I was living out a Raiders Of The Lost Ark script that Jesus was writing just for me. Now I'm more convinced than ever that if you want your faith to grow, you've got to be bold enough to step out. Take every opportunity he's given you and help ease someone else's pain.

But you're human, and the temptation will always be to live for yourself or to buy into the excuse that you're not good enough for God to use you. Meanwhile, your faith will become flabby, while those few bold believers on the frontlines burn out for lack of support and reinforcements.

The good news is that God still believes in you and you can make a difference in your world. Here are some ideas for how you can join me where the action is.

Commit yourself to being available to God. "Here am I. Send me!" (Isa 6:8)

The Church will experience a radical transformation when we begin to concentrate on meeting the needs of the lonely people dying within the shadows of its steeples. There's no time or energy left for infighting and division when you get busy loving others to Christ and helping them grow in him. Many Christians I meet honestly don't believe they're strong enough in their faith for God to use them in any significant way. I have news for them and you, too, if you're having a hard time picturing yourself being used by God.

To serve God, you don't have to wait until you think you're spiritually strong enough. If that were the case, I can tell you exactly how many hungry people like Gavi would get fed by believers, how many suicides would be prevented through Christian counselling, how many non-Christians would find out about Jesus' love for them and how many Bible studies would be taught: zero.

Instead, you become strong because you're serving. You're out in the mix using the gifts he's given you (acting, teaching, singing, drawing, coaching, counselling, or whatever) to touch people for him. You're in a battle for the lives of your friends and the stakes are high enough to keep your attention. You'll find a new and healthy urgency to read your Bible because you're looking for answers that will help the people you love. Your prayer time will take on a whole new depth because you're praying for real people with real problems that you care about.

I went through a period last year when I realised I was sometimes too timid about sharing my faith verbally. You know the excuses. "I don't want to offend anyone, Lord," or "That guy's just too tough. He'd never be interested." Well, when I finally couldn't put off the Holy Spirit's conviction any longer, I surrendered. When I told the Lord I wanted to be more available to him, I discovered an interesting thing about the way he works. When he knows that you care more about others than about your own comfort zone, he brings all kinds of people your way and makes sharing his love with them as natural as possible.

So don't worry about whether you feel adequate for the job God chooses for you. The burden on you is not to be adequate: it's to be available. Paul said, "That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." (2 Cor 12:10) Believe you can make a difference. "Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others." (1 Pet 4:10)

A recent survey of youth between ages 13 and 19 shows that the number one reason teenagers leave the Church is because no one there takes them seriously enough to give them anything meaningful to do. It's a fact that people who aren't a part of the action at church either leave it, often never to return, or just put in their time, waiting for the chance to be with friends who make them feel important.