Ephesians 2:10, 4:11-13; Matthew 28:19-20; Luke 9:13 / In Every Neighborhood

The Wall of Super-Christians

Have you ever walked into a church foyer or narthex—or whatever that front entrance area is called—and looked along the wall to see pictures of all the missionaries, the heroes of the faith?

I came to Christ in college, and before that, I had never really experienced church. So when I started visiting churches as a new believer, I would look at those pictures on the wall and think, Okay, wow. I looked at those people and felt like there are good Christians, and then there is a whole other level: those crazy people who went to Africa or India.

Looking at those pictures, I noticed a couple of things. First, they were all really, really old. Second, it struck me as very odd that those were the only people we celebrated—as if the guy banging away in his neighborhood right here in town wasn’t nearly as spiritual as the person overseas. That bothered me.

As I began reading my Bible, I thought, Wait a second. Why do we exalt the missionary while everybody else gets a pass? A missionary comes back from overseas with their fifteen kids, stands before the congregation, and leadership says, “This is our missionary!” Everybody applauds, cuts a check to support the ministry, gives a polite golf clap, and thinks, Isn’t it great to be part of this church? Meanwhile, they sit back in their pews doing nothing.

Reading the Bible for the first time, I realized that we are all called to be missionaries. We are all called to live like that. We might not all be called to go to Africa, but the calling of God on our lives as the people of God is just as spectacular as the calling on the lives of those people on the wall.

Missing the Point of the Church

I also noticed that while those pictures featured a seasoned vintage, there weren’t many young people in the pews. Historically, churches have been losing young people in droves. The typical response is, “We’ve got to reach young people! We need cooler videos! We need a pastor with a goatee!” I don’t think that’s going to do it. We need to get back to the Bible. We need to remind people that when you place your faith in Christ, at whatever age you are, you are a missionary because you have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer you who lives, but Christ who lives in you.

Part of the reason the youth of our day are leaving churches—and why so many books are being written on the subject—is that we have completely swung and missed on what the church was supposed to be. I don’t blame them; I wouldn’t want to be part of that kind of church either. If church is just about having a cooler building, a better men’s retreat, reserved parking, a carousel out front, and a spinning globe lit with LED lights showing where our old missionaries are, count me out. If walking into a church feels like entering an amusement park with flowers everywhere and a sign that says “Happiest Place on Earth,” complete with a campus map and a log ride, you start wondering if there’s a FastPass. Is that what the church is?

When you read the Scriptures, what do you actually see? You see a bunch of ordinary people—a bunch of messes whom God loves. God looks at us and says, “You are a complete mess, but I love messes. Now, I don’t want you to just build a building or buy property. I don’t care where you meet; I want you to go be the church.”

Buildings aren’t evil, but when important things become ultimate things, we miss the mission. We begin to think that the Christian life is merely about cutting a check to support someone overseas and waiting for next summer’s slideshow. Or we sit around waiting for the pastor to announce the next building campaign, putting a thermometer on the wall and telling everyone to dig deep. I don’t care if we ever build another building. It’s not about the building; it’s about the people. The church is the people of God being the people of God.

Gathered and Scattered

When we started this church ten years ago, we knew what we were stepping into. We do the standard things: we gather for worship, we teach the Bible, and we do small groups. That isn’t unique; every church in the country does that. What makes our vision distinct is that we want to challenge you with the biblical paradigm for the gathering of believers.

We are trying to be a church that is not just gathered, but scattered. We don’t see the church as a place where godly people come to hide from the world, feel good about themselves, and then try to hold on until next Sunday. No. For every person who says, “This is my church home; I am a follower of Christ,” we say: Congratulations, your picture is on the wall. You are a missionary. Go get ’em.

You don’t want to go to Africa? Don’t go to Africa. Go to your neighbor. Go to your coworker. When life falls apart for them, show up. Go to that coffee shop with the overpriced, burnt coffee, and when the barista is having a terrible day, show up. Ask them, “How are you doing? Can I pray for you?” That is what a missionary does.

Isn’t it ironic that we will send someone to the other side of the globe, where they don’t even speak the language, but we won’t walk across the street to our neighbor? We have coworkers we’ve sat next to for years who know nothing about our faith because we assume only “super-Christians” do evangelism. But you are a missionary simply because you are a Christian.

We wanted to build a church that doesn’t just do church, but is the church—taking individual lives and setting them aflame for the Lord with simplicity and purity of devotion to Jesus Christ. Like the blind man in the Gospels who declared, “One thing I do know: I was blind, but now I see,” you don’t need all the answers to share your faith wherever God places you.

John 9:25 (NASB)

He then answered, ‘Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.’

Imagine that: the church as the people of God, scattered strategically as missionaries in every single neighborhood of our city.

Breaking the Spectator Culture

From the beginning, our vision has been helping people connect to God and connect to each other in every neighborhood. There is an evangelistic calling on every single one of us. We have good news to proclaim, so we ought to share it boldly without worrying whether someone might dislike it.

There is also a deep relational calling. When Jared taught recently, he put us in a corner like a boxer working his opponent, challenging us with the reality that we need to either put our feet on the bottom or get out of the pool. Some might ask, “How could a pastor say get involved or find another church?” Because this isn’t a country club. We don’t exist for you to sit passively; we exist so that you will be the church and live on mission.

Let’s be honest about what typically happens in churches: men are bored to death. If there’s an open prayer meeting, a volunteer need, or a service project, who usually shows up? Women. Why are the men missing? Because church has become a spectator sport, and they have better entertainment at home. When they do come, they aren’t challenged. We give men moral platitudes: “Be good. Stop looking at bad stuff on the internet. And if you do, just try to be better next week.”

Did Jesus Christ die, rise from the dead, and redeem us from our sin simply so we would “be good”? That is a hollow gospel. We need genuine community where men and women are challenged to grow. When you have people in your life who truly speak into you, you cannot stay mediocre. Iron sharpens iron. We must not forsake gathering together, but encourage one another to hold tightly to what God has given us.

Hebrews 10:24-25 (NASB)

and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging [one another]; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

When we rented our facility at the Fig Garden campus in the early years, people asked me a hundred times, “Where is The Well going to end up? When will you have a permanent building?” They were implying that a church isn’t legitimate until it owns property. My response was, “Hopefully, we’re going to end up in every neighborhood in this city.”

Connecting people to God and to each other in every neighborhood—that is the context where we are called to live our faith. Wherever God strategically places you, that is where you live it out. The issue isn’t that we need to hear more sermons; the issue is that we need to put into practice what we already know. We are spiritually overfed and under-exercised. We need to chew on the truth and start living it.

As the apostle Peter wrote, it is right to be stirred up by way of reminder:

2 Peter 1:12-13 (NASB)

Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you [already] know [them], and have been established in the truth which is present with [you]. I consider it right, as long as I am in this [earthly] dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder,

Our job isn’t to give you comfortable, feel-good messages every week. Scripture is meant to stimulate us—literally to provoke us—to love and good deeds. When challenged, godly men and women rise to the occasion.

Sprinkled Like Salt

God has not called us to be spectators; He has called us to be active participants. In a football game, you have eighty thousand people in desperate need of exercise watching twenty-two people in desperate need of rest. That is how many churches operate: ten percent of the people do all the work while the rest watch. But God wants to light a fire in all of us so that we think biblically rather than culturally.

In the Old Testament, when Joshua led Israel into the Promised Land, the land was allotted tribe by tribe. But the tribe of Levi received no territorial inheritance. Why? Because they were the priestly line. Instead of being isolated in one corner, God scattered them throughout all the tribes like salt. The priests were placed everywhere, in every neighborhood, to minister to the people.

In the New Testament, Scripture calls us a kingdom of priests and a city on a hill. God does not hoard us in one central fortress; He sprinkles us throughout our communities so we can be an influence for Christ right where we are.

1 Peter 2:9 (NASB)

But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR [God’s] OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

Saved for a Purpose

We all have unique contributions to make. We are fearfully and wonderfully made, gifted with different abilities and passions.

Psalms 139:14 (NASB)

I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.

In Ephesians 2, Paul explains the incredible nature of our redemption. Even when we were dead in our transgressions, God made us alive together with Christ. It is by grace we have been saved through faith, not by our own works, so that no one can boast.

Ephesians 2:8-9 (NASB)

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, [it is] the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Most Christians stop reading at verse nine. We celebrate being saved by grace, pass the offering plate, and never ask the question: Saved for what? Why did God wake you up this morning? Why do you have breath in your lungs right now?

Verse ten gives the answer:

Ephesians 2:10 (NASB)

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand for us to walk in. God has specific assignments for you.

Too often, we live by a “somebody else” theology. Who is going to serve in the schools? Somebody else. Who is going to love my neighbor? Somebody else. Who is going to share Christ with the elderly man down the street or volunteer in the children’s ministry? Somebody else. We convince ourselves that being saved by grace means our only duty is to show up, look polite, give occasionally, and wait for heaven.

God prepared good works specifically for you to do. You are a missionary right where you live. You don’t have to learn a foreign language; your neighbors likely speak yours. You don’t have to navigate unfamiliar food; you can go to the local grocery store. You can live as a missionary right where you are.

Jesus told us to love God and love our neighbor, yet many of us don’t even know our neighbors’ names.

Matthew 22:37-39 (NASB)

And He said to him, ’‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ ’This is the great and foremost commandment. ’The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’

I have a friend in sales who was sharing the gospel with a buddy. He called me and said, “I’ve been sharing Christ with him, but I need you to come and close the deal.” I told him, “You know the gospel, and you’ve built the relationship. You close the deal!” And he did. He led his friend to Christ himself. When you realize that God can use you right where you are, it changes everything.

Where do you work? That is your mission field. If you work at a smoothie shop, pull wheatgrass and share your faith. If you work behind a desk, in a classroom, or on a construction site, that is where God has strategically placed you. If you are a mother at home changing diapers and caring for toddlers, you have a vital mission field among other exhausted moms who need encouragement and hope.

What are your passions? If you ride dirt bikes, reach the dirt bike community. If you quilt, build relationships through quilting. God has given you unique spheres of influence through where you live, where you work, and what you love to do.

The Church in Every Neighborhood

What would happen if every single one of us embraced this calling? What if we decided that our primary mission every day is helping people connect to God and to each other right where we live?

You might not climb the corporate ladder as fast, your golf handicap might suffer, and your lawn might have a dry spot or two. But what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?

Mark 8:36 (NASB)

’For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?

If we live this out, no one will be bored. Our city will see an army of authentic, God-loving people being the church in every neighborhood.

Let’s pray.

Father, give us the strength and courage to take the message of the gospel and plant it deeply within our hearts. Help us recognize that our lives and our breath are daily opportunities for You.

We celebrate not only the missionaries who serve overseas, but the soccer moms who live faithfully for You, the businesspeople who view appointments as opportunities to point people to Christ, and the workers in retail who shine Your light through simple kindness. We celebrate those who labor in the heat and share their lives with coworkers, and the teachers who faithfully invest in the next generation.

We celebrate every person who recognizes that the church is not a building, but a people sent out on mission. Make us faithful to connect people to You and to each other in every neighborhood. In Jesus’ name, Amen.