5 ‘Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their produce...multiply there and do not decrease. Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf; for in its welfare, you will have welfare.’ 8 (Jer 29:5-7, God’s commands to the Babylonian exiles)
Here are some thoughts on how Jesus built, planted, and worked for the welfare of his region.
1) Jesus picked a spot and concentrated there, putting in a lot of effort into the region around the Sea of Galilee. This created a significant impact, which then attracted notice in the wider region (Matt 4:23-24). Paul followed this model, spending months and years to plant a church in a single place before moving on .
2) Jesus chose a place which he knew well and where he already had relationships. Especially helpful was his cousin, John the Baptist, a childhood friend and spiritual partner. Jesus himself was baptized by John the Baptist (Matt 3:13-17), and he was able to build on John’s foundation, recruiting Andrew, who was already one of John the Baptist’s disciples (John 1:35-40).
3) Jesus worked through other people’s relationships.. After spending time with Jesus, Andrew brought his brother Peter. After Jesus found Phillip, who had grown up with Andrew and Peter in Bethsaida, Phillip found Nathaniel, whom he brought to Jesus. So Jesus didn't find everybody on its own. He leveraged the connections people already had. (John 1:40-50)
4) He invested a lot of time with a few individuals. Jesus invited Andrew and Phillip to spend the day with him (John 1:39). He interacted with Peter at least four times before actually calling Peter to come and follow him. Andrew brought Peter to meet Jesus (John 2:40). Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law of her fever (Luke 5:38-39). Then he borrowed Peter’s boat and worked a miracle for Peter - the miraculous catch of fish - before finally calling Peter to follow him (Luke 5:1-11). He kept building those relationships, working several other miracles for Peter like the Coin in the Fish’s Mouth (Matt 17:24-27).
5) Jesus concentrated on several areas of service. He taught people how to live a good life in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5:1-7:29). He proclaimed the news of the kingdom of God (Luke 5:42-44). He healed people physically (Luke 5:40-41). His listeners in Galilee were amazed that he had done many things well (Mark 7:37). And he worked on them at the same time - notice how all of the events above are described in one chapter.
So, to summarize:
1) Pick one place and put in a lot of effort there.
2) Use the relationships you already have to reach out to others.
3) Build on the connections of the people you are reaching out to.
4) Invest a lot of time building relationships with a few receptive people, don't expect results right away. Even Jesus took a couple of years to build a good foundation.
5) Identify three or four areas where you could make an impact and work on all of them simultaneously.
Hope this helps. Please comment if you have some ideas about how to implement these in a more practical way. As always, please go back and read and study these scriptures on your own. Thanks, R
28All the people in the synagogue were furious. 29They got up, drove Jesus out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. 30But Jesus walked right through the crowd and went on his way. (NIV Luke 4:28-30)
Jesus had just gotten finished giving the people in Nazareth some very bad news. Maybe you have been there.
They had grown up with him, and now he was saying that God would not be helping them because they would never believe. Just a few minutes earlier, they had been praising him, amazed at his gracious words. But the minute he gave them some bad news, they turned on him. He must have gone along with them for a little bit because they got him as far as the brow of the hill. But when he had enough, he simply turned around and walked away. Although those people had a lot of excess emotion, it was just anger in the moment. They don't appear to have had the determination to actually do anything. And there's no evidence that any of them came after him in some sort of vendetta. He saw their anger for what it was: all bark and no bite. I think we’ve all been there, too. It’s a good thing he doesn’t hold that against us.
Jesus spent a lot of time giving people news that was not so positive. But he managed to hew to the truth of the message he had to deliver whether the reception was good or bad. I think he must have had a lot of confidence in the healing power of honesty and the importance of the truth even if hearing it isn't always pleasant. He's a good role model in persevering with people through their negative emotions in order to get them to where they need to be. To do that, we need to keep our cool just the way he did.
