What Would Jesus Do?

What would Jesus do? This was the question raised by Charles Sheldon in his famous book,  In His Steps. What would Jesus do today, if he were living in your neighborhood?  In your city? Attending your church?

 First, I believe he would do most of his ministry where people live, in their homes. He would not wait for people to come to him in a religious settings. Jesus would not sit in his office for forty hours every week, running the church business. He would be out with the people.

Second, he would not be looking for ways to establish the church as a power structure. Jesus came to proclaim God’s rule here on earth. While the disciples were longing for an overthrow of the existing rulers, Christ came to transform people with the goal of changing society. Although Jesus healed and performed many miracles as a sign of his kingdom power, his main goal was to form a new family, the Church.

Jesus concentrated on developing a small group of future leaders  instead of trying to rally the masses to attain power. If he were leading the church today, he would be mentoring and developing a core small group and teaching them how to live as a part of God’s family.

Jesus utilized the existing homes, both as a base for his own ministry and as an evangelistic penetration strategy.  Christ focused on the home because he knew that when the families were restored into a right relationship with God, his gospel message would have a lasting impact. Jesus didn’t invite people to join a large crowd. He asked them to become disciples and part of his new family.

Jesus also instructed his disciples how to penetrate the homes (Luke 9:1-6; 10: 1-12). He taught them how to reach an entire region through the establishment of a house church. He asked them to look for divine appointments (persons of peace) and to fully penetrate one home, rather than going door to door. From the home base, the disciples could then penetrate the rest of the town or city.

What might this mean for you and your leadership? Let me offer some positive and negative advice.  On a positive note: Establish key cell groups where Christ’s peace reigns supreme. Don’t quickly move from house to house untilstrong home bases are established where God has called you to minister.

On a negative note, avoid depending upon buildings or outward structures, especially when it requires that you go into massive debt.  Instead, focus on Christ’s rule in the lives of those in your congregation and base your growth on the cell infrastructure, which should then build the quality and quantity of your celebration gathering.  Just like Christ used the homes in his day as his primary base of ministry, we need to establish family-like cell groups that will bring new health and life to the family of God, his church.

This month on the  JCG blog, we will be exploring the question of Jesus and the cell church. Experienced cell church pastors will write 20 blogs on the topic of Jesus and the cell church for the month of October. If you’d like to receive these blogs in your email each day, please sign up HERE. We’ll cover:

  • Week one (October 07-13): Priority of the house: Jesus prioritize the house to reach out and transform people. Some 19x we see Jesus ministering in a house. He had a base house church in Peter’s house but also stayed in different houses (he wasn’t camping outdoors!).
  • Week two (October 14-20): Team ministry :  Jesus sent his disciples out in teams (Luke 9:1-6; 10:1-11).  Even Jesus had his team of three and Paul ministered in teams. In fact, all leadership in the New Testament is plural.
  • Week three (October 21-27): Person’s of Peace:  In Luke 9:1-6; 10:1-11, Jesus talks about the person of peace.  In other words, Jesus asked his disciples to look for divine appointments. Jesus wanted his disciples to find people open to the gospel message. This peace message is actually the kingdom message, and those who receive Christ’s kingdom were welcomed.
  • Week four (October  28-November 03): Reach the entire region through multiplying cells. Jesus told his disciples not to move from house to house. Why?  The key here was to go deep within the neighborhood and from there, the whole region would be reached in every widening circles.

Are you following Christ’s vision today? Are you penetrating your neighborhood or workplace with the gospel message through cell ministry?