called to smaller places

“O, Theophilus…” Acts 1:1

I was recently in a conversation with a close friend and regular reader (and commenter) here, about how our respective ministry lives have shrunk down and how to make peace with that.

I remember telling my friend “I must rededicate myself every day to the prospect of making an eternal impact on a single individual if that’s all I’m called to do for that day or for the rest of my life.”

This is quite a turn of events for someone who has preached to audiences of mega-churches and statewide youth rallies and professional ball clubs and national conferences. It’s not a gig I would’ve signed up for 40 years ago, but here we are.

It isn’t that I don’t get opportunities here and there to mount the platform and proclaim the word. I’ve probably preached more in the last six months than I did in the previous 10 years. This, too, is a mercy of God. Just three days ago I sat in front of a packed house of highschoolers and laid myself bare with a message on brokenness. It was glorious. And (dare I say) fun. I say ‘fun’ because this is what I’m wired for and called to.

But this morning, my heart’s ‘check-engine’ light came on as I found myself settling in for a fresh rereading of Acts. No, it wasn’t an angry red flashing light but rather an amber light informing me I needed some routine maintenance; an oil change, if you will, to insure I’ll be fit for the next 3,000 miles.

So, yeah, the book of Acts….

….written by Dr. Luke, the eminent travel secretary and personal physician of Paul.

This one single man contributed to nearly HALF of the New Testament and that fact alone blows my mind.

Think of it: half your New Testament is the private correspondence between two people!

The good doctor never attained apostle-status as he was not an eyewitness of the Resurrected Lord, but he is always mentioned in the same breath as those who founded the Church, especially God’s choice apostle, Paul.

He may not have been at the tomb or touched the hands and side of Jesus, but he was in the front row of many of the most critical events and “greater things” of which Jesus told his followers they would participate.

Here’s what hit me, and why I want to share it with you today. I’m imagining that you might be reading this having memories of times when you were able to use your gifts more regularly and that  they felt necessary, and appreciated, and beneficial to the Kingdom.

Today, or in this season, not so much. The luster is buffed out and you feel you may be a forgotten commodity and way past your prime. You can remember a time when your name came up in conversations and when stuff needed to get done, you were the go-to guy or gal. But now you’re rusting in a corner, feeling more of an afterthought or anachronism.

You are most definitely NOT.

I hope you hear this. If you can, understand you are in maintenance mode (from which you will be updated and glitch-free); in a holding pattern (from which you will most certainly  land); in a winter of unseen, unfelt growth (out of which Spring will come again); God is not finished with you; he may just be redirecting you to where – and to whom – you will do HIM the most good.

Case in point….Luke.

What struck me about this amazing servant of Christ was a note I put next to the first verse. The verse reads:

Acts 1:1

In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach,

And this is what I wrote:

Luke wrote his two tomes for one man (“lover of God”), so it could be said that a greater portion of the NT was written to convince a single man of the nature and validity of the Gospel! Thus, Luke was one of the most ardent disciple-makers in the NT.

That’s what I call a ‘SINGLES’ ministry!

Most certainly, Luke routinely disconnected from his wider ministry alongside Paul to make sure there was a single man properly discipled from new birth to seasoned faith. There could have been literally scads of letters exchanged between the two over a long period of time. We just have these two preserved in canon.

Luke’s  gospel was a primer for Theophilus to better understand the Christian faith, and his chronicles of Acts were a user’s manual Theo could carry about so as to discover for himself life in Christ through the operation of the Holy Spirit.

I hope you’re as encouraged as I am! Being a physician by trade, Luke was more familiar with one-on-one ministry anyway, but as a skilled researcher and writer, it was necessary for him to accompany Paul and other early ministry teams in their travels. He saw the really cool stuff. He wrote about it all.

Thank God for the preserved record, the intimate details of Christ’s suffering sweat-drops of blood and the first-hand testimony from those who experienced Pentecost! Just remember, he did it ALL for a single individual.

Dr. Luke made a huge difference in the one, and we are all the better because of it.

In the past decade I’ve come to accept that I can do perhaps even more good off the platform, investing in the few. These days, a living room or a cozy corner in a coffee shop is my nave and I’m seeing the kingdom play out just fine in the lives of a handful rather than a crowd.

I recall the story of Jesus praying alone when Peter & Co. interrupted, informing him he was needed elsewhere. They wanted their Messiah to finish up (?!?) and giddyup and go. Bigger fish to fry, they told him. Jesus brushed that notion away and said something that goes against the grain of our American ‘event-driven-crowd-gathering-go-big-or-go-home’ ministry ideal.

Jesus told them he needed to go to the smaller places too. (Mark 1:37-38)

Theophilus was Luke’s “smaller place.”

Lydia was Paul’s “smaller place” (Acts 16:13-14) and from that encounter the Church at Philippi was birthed – one of the apostle’s most enthusiastic supporters.

The Ethiopian eunuch was Philip’s “smaller place” when he was uprooted from a big-tent revival in Samaria (Acts 8:26) and whiplashed into the desert.

A single person.

Big ministry.

Great reward.

Where is your smaller place? It may be that you are resisting going there because you feel (sorry not sorry) too gifted, too called to bigger things. You’re missing something quite beautiful right under your nose.

That lone eunuch evangelized an entire African kingdom.

Sometimes…big things come in small packages.

Edward Kimball paid a visit to a young man in his Sunday school class at his workplace and shared the love of Jesus with him. Young Dwight Moody got saved and became one of the eminent gospel evangelists of history. Through a line of converts spilling from Moody’s ministry came J. Wilbur Chapman, Billy Sunday, Mordecai Ham, and Billy Graham. And it all goes back to a man with a burden for a single young man. Moody was Kimball’s “smaller place.”

Don’t let the earlier point mist away from view: we have the Gospel of Acts and the Chronicle of the Acts of the Early Church because Luke followed his Lord’s example and went to the “smaller places” too. Remember that the next time you hear a sermon from his gospel or read a devotional from his other letter.

It started when Luke got a burden for one person and decided to write him a couple letters. You don’t need a microphone or a following or a reputation. You just need a big, small heart, a single purpose, and maybe a pen.

Remind me to tell you about “Puavo Fivre”….