We are in a season when the expression of church in North America, and indeed maybe around the world, is undergoing change, major change. For years the Church has been a stable and secure place to come and be taught God’s Word and enjoy both fellowship and safety, security and, in many ways, comfort. It has not been a place where believers have been challenged and asked to be seriously committed to the work of the Kingdom. This is changing. God is continuing to bless our gathering together even before He brings major change – but He is adding the scattering to minister and witness aspect to our assemblies.  

Our emphasis has mostly been come and receive – gather to be taught and to experience corporate worship and fellowship. God is now adding the “scattering” aspect where He is urging and even compelling us to go into all the world – our own world of relationships – and tell others about Jesus and the Gospel. This can be upsetting and frightening – or challenging and exciting. It all depends on what you believe the Church is really all about. Does it exist to meet your needs and keep you happy or is its main purpose to seek and save the lost as Jesus did and thus complete what He began?

It is time to stop being critical of what we see today; it is time to stop criticizing different models of doing church; it is time instead for every true disciple to enter the tangled, messy, real-life world of embracing and building the Kingdom in any and all forms that the Church may take in the near future – micro to mega. Anyone can be critical; critics are a dime-a-dozen. Today we don’t need more critics – we need more labourers in the harvest field because they are ready.

There is a profound beauty we can see and experience when God’s Spirit stirs the gathered body of Christ, scattering them outward to the ends of the earth. He has called us to “occupy until He comes” and the word ‘occupy’ is a business term meaning to “take more market share.” We need to see our numbers grow and the influence of the Kingdom infiltrate all areas of spiritual darkness and oppression in the world today – and there are many.

This gathering and now scattering has always been God’s plan. God gathered Adam and Eve in a Garden and met all of their needs and then scattered them by casting them out of the garden. The human race gathers in pride at the Tower of Babel, and God scatters them. People from every nation under Heaven gather on the day of Pentecost to hear about God’s mighty deeds, and they are scattered back to their peoples to bring the message of the gospel. The early church gathered to celebrate God’s redemptive work through Jesus, yet they were soon scattered by persecution and the move of God’s Spirit.

We are in a time when God is taking the gathered and scattering them. They will still come together to celebrate His goodness and to thank Him. They will still gather to be equipped for the work of the ministry. But every true disciple will come to recognize that they are ministers and need to be out ministering the life-changing and transforming Gospel of the Kingdom – the power of God unto salvation.

It will be messy – but it is God and thus it is good!