The Man of Peace

In Luke 10, Jesus sends the disciples "two by two" and tells them to find a "man of peace" in a village. They are to stay with this person as long as allowed to do the work of the gospel. Whenever they leave, they are to leave their blessing upon this person and their household.

Most church planting strategies today suggest that we do the same. We are to locate a "man of peace" in our communities who becomes a catalyst for the growth of the church. This particular person may be a believer that already resides in an area or it may be someone that you actually lead to faith in Christ. A lot of what happens next will be a result of connecting with this person in the community.

In today's "church" culture there is a heavy emphasis on "door to door" evangelism. How do we reconcile that approach when compared to Luke 10? I'm not against any church's attempts at sharing the gospel of Jesus, I'm just asking a question. Could it be in our attempt to send out scatter bombs in the community that we actually missed the person of peace living in the area. Could it be that we have neglected an important component in advancing the kingdom of God?

The "man of peace", as Jesus termed him, is a person within the community who will have a profound impact upon the spread of the gospel. Thom Wolf describes the man of peace as someone you can recognize by 3 "R's":
R - Receptive to the Gospel
R - Reputation to gain attention for the message w/ home and community
R - Refer the bearers of Good News to that larger group

I read of a Southern Baptist Missionary in Asia who went into a particular village with this prayer: "Lord we need a person of peace..." After saying the prayer, he started his stopwatch and they entered into the village. Up through the center of the village came a man who said, "Have you eaten?" The missionary replied, "No." This man then said, "Come to my home." The missionary stopped his watch and it took God all of 3 minutes and 21 seconds to answer the prayer. This man became a HUGE influence to the work of the gospel in the village. He literally paved the way through his influence so that the missionary could share the message.

Why am I bringing this up? Well...I've just been doing a lot of thinking. Maybe instead of trying to go door to door and seeing few results, we should consider finding a man/woman of peace in our communities and watch God reap a harvest! The difference is evangelism by extraction from a community or penetration within a community. We can either try to "win" them all to Jesus to bring them out and into our church or we can "win" one and work inside the community. Which do you think works better? I'm counting on the fact that Jesus KNEW what He was doing!

I long for a return to New Testament faith! I hunger to see the Body of Christ evident within the community. And the evidence that I seek doesn't concern itself with big buildings, tall steeples, and paved parking lots. The evidence that I'm looking for involves a "person of peace" that is being used to demonstrate the gospel in every day life.

Who's with me?

Or...better yet...are you a person of peace?