Wait, what?!
Over the past year, I've had a good number of people discuss with me how I am helping to plant churches in Uganda. This conversation always irritates me.
"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations." (Matthew 28:19)
Each time this conversation arises, Matthew 28:19 comes to my mind. From what I know, perhaps I am incredibly wrong and have missed something, but nowhere in the Bible does it say to go and "plant churches."
Don't get me wrong, churches are incredibly important. Hebrews 10:25 states, "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching." I feel that meeting together as a church body is something we must do as Christians. And I also believe that God has called some to go out and plant churches for all that Hebrews 10:25 states. But the Bible instructs us to go and make disciples.
I remember a number of years back taking the junior high U-Turn group to Hume Lake Christian Camps. There was a missionary couple there to speak to the junior highers that week. They were serving as missionaries in South Africa and were not your "typical" missionaries.
They were not out planting churches, but were spending their time making disciples. The husband spent his days out on the ocean using his gift of surfing to make disciples. He would go out to the beach, teach young boys to surf and then would take the time to preach the gospel to them and disciple them. His wife had opened a small store, which had been a dream of hers, where she also made disciples. She employed women who were struggling to give them a hope and a future, and would also take the time to teach the gospel to them and disciple them.
We are called to a life of love. The greatest commandment is to love. And we are called to make disciples. Making disciples does not solely look like church planting. Making disciples can look like an orphanage, surfing, working in a store, playing football with kids on a Saturday morning, and for my dear friend Taylor, being a waitress at Cheddar's.
Without these "non-traditional" missionaries, we would not be able to go and make disciples in some of the most unexpected places.
I think of Kari and Cassidy who are in the process of becoming dorm parents. They will not be church planting, but making disciples. This couple is extremely inspiring and they are the ones who continually encourage me to go and make disciples in my own life. They have loved me with the love of Christ and have encouraged me to continually always put God first in my life. Kari and Cassidy are who I look to for an image of an "everyday missionary."
I believe Bible knowledge is important, but do we need a Bible degree to make disciples? I do not believe so. There is a quote that states, "God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called."
I'm not going to be naive and say that we will simply be qualified if we don't do any work. Of course we must study the Bible, be involved in the church, etc. But wait three more years, just so we can go to Bible school? No!
In Francis Chan's book, Crazy Love, he states, "A friend of mine was speaking recently. Afterward a guy came up and told him, 'I would go serve God as a missionary overseas, but, honestly, if I went right now it would only be out of obedience.' My friends response was, 'yes, and...?' Jesus said, 'If you love me, you will obey what I command.'(John 14:15). Jesus did not say, 'If you love me you will obey me when you feel called or good about doing so...' If we love, then we obey. Period. That sort of matter-of-fact obedience is part of what it means to live a life of faith...As a result, I've made it a commitment to consistently put myself in situations that scare me and require God to come through. When I survey my life, I realize that those times have been the most meaningful and satisfying of my life. They were the times when I truly experienced life and God."
Coming back to Uganda was most definitely a situation that scared me. I knew I was returning with a lack of financial funding for about half of my stay this time out, but I knew I had to take that leap of faith because God had prepared the called.
I have a teaching degree and here in Uganda I am able to make disciples in the school I teach in. If I were out church planting, would I be able to make disciples in the school? Nope. God has given me all the tools I need to make disciples right here and now. In obedience, I am here in Uganda making disciples.
It's having crazy love and radical obedience. It's about taking a leap of faith. It's about going and making disciples of all nations.
These past three months have been the most meaningful and satisfying of my life. I trusted God and came back to Uganda. I do not regret my decision to return here to Uganda at all. In fact, I am more than happy with that decision.
The cynics were outraged screaming, "this is absurd." 'Cause for a moment a girl in ripped up jeans got to rule the world.
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