The Shaking of Nations - A Harvest Tsunami Is On Its Way....

planting and how we do church are changeable. How we do

church and carry out the Great Commission must adapt to each

new generation and culture, effectively bringing the gospel to

them.

When Paul and Barnabas formed the first apostolic team, they

began with the strategy of going to the Jewish diaspora and

reaching out to those who had a background in scripture and

the laws of God. It made sense. Paul had a principle “first to the

Jews and then to the Gentiles ” (Rom. 1:16). The Jews already

had thousands of years of biblical preparation that the gospel

could build on. They were already in covenant with God. But

this strategy ended up splitting synagogues and leading to

citywide riots. The Jewish nation for the most part rejected the

gospel message and resisted its advancement.

Finally, Paul in his second missionary journey gave up trying to

form city churches around synagogues. He set up a business

to support his ministry and to expand the church through

planting new congregations apart from synagogues (Acts 18:6).

This worked so well that Paul was able in a few years to say he

had covered Asia Minor with this revised strategy (Rom. 15:23).

As the Lord had me reflect on this truth, I realized that my first

assignment had a clear apostolic element to it. I needed to

review the life and effectiveness of how to do church today,