The National Center for Family Integrated Churches welcomes Boyd Dellinger with the following message entitled, Church Programming and evangelism. Let's open in prayer. Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for this conference. And Lord, we just ask that you would work in our hearts.

Lord, stir us, teach us through your spirit, and may we go out and be fruitful ambassadors for you. In Jesus' name, amen. I want to thank you for being here this morning. I trust that you are here at this session because either all the other sessions are filled up, or this somehow piqued your interest. And so I appreciate you being here today.

And whatever the reason, I want to address a real issue that is evident in many American churches today. And that issue is, and Let me make it clear, I understand this is not all churches, but many churches view evangelism as a program within the church. To be clear, let me define what I mean by programs. I mean a meeting, an event, a cantata, something that is usually on the church property that is designed to attract the lost to the church there. And let me explain it this way.

I read an article online of a pastor who was a pastor of outreach and he was asked the question, how do you spell evangelism? And he admitted, he said, and let me quote, for many, if we're honest, it's spelled programs. A guest evangelist in the pulpit, vacation Bible school, Christmas concerts, and the like. And that was his answer. So this pastor of outreach was admitting that evangelism was pretty much down to programs.

That's what it was. And unfortunately, that statement was very true because this is the understanding of many who attend church today when it comes to evangelism. For them, evangelism happens primarily through the programs of the local church. And I can personally identify with this because for five years I was a full-time youth pastor and I programmed everything. It was programs that drove our youth ministry, it was programs that drove our church, And I always was looking for the next best thing, meaning programs, to reach teenagers.

And I guess the default mode, I guess, if you want to look at it that way, was that we were to reach unsaved teenagers, but it had to be something that we provided for them that appealed to them that was going to be fun, that was going to be attractive, and that was going to lead them to Christ. That was my understanding. Now, you may be thinking, because I've heard this several times, you may be thinking, well, what is wrong with it if a teenager is saved? I mean, I've had that question several times. And that is the end justifies the means mentality.

And since the means is not fundamentally evil, then it should be okay, right? That's the thinking. What's sinful about pizza? Or what's sinful about playing paintball or throwing any other thing that teenagers do these days? And you would think, what's wrong with that if it means that someone comes to the Lord?

Well, the problem with that type of thinking is that it is man-centered, not God-centered. We believe that if we can make it work and itself is not a sin and it produces a favorable result, meaning teens come to the Lord or start attending church or whatever, then we do it. So when we have a program that we designed that brings a bunch of lost people to our church and they hear the gospel, we therefore assume that it must be acceptable to God because, after all, it's working. But that is the thinking of Uzzah. You know the story of Uzzah in 2 Samuel 6, a man who was struck down by God, who was killed for touching the ark.

He was a man with what seemed to be, from our perspective, good intentions. He didn't want the ark of the Lord to fall off the cart. So from a man-centered perspective, that seemed noble. Look what he did. Look what he tried to keep from happening.

But the problem was that he was presumptuous that his good intentions would trump the disobedience of David in the way the ark was being transported. And there are many churches today that have that us-a mindset. They are relying on good intentions. And if it means that one soul comes to the Lord, then it's all worth it. Even if that method of evangelism is questionable or even unbiblical, God will overlook that because someone's going to get saved.

But not only is that an ungodly approach to evangelism, it's a foolish approach. But again, that's the mentality that has so infiltrated the American church today. In fact, program-based evangelism is so prominent in our church culture that many evangelicals think it's the only way to evangelize. They think that is the definition of evangelism, just like that pastor said when he was asked, how do you spell evangelism? Well, to be honest, we spell it with programs.

But that is the mentality of so many churches today. About 12 years ago, when we planted a family integrated church, we would explain how our church would function and what it would kind of look like. And we talked about families worshiping together, that there would be no youth group, and that we would not have a bunch of age-segregated activities and we would encourage fathers to lead their families. So then when I would explain that to someone, another believer, they would hear me say that. The question I kept getting over and over was, well, then how in the world are you going to evangelize?

That was their question, and it came to me so many times because their mindset was the same as that pastor's. Evangelism really means programs, and unfortunately that was a fair question by those people who would ask because that's what so many have experienced in their churches. That's all they know. Evangelism is a program. And today, we evangelize by having this program for singles, we'll have this outreach for couples, and we'll have this program for people who are divorced who are over the age of 40 with three or less kids.

You know, and then we'll have this, you know, event for teenagers who like to skateboard and we'll do this thing for the senior citizens and then we'll just throw in a yoga class for all those weird people that come. You know, we'll do things. We'll try to hit every little idea or what appears to be a need so that we can reach all these different kinds of people because we think that we have to have programs to evangelize. It's all program-driven. And I mean, this is the concept of many, not all, but many churches today.

Evangelism is primarily done through the programs of the church. And for many immature believers, this is the only way they understand evangelism. It's all they've been taught, it's all they know, it's all they've seen, and here's the dangerous fallout from that. We end up having Christians who think the extent of evangelism is this, hey, come to our church Easter egg hunt. They feel they just somehow were a part of fulfilling the Great Commission.

That's essentially evangelism, and you could put in any other program or activity there. I just used the Easter egg hunt because that is the thing people do. Hey, can you come to fill in the blank? But that's essentially evangelism in many of our churches today. Inviting a lost person to come to their church to a program based event, but that is not fulfilling the Great Commission.

That's just getting people to come to your programs on your church property. Now, some of you may be a little, your feathers may be a little ruffled by this. Perhaps you've seen some good come out of church programs. Maybe you leave one. Maybe you can look back and go, I believe I was even saved because of that church program.

But let me remind you, you cannot live the Christian life with a pragmatic viewpoint. That's what Uzzah did. Sure, he kept the ark from falling, but at what cost? And here's what I want us to understand, especially when it comes to the church body thinking that we must be pragmatic. You know, it has to work.

It has to be practical. The fruit of pragmatism is so minimal compared to the fruit of biblical evangelism. In fact, I would offer that a lot of the fruit that appears to be program driven is really not true fruit. And do you realize that the primary principles we see over and over again in the Scriptures are the exact opposite of pragmatism? Jesus, and listen, Let me just throw some of these out there.

What I'm about to read is totally not practical from a man-centered position. Jesus says, the last shall be first and the first shall be last. If someone strikes you on the cheek, what are you supposed to do? Let them strike the other. What?

If you want to save your life, you have to do what? Lose it. Not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. If someone compels you to go one mile, go two.

When I am weak, I am strong. I am crucified with Christ, therefore I live. None of this is practical. None of this is something that man would come up with. Because being practical is man-centered And obedience to God can never be man-centered.

Now, there's a pattern here. God does not build His kingdom on pragmatic thinking from men. He does not do that. And this includes evangelism. Evangelism is not a program any more than prayer is a program or holiness is a program or giving generously is a program.

You don't program. You can't program those things. Before Jesus ascended into heaven, he didn't leave us with a program but instead a command, a command that was intended to function and be obeyed without ever becoming a program within a church. Evangelism is a matter of our love for the Lord and our obedience to Him. It is not something we schedule.

It's not an event. It's not a program. And let me remind you again that years ago, I was personally committed to program-driven evangelism. That's what I've done. I've been there, done that type of thing.

Some of you have also done that. And my presupposition was, how can I share the gospel? And I'm saying this from a youth pastor who genuinely loved teenagers and wanted to see them saved. I'm not questioning that. But here's my thinking.

How can I share the gospel if there's not something cool and fun that teenagers can attend? Because I needed a program that would be fantastic. It would be on the cutting edge and it would bring the teenagers in. So apparently, the cross of Christ and the great commission was not sufficient for me to evangelize. I needed a program to throw in with that.

But that's not the teaching of Paul. He says, but we preach Christ crucified. As a youth pastor, I was, you know, up to here in the belief that I needed a program to fulfill the Great Commission. It had to be something they came to. It had to be entertaining fun.

It needed to be cool. It needed to be relevant. It needed to be edgy enough to get the teens in. It needed to be wholesome enough to be accepted by the parents, and it needed to be cheap enough so the old people wouldn't question it in the business meeting. It needed to fit all those criteria.

You think I'm kidding, I'm not. I mean that's how I had to do it. Sure, I could witness one-on-one, but a program seemed to be much more appealing. It got bigger numbers. It looked better from the church perspective, especially to the lost.

So then Boyd Dellinger, according to me, the gospel message needed help. It needed some type of music, it needed pizza, it needed something fun so that it could be preached and be effective. I want you to see the great failure that I had and that so many churches still today have. So where specifically, I want to sort of come to a point here, where specifically has the American church failed? We have failed to equip and we have failed to disciple.

It seems that program has replaced equipping. Enjoyment, fun has replaced discipleship. Many of Americans' churches are no longer being equipped to evangelize, but instead they're programmed to death as a substitute in the name of outreach. But programs again are not a fulfillment of the Great Commission. So we look around and we have Christian adults who don't know how to share the gospel, but they sure can plan a retreat for the teenagers.

Or we have people in our church pews who are making no spiritual progress, they're bearing no fruits of discipleship, but they sure love the Christmas cantata, and they have fun at the church fall festival, and their kids love vacation Bible school. But there's no spiritual growth evident in their life. There's no more equipping, there's no more discipleship, There's no resources made available to encourage the church body to personally evangelize. And so many in our American churches have been indoctrinated into a program-driven evangelism that they think this is the only way we can witness. In fact, pastors will be asked that.

When are we going to do so and so? Because I have a friend who needs to get saved and I want to invite him to church. But it can't be preaching. It's got to be something fun. Pastors are asked those types of questions because evangelism to so many must be a program.

We don't know any other way to do it. But what truly is the Great Commission? What is the goal of the Great Commission? And I trust that you want to know that. I mean, many of you drove a lot of miles to come here to put yourself under almost 50 men who were teaching at this conference, who were exhorting you to get serious about the Great Commission.

And this Great Commission is for all believers. So just to be clear, these verses that we focused on last night, the Great Commission, They're not to be set aside for the guy who has the great outgoing personality or the man who appears to be a gifted preacher or the young married couple who has a heart for foreign missions or the teenager who likes to pass out gospel tracts. The Great Commission is not set aside for those people only. These verses are for everyone in here today. They are for us.

They are for me. They are for you, for every single person. Here's a little test for you. Don't answer out loud, but in one word, what would you say is the goal of the Great Commission? Think about that for a minute.

What is the goal of the Great Commission? Well, I can tell you that the goal of the Great Commission is not to just go. The goal of the Great Commission is not to just go. And although This is a common charge that seems to sometimes only be given, especially maybe at a missions conference. Everybody says go.

But the goal of the Great Commission is not to travel. The goal of the Great Commission is not to get to Africa or get to Asia or get to New York City or get to your neighbor next door. The goal of the Great Commission is not limited to just going somewhere. And I hope that knowing this. Will free some of you in a maybe who have felt that you can't obey the Great Commission unless you actually travel somewhere to leave and go far away.

I think that's the mindset that so many others have that understand where to do that. They think, well, if I have to obey the Great Commission, then I have to get on a plane. I have to do that. They thought, you know, I've got to get to another country in order to fulfill the Great Commission. The good news is the focus of the command here is not to fulfill travel obligations.

I mean, think about it this way. If every believer in your hometown said, well, the Great Commission means we have to go somewhere, then all the believers would be removed and go somewhere else. But God has planted us all over. We are salt and light. And I don't know how you salt your food.

But I never take all the salt and dump it in one spot. It's spring. I got kids who'll do that. So that illustration falls apart with them. But it's sprinkled throughout, all over this world.

So traveling is not the goal. And I hope that for some of you, especially young people who think that's the way I got to fulfill this great commission. Now listen, the Lord may call you to do that, and thankfully, He has called people to do that. And there are people He will still call to do that. God calls people to go, But it doesn't always mean a foreign country.

Our church supports missionaries who God has called to foreign lands, to certain people groups, to certain nations. And we should financially and prayerfully support those people. But even when he calls someone to another country, to go to that country is still not the goal. To get to the shores of that country is still not the goal. I remember hearing a football player one time at the beginning of the season said, what's your team's goal?

He said, to get to the Super Bowl. Well, that's not a team I want to be on. I want to be on the team that says, our goal is to win the Super Bowl, not to get there. So the goal of those who are missionaries is not to just go to West Africa or go to Mexico or go wherever. That is not the goal.

Going is not the goal. So what is it then? The goal is discipleship, to make disciples. And I believe this is one of the main reasons why there are so many misunderstandings of the Great Commission. All along, many have thought the goal is to just go, to travel and get somewhere.

And that going always means foreign. But actually the goal, since Jesus spoke these words, has been to make disciples. And this is the one thing I want to make sure that you get out of this session. The goal of the Great Commission is discipleship. Disciple happens when we share the gospel, when someone is saved and then they are baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost.

And they are taught the Scriptures and then they go and share the Gospel and it's repeated all over again, again and again and again. And we are here today and you will be in your household worship on Sunday because there are disciples, the apostles who did that very thing. They made disciples and for generation after generation after generation it's been repeated over and over again and they have fulfilled the Great Commission. Discipleship does that. Now the way I grew up in church and it was, for the most part, a Bible-believing church.

This is one area I believe that was pretty much inaccurate in their teaching. And I think it's the same line of thinking that you find in a lot of evangelistic crusades and is this, just so you don't get confused, This is wrong. But evangelism and discipleship are two separate goals of the Great Commission. That is wrong thinking. And let me explain it this way, because I've been a part of evangelistic crusades, and a goal was to evangelize, to share, to see the gospel given and to see souls saved.

But then after the crusade, as if it was completely detached from evangelism, then there was follow-up or discipleship. And here's why that thinking can be dangerous. When we start to focus on evangelism as if it is detached from discipleship, we come into some areas of our Christian life that calls us to have a great lack of understanding with the Great Commission. What happens is, if someone will say, oh, so there's evangelism and there's discipleship, so maybe if I just pick one. Well, a lot of times what happens if when we think it's that way, we pick neither.

We'll leave it up to others, probably the church staff who were paying to do that stuff anyway. The modern church today has left evangelism up to the programs or to the gifted preacher who comes in, or the traveling evangelist, or we leave discipleship up to the Sunday school teacher or to a youth pastor so the rest of us can go home. But that's not scriptural. You are not called to fulfill the Great Commission so that you can separate evangelism from discipleship. They are not two separate parts of the Great Commission.

They are married to each other. That's the goal, discipleship. But you can't get there without evangelism. And discipleship will continue to reproduce people who evangelize. But even more troubling, especially my experience as a youth pastor, was that all the fun and games and the music and the hype and all those things that I used to do to attract unsaved teenagers to our church.

I now, if I was truly to preach the gospel, if I could go back in time, I now had to tell them, after doing all that to get them there, I now had to tell them, listen, Jesus has not called us to play games, but instead to fully surrender to him and to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow him. So in other words, the fleshly appeals we use to get you here, you got to abandon all that. What a mixed message we've seen to our teenagers. If you want to follow Jesus, you got to die to the flesh and just forget about all the things we used to get here that appealed to your flesh. Some of you know firsthand what I'm talking about, the things that we would do.

So then how do you obey this command of the Great Commission to go and make disciples? Because it's more than just traveling. How do we do it without falling into the trap to think that evangelism is a program? We have to understand Matthew 28. Jesus came and spoke to them saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

Go therefore make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always even to the end of the age. We are to go. We are to make disciples. But the word go there has more than just one meaning.

That word in the Greek, and Scott did an excellent job in breaking down all the passages here in the Great Commission. One of the meanings there of the Great Commission or the word go there is to continue on one's journey. When you go, therefore go. Continue, as you continue on your journey. In other words, as you continue going, you make disciples.

As you go through this life, keep making disciples. It's a full-time job. And we hear that principle a lot in the teaching of Deuteronomy 6. As you sit in your house, as you walk by the ways, you lie down, as you rise up, teach these truths diligently. As you go, disciple your children.

That's the same principle here. Because even if you do not go to some foreign country, you will go places even if you are born and raised and stay in your hometown all your life. You still will go places. You will interact with people all your life because going is not itself the goal. It's not the ultimate command.

It's secondary regarding the Great Commission. But we must realize that God is sovereign in our lives and he operates circumstances and opportunities in our lives to give us a chance to share the gospel, to make disciples as we go, as we go visit neighbors, as we visit relatives, as we go to work, as we go to the store. One of the problems, though, is that we often see the command of the Great Commission as missionary only work. As if we have to stop everything else we're doing and go somewhere, probably overseas, and witness. A lot of people condense the Great Commission just to that, which is such a failure.

God calls people to do that. There are people here at this conference who has called to do that, but that's not the only understanding of the word go here. We're to make disciples as we go throughout our lives, having lifetime encounters with people that God puts in our path. Thank the Lord there are those that he calls the people groups, the nations, to certain tribes. There are those he has chosen to do this.

But the Great Commission is not just for those people. It's not just for missionaries. It is for all of us to make disciples as we go. And here's a key truth that I want us to understand, why evangelism cannot be a program. In searching the Scriptures, and this is what I call a catalyst when it comes to evangelism.

Because here's the thing, so many pastors will get to this point and go, I agree, But what do I do? Is there more than just personal evangelism? Is there something that our church can do besides just personal evangelism? Is there something we can do as a church? This is gonna be a big help for you.

Because in searching the scriptures, They reveal a catalyst, I guess is the best word, a motivator regarding evangelism. And it's like a door and when it's found in the life of the believers, it just tends to swing wide open great opportunities for the fulfillment of the Great Commission. So what is that door? What's that sort of secret ingredient that I think we miss sometimes when it comes to evangelism? What is this catalyst that when we act upon it, it gives us as a believer opportunities to make disciples?

Well, it's not a program. You know that. Matthew chapter 10. In this chapter, Matthew has shared with us Jesus' commissioning of the 12 disciples to go and preach the kingdom of heaven is at hand. But they're not going to all the nations.

This isn't the great commission of Matthew 20a. This is a command to the 12 by Jesus just for the lost sheep of Israel. Romans 1 says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Jesus is sending them out to preach and evangelize Israel. Their Messiah is here.

And this is a designated assignment for the disciples. Again, it's not the Great Commission of Matthew 28, but there are some overriding principles, Some applications that we see in this passage that help us with Matthew 28. Matthew 10, verse 5, then these 12, Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying, do not go into the way of the Gentiles or do not enter a city of the Samaritans. We'll go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons.

Freely you have received, freely give." Here's what I want us to see that is vital to opening that door of evangelism, to making disciples. It's critical to really understand this is a principle found within the Great Commission. There is a catalyst here that should accompany us as we go to make disciples. And if the American church could replace all of their programs with this, it would impact the world mightily for the kingdom. And we see it in verse 7, again, as you go, Jesus is telling the disciples essentially the same thing here in Matthew 10, as you go, do this.

But for us, what is it that is to accompany us as we are making disciples, as we are going out to evangelize, as we are fulfilling the Great Commission. What is it that is so desperately needed? We see it in verse eight. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, Raise the dead, cast out demons. And you're thinking, wait a minute.

We're reformed Baptist, we've never done anything like that before. That doesn't happen in our church. Are you saying we should do miracles like this? Heal the sick and cleanse the lepers and raise the dead and cast out demons. We don't do that.

We've never done that. We're not against that, but we don't do that. I've never done that either. We need to step back and see the bigger principle being taught here. Let's not miss this picture here.

Here's what I want you to notice about these miracles. And this is something we are to do, something we must have in the fulfilling of the Great commission. Something far greater than an Easter egg hunt, a youth ski trip, or a Christian comedian. Something far greater and it is this, compassion. Compassion, compassion, compassion.

It's compassion. This is a key aspect of making disciples, of fulfilling the Great Commission. We are to be compassionate towards others as we go. We must have compassion when we are making disciples and fulfilling the great commission. I want you to notice something of all four of the miracles here in Matthew 10.8.

These are miracles that are evidence that the disciples were speaking truth and that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. And they're doing the same works that they saw Jesus do. But the underlying common theme of all these miracles was compassion. They ministered to the needs of the people. They didn't play games with them.

They ministered to them. They didn't spend time trying to outdo the other disciple with how creative they could get with the program. They ministered to the needs of people. They simply and compassionately ministered to the needs of the people. And those disciples were commanded to do these miracles that demonstrated compassion.

These were not miracles that impressed people in and of itself. These miracles were intentionally compassionate. John didn't look at Peter and say, hey, show them how you're going to walk on water. Or, hey, Philip, disappear for us. Those would have been miracles, But they were not miracles of compassion that met the needs of these people.

They were still miracles, but the miracles that were set aside here were miracles that were compassionate towards meeting the needs of people. There's a lot of miracles we read about in the scripture. I mean, they could say, hey, watch, we're going to make the sun stand still. And all the people would have been like, wow. But it still wouldn't have met the needs of the people.

These disciples were not there to entertain, which, unfortunately, is what many church programs try to do today. They try to do just that. We are not called to entertain people, but instead to be compassionate in our ministry to people. And all these miracles here in Matthew 10 did just that. Compassion is that catalyst in the Great Commission.

They healed the sick. That's compassion. They cleansed the lepers. That's compassion. They raised the dead.

That's compassion. They freed the people from the possession of demons. That's compassion. They had a fall festival. That's compassion.

They opened up a coffee house. That's compassion. First four we read in the scripture. I mean, the last two may be in the Message Bible, I don't know. But the first four, we read in my Bible.

They were miracles of compassion. They were not marketing techniques that were used to draw a lot of people in, but that is what so many churches do today. Something else I want to point out here, you see compassion at this conference. Right now there's another session going on about ministering at an abortion clinic, that's compassion. Peter Brabrick speaking tomorrow about crisis-based evangelism, There's compassion.

Rob Tartt is speaking this afternoon about ministering to addicts. That is compassion. The principle of compassion is also seen at this conference because it is a catalyst to personal evangelism and reaching people for Christ. In Matthew 10, the disciples were there to preach the gospel to the spiritually and terminally ill Jews who needed surgery on their souls by the great physician. So they preached truth and they demonstrated compassion by meeting the needs of the people.

I'm afraid today that many churches approach our community like their greatest need is a skateboard park or for someone to come stand and do Christian comedy or provide a social meeting place. That is what many churches have resorted to and there is not the compassionate needs that are being met by those in the community. That's like a cardiologist carrying his medical bag around and with his tools he has a joke book. And you're having chest pains and he shows up and pulls a joke book out and starts reading jokes to you. Now, you may be somewhat entertained and maybe mildly distracted.

And it's kind of nice to have the guy around, but he's really not meeting your needs. I mean, he's there. I mean, you need the tools in that medical bag because people are dying or they're going to die. And when the world is spiritually dying, they don't need from the church skateboard parks, caramel lattes. They don't need all those things.

What they need is to be ministered to. They need the compassion of the saints. And again, I realize when I make a statement like this that some people say, well, I know someone who was saved through an Easter egg hunt. Well, praise the Lord. God has saved young people who ran away from home while they had run away from home.

God has saved married couples who were in the middle of adultery. You're not starting those programs, are you? See, God can save us in spite of a lot of things we do and where we are. See, it's not about our methods and our programs, but about what we see in the scriptures and what we see is being compassionate and meeting the true needs of people. When it comes to evangelism.

We're not to try to spend our time creating methods of entertainment to reach the lost. But that seems to be what so many do. They give all this energy on trying to be on the cutting edge with their man-made, man-centered methods. But what we need are to be disciples ourselves who are filled with compassion. Look in Matthew 10, there was no bait and switch.

There were no appeals to the flesh. Instead, the disciples demonstrated compassion and met genuine needs. You know, people have needs. You don't have to think of some creative program. If you start meeting the needs of people, you will have their undivided attention.

Responding to the needs of people is a full-time job itself. And if the American church today would take all its financial resources we pour into all these so-called outreach activities that do not meet the genuine needs of people and instead would just be compassionate and do those things, we would have a captive audience. And this is what Jesus instructed the disciples to do, to be compassionate. These miracles he gave them were miracles of compassion because compassion is that door that opens wide the Great Commission for us to make disciples. And if we happen to meet someone who appears to have no needs whatsoever but spiritual needs, we still preach the gospel to them.

That is why evangelism is not and cannot be a program. Compassion and preaching the gospel are to be an intricate part of Christian living, not a separate, detached church program. And we are commanded to go and make disciples, even in our daily routines. You moms, you have a mission field. That young lady that walks in the neighborhood, that cashier at Wal-Mart, those little kids who climb up your lap all day, you've got a mission field.

Young people, you have a mission field. That visitor at church, your neighborhood friend, your brother, your sister, your coworker, that family you may babysit for, you have a mission field. Make disciples as you go. You men, Do you realize that your occupation is God's way of supporting you as a missionary at your place of work? That is it.

It's more than just a paycheck. You are a full-time minister at your factory, your office, on your sales calls, whatever. God has made it to where your employer is paying you to do mission work. He doesn't know that. I did have a man in our church who told his boss that.

You realize you're only paying me to witness. I don't know how that went. He's still got his job, I know that. But you still glorify God by working hard and honoring your boss. But the truth is God has put you where you are to minister, to make disciples to all that you encounter as you go.

Please don't walk away from this session thinking that the local church is not to reach out collectively. We are. We have found ways in our church. The Lord has blessed us with a building. I realize a lot of churches don't have that privilege, the building that we own.

And we have ways that we can minister, not through programs, but to actually meet needs of people. And if we can get churches to back away from the programs and say, what can we do to meet needs? That will change what we see with a great commission. We will have churches who will go, wow, people's needs are getting met. And we were able to make disciples.

That compassion has swung that door open so wide. Don't take me wrong, the world likes to be entertained, but even they go to bed at night going, I have needs. We are to do what God has called us to do, but we don't do that with programs, but instead with a compassionate approach to meet the needs of the lost, just like the disciples did. Because what we don't see in Scripture is a program-based Great Commission. What we instead see is a compassionate based great commission where we are to make disciples as we go.

Let's pray. Father, I thank you. For teaching us. I thank you for the example of your son, how he ministered to people, how he met their needs. And Lord, even then, people still walked away from him.

But Lord, we're to leave the results up to you. May we be faithful in our obedience. May we be faithful men and women and young people of God who make disciples, who do not see evangelism and discipleship as two separate things, But Lord, that we can make disciples, evangelize, share the gospel and keep repeating that over and over for generations to come. Lord, for those who have always limited the Great Commission to just something for missionaries. And maybe with the feeling that I have to go somewhere foreign to do this, that they will realize when they step out of the door of their home, or even before they step out of the door of their home.

They have a mission field under their roof. There's one in their neighborhood, their community, their place of work, where they shop. As we go, Lord. And make disciples. Maybe not do it.

In a duty based attitude. But with hearts filled with compassion for people. To meet needs to genuinely meet needs. To come alongside those who are hurting. To pray for those.

To speak with those who are lonely. Because there is a lost world that is hurting greatly. But it's sometimes hard to see him because they're hiding behind all the laughter and entertainment, much of what we are giving them. But may we see the needs of people. For pastors that are listening, Lord.

May there be a revival among their flocks. With compassionate hearts to meet the needs of those in their community, to not entertain them, to not try to draw them to their church, but to go and meet the needs they have, To make disciples, according to the pattern we even see in Scripture. Forgive us, Father, for being a church, especially here in America, that has missed it so bad. It's all fun and games for so many. But Lord, it is so serious.

Help us as we reach out, as we minister, as we go, to have hearts of compassion, to teach people the truth of scriptures, to teach those things you have taught us through your word. Lord, I do pray that there are those who rise up in our churches and in our homes that go to those foreign lands. I pray that we continue to see that in our churches today. People who have a heart for certain nations or tribes or languages, Lord, people that you have blessed to be able to go and do some of those things. And Lord, for anybody who's resisting that, I pray that their heart will be filled with compassion for those people.

I thank you for those who have left their homes and have gone. But for those who are still in their homes, Lord, as they go about their places of work, teaching their children, walking in their neighborhoods, shopping around the corner, Lord, I just pray that they would still have that compassionate mindset to be committed to making disciples so that the generations to follow would see our example, would believe the truth that we have taught them. Thank you, Father, for your love for us, for being so committed to the body of believers, for whom your son died. May we be faithful in compassion and obedience in Jesus name. Amen.

The National Center for Family Integrated Churches is dedicated to proclaiming the sufficiency of scripture for church and family life and to the establishment of biblically ordered churches. For more information, resources, and products, please visit our website at www.ncfic.org. You