This book was given to me by the team at Summit. It was the final book I read this week.
It was a surprise on so many levels. The sub-title really spoke to the theme of the text: The foundation for building World-Visionary, World-Impacting, Reproducing Disciples.
Random Thoughts and Quotes:
Everything begins with Vision. You will be what you see, but what you do not see, you cannot be.
What you lastingly look at will determine your life.
It is easier to serve God without a vision ... common sense is your guide.
Colossians 1:9 (Phillips) ... "I pray that you will see things from God's point of view."
Global mission requires global vision.
"When I consider my ministry, I think of the whole wide world. Anything less than that would not be worthy of Christ nor His will for my life". - Henrietta Mears
As Christians, the plan has always been for Total World Impact. Anything less than this is man-made, and is not big enough to satisfy God.
A formula for vision:
No vision = total failure;
Limited vision = little success;
A vision - a plan - action = only a dream;
A vision + a plan - action = a haunting dream;
A vision + a plan + action = a spiritually productive ministry.
The wealthiest plot of ground is not where you think it is ... it is in the cemetery ... for buried in the soil beneath your feet are the dreams that never came to pass, the songs that were never sung, books that were not written, paintings that never filled a canvas, ideas that were never shared, plans that never were followed ...
Small successes destroy great possibilities.
If I held a seed in my hand ... what would you see?
- a seed?
- a tree?
- a forrest?
What would the world have lost if you had not been born?
The most important thing in your life is to have and pursue a vision that agrees with God.
Do we not see God at work, because our plans do not need Him? Could it be that when we pray to see God's power the answer from the heavens could be simply, "With plans no bigger than that, you don't need Me".
The steps from risk-taker, to care-taker, to under-taker are very short steps.
"It is the most sublime spectacle in world history to see the Risen Christ, without money or army or state, charging his band of 500 men and women with world conquest and bringing them to believe it was possible and to undertake it with serious passion and power."
- A.T. Robertson
When the church won its greatest victories in the early days of the Roman Empire, it did so not by teachers or preachers or apostles, but by amateur, informal missionaries.
The great commission calls for a personal ministry from every believer.
Jesus used "penetration" symbols: light, salt, keys, bread, water.
- Light is worthless unless it penetrates the darkness.
- Salt is of no good if it remains in the shaker.
- Keys are only functional once they penetrate the lock.
- Bread has little value outside the eater.
- Water cannot quench thirst without first being swallowed.
We are to penetrate the world. In fact, you can't even spell G-O-D without the word: G-O.
Our goal must be to inform and impact the entire world.
How far does your mission reach?
Isaiah 54:2, "Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thin habitations: spare not, lengthen they cords, and strengthen by stakes."
Jesus never said, "I am the light of Galilee." He said he was the light of the world. Vision for anything less is less than what He saw.
Is world-impact to be the hobby of a few fanatical enthusiasts, or is it to be the heartbeat of every -- EVERY -- Christian?
Satan's strategy includes fooling Christians into believing that attending church and listening to a sermon IS the Christian life.
"The greatest sin of today's church is that it has tamed Jesus Christ." -- Eugenia Price
- We have tamed the risk, all the threat, all the danger, all the martyrdom out of Christianity...
"The trouble with Christians is that nobody wants to kill them anymore." -- Bruce Morgan
Discipling is done by someone, not by something.
We are to be reproducing reproducers.
Christ does not love me because I am lovable, lovely, or loving. He loves me because he his loving. But he did not chose me simply because he loved me. He chose me because he felt that his choice of me would help "win the game".
The way in which salvation comes into the world is captured in the phrase, "The word became flesh." So it looks like this ...
WORD -> flesh.
But then Jesus (the Word), spoke the Word into flesh ... and those who received the Word, became responsible for speaking the Word. So that looks like this ...
WORD -> flesh -> Word -> flesh -> Word -> flesh
Pretty easy to see with this progression how God planned for the WORD to reach every flesh across this world. But the question remains ... will the intended progression end with you? That is what happens when your flesh does not give voice to the Word.
Who do you feel personal responsibility for? It's called "ownership".
Jesus said, "Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies ..." So you are a seed. Are you only a seed or are you a forrest?
"With me" principle ... discipleship is caught better than taught.
If a gifted evangelist won 1000 people to Christ every day, it would take 15,000 years to reach the world.
If there was a Pentecost experience every day, where 3000 people are saved, it would still take 5000 years to reach the world.
If one discipler could so disciple one person for one year, who would then in turn each disciple one more in the next year ... and so on ... and so on ... the entire world could be reached for Christ in just 35 years.
If one Christian fails to disciple others, he cuts the potential for fulfilling the Great Commission in his lifetime, exactly in half.
Every church should be plotting constantly how it can get the gospel to as many places in the world as quickly as possible. But it is never "reach the world" to the neglect of the door-step of the church. It is not "either/or"; it is "both/and".
