By Jeff Wells and Michael Mickan ,

The Apostle Paul used the imagery of running to describe the great race of reaching lost people with the gospel. “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize?” (1 Corinthians 9:24). At the end of his lifetime, he declared, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7). Don’t we, as Jesus’ disciples, want to say the same thing? Friends, don’t miss this race!

Jesus fired the starting gun when he declared: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).

The early church picked up Jesus’ challenge and jumped into the race! The book of Acts traces the amazing story of the gospel spreading. It began with a small band of Jewish disciples in Jerusalem and spread throughout the Roman Empire, becoming an international church. This is an amazing story of disciples making disciples, churches planting churches, and Spirit-empowered, prayer-infused, gospel-centered movements.

When we see what God is doing around the world today it feels like the book of Acts. In recent decades we have seen a great global harvest of disciples making disciples and churches planting churches, as movements have multiplied through various regions.

In May 2017 I attended a gathering of 30 mission leaders who for decades have been involved with church planting movements around the world. The gathering sparkled with lively discussion, fervent prayer and a unified confidence. God is doing something in the world today that demands our attention. Yet in the midst of stories of amazing movements around the world, researchers sobered us. Global gospel advance is not even keeping up with global population growth. For us to reach the finish line of Matthew 24:14, we need to see an increase of rapidly spreading, book-of-Acts-like Kingdom movements around the world.

During the gathering, one question began to loom large in my heart: “How can we mobilize the local church for this great race God has called us to?” We need pastors and churches around the world to lock arms with us. The local church is at the epicenter of God’s plan for our day. Missions started in the book of Acts with the local church, first in Jerusalem and then in Antioch. So it is biblical for the local church to be in the thick of the race, not missing it.

The local church around the world has so many resources. In addition to great human resources, it has resources of finance, knowledge, technology and especially prayer. Isn’t Paul’s encouragement to generosity (2 Corinthians 8:12-15) also applicable to contributing toward completing this great task? As someone at the gathering asked, “How can we awaken the sleeping giant, the church?”

The early church in the book of Acts was faithful in their generation. Will we be faithful in our generation? Will we be like the Apostle Paul, running the race to reach people for Christ, no matter what the cost? Will we each be able to say at the end of our lives, as Paul said: “I have finished the race”?

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