Preventing Gospel Fires
On a recent trip to Colorado, my family and I were fascinated with forest fires. No, there weren't any happening around us (thankfully!). But because they've been in the news and we think we saw evidence of them on our hikes we kept talking about them.
There was an interesting plaque at one scenic overlook. You know what I'm talking about... the little plaques that your mom made you read on vacation when you just wanted to jump on the rocks and tickle your brothers' ears with a long piece of grass.
I'm old enough now to enjoy reading those plaques. This one went into detail about steps that can be taken to prevent the widespread ravaging forest fires we've seen in the news lately. The main goal of preventative efforts was to keep the fires from getting to the treetops. When fires burning through grass and underbrush jump to the tops of a pine forest, they can go anywhere the wind blows and they can go FAST.
So how do you prevent a fire from doing that?
Cut down dead or diseased trees that are more susceptible to burning up completely. (Yes, believe it or not, a healthy pine tree can have a fire burn right past it in the undergrowth and not burn up itself.)
Clear undergrowth and lower dead branches from trees.
Purposefully light small fires on windless days to burn back the dead undergrowth and so prevent a larger fire from starting.
All of this got me wondering about how we can do the opposite when we want to see the fire of God spread in a movement of reproducing disciples and churches.
Or we could ask it this way: What are we doing (maybe unintentionally) that keeps multiplying disciples and churches "from reaching the treetops" and spreading the Gospel everywhere?
I don't have much in a way of answers, but here are some freebies to consider.
When we train part of movement tools and methodology without the whole picture, are we burning out the undergrowth and preventing it from being all that it can be? I'm SO guilty of this. In my desire to see the Gospel shared, do I withhold the full picture of reproducing autonomous indigenous (say that five times fast) churches, just so a local legacy church will let me in to do a Gospel conversation training?
I liken removing dead or diseased trees to pre-filtering. There comes a season for filtering for obedience, but if we haven't actually shared the Gospel or given people something to obey, our filters are just based on our personal preferences. If Ying Kai's admonition is to train every believer you meet and share the Gospel with every lost person you meet, my inadequate version is this: Train believers if they ask for it. Share the Gospel if it's not too uncomfortable. When we filter before we train and share, we remove people from the Kingdom economy. These could be the very people that God uses to spark a fire that spreads to the treetops.
Lastly, clearing undergrowth from trees reminds me of the continued focus we have in the western church on knowledge-based maturity. We take way too much time making sure disciples 'know the right thing.' Instead, we should point them to Jesus and ask them to follow him... and so hold up obedience as the standard for maturity.
Thanks for reading my pile of words about forest fires and the spread of the Gospel.
