Why Do Church at All?

Lightbox Image

Love Like Jesus

We started with the conviction that Jesus was the best Disciple Maker who ever lived. There’s little doubting this reality. His strategy worked flawlessly, and it launched a worldwide movement that has thrived for nearly two thousand years.

But here’s the most important question. What if His strategy was not only flawless, but it is timeless as well? This would have huge consequences if it were true, and even more so if it could be duplicated.

So we put our thinking caps on and went to work. We desperately wanted to base our new church on the strategy of the master Disciple Maker Himself. We stripped away all our preconceived ideas and read through the New Testament with a fresh set of eyes. We engaged it with passion and parsed every word. Anything based on the traditions of men or on trendy ideas was tossed aside. It wasn’t easy, but we were able to get there through prayer.

We were astonished by what we discovered, not over the complexity, but over the elegance and the pure simplicity of it all. A mere four words summarize how Jesus made disciples. These words are so powerful that we felt compelled to start The Movement Church of San Antonio based upon what God revealed to us.


1. Gather

The first word is “Gather.” The people that Jesus gathered were never very far away. Each was within earshot or walking distance. It almost seems effortless when you think about it. He chose them, and then He called them to follow Him. There was no one better at doing what Jesus did.

The sequence is pretty amazing. In the beginning He chose four fisherman, then twelve disciples, then seventy-two missionaries. That’s when the multitudes showed up. He started small—gathering people one by one, incorporating different personalities from a variety of backgrounds—then He launched a movement that impacted Judea, Galilee and Samaria.

But the process didn’t stop there. After His death, His disciples gathered the nations. We believe that movements start with the process of gathering.


2. Deliver

The second word is “Deliver.” Jesus delivered people from crisis and darkness. Often times the crisis was a result of their physical condition. As the King James Bible phrased it, there were many who were “lame, halt and blind.” Some of the most jaw dropping stories in the Gospels focus on Jesus delivering people from conditions like leprosy, blindness, deafness, bleeding disorders and even death itself.

Then Jesus took it a step further. He also delivered people from darkness. And it was pretty intense. Sin was rampant. It appears as though all the minions of hell gathered in the ancient Holy Land during His earthly ministry. Fortunately, the Father gave His Son the authority to drive them away. At this point the stories move from jaw dropping to mind blowing. If you had seen Jesus drive a multitude of demons from the Gadarene Demoniac into a herd of pigs, chills would have raced up and down your spine.

We believe that this is the same power offered to the church today—the power to deliver people. It may seem outrageous to some, but there’s a lot of bondage in our world today. There’s definitely no lack of need. Opportunities abound.

In fact, church was never intended to be a place where perfect people congregate to put on their best “I’m OK you’re OK” appearances. It’s a place to break free. Life is just too short to play religious charades. We’re certainly not fooling God, and He never asked us to pretend anyway.

The Movement Church of San Antonio seeks to deliver people from crisis and darkness. We’re not self-righteous in believing that we’re perfect or have arrived ourselves. Every believer must “work out his or her salvation with fear and trembling,” Phil 2:12. We have been delivered and are being delivered to deliver others.


3. Train

The third word is “Train.” A great portion of the four Gospels is devoted to the teachings of Jesus. No one ever taught like He did. There was such power and authority to everything He said. He had the words of life, and it’s no mystery as to why. He is the eternal Word.

There’s one danger to be aware of here. Training must be followed by doing. This is where many churches get stuck in the mud and fail to become a life-generating movement—the kind that has the power to transform society. They cease the work of gathering and delivering and spend all their time offering endless training opportunities. The goal of training is not to produce smarter Christians, but to train people to accomplish the fourth action item in the strategy of Jesus.


4. Send

The fourth word is “Send.” Jesus sent the ones He gathered, delivered and trained into the harvest. The harvest is where the action is. The seeds have already been planted. The crop has already matured. There’s only one thing missing—the workers.

When Jesus sent out the seventy-two, He sent them out as “sheep among wolves.” When they returned, they celebrated and rejoiced with the Sender. Jesus said that He “saw Satan falling like lightening from heaven.” Then He turned to his disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it,” Luke 10:23-24.

In conclusion, the best thing about these four words is that a child can understand them. Any church, no matter how small or how large, can implement the disciple making strategy of Jesus. It’s a cycle intended to repeat itself an unlimited number of times until disciples are made of every nation. This is why Christianity spread throughout the world so quickly.

The Movement Church of San Antonio believes that if we gather, deliver, train and send, then we will multiply. But most importantly, God will get the glory. We have found nothing better to give our lives to than this. Come “Live It” with us. Attending one of our gatherings is just a click away.

Call or Text: (210) 897-9787
Email Pastor James