Remember Your Church’s Address

A few years ago, I preached for a small rural church. Inside our church building, we had a little note pinned to one of our bulletin boards in the foyer. This small note had apparently been supplied by the local 911 services, it contained a list of important phone numbers to remember for emergencies, and it listed our church building’s physical address. This information would have been valuable had there ever been a real emergency. You can imagine how easy it would be to get caught up in the panic of a situation and forget something as simple as the address for the church building. It is incredibly important to remember where your church is located, but I don’t think we should remember our church’s address just for cases where there is an emergency. We should remember our church’s address because that is our mission field!

Do you remember how the book of Acts begins? Before Jesus ascended back to the Father, He echoed His great commission one final time. Jesus told His disciples, ―but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth‖ (Acts 1:8). Interestingly, this passage serves as an out-line for the book of Acts, and it charts God’s strategy for the spread of the Gospel. The Gospel would begin in Jerusalem, it would then spread throughout the region of Judea, it would next go to Samar-ia, and it would finally reach the uttermost ends of the earth. The book of Acts chronicles the expanse of the Gospel message from Jerusalem in Acts 1 all the way to Rome in Acts 28. But don’t miss it—the Gospel was first preached in the city of Jerusalem! The Gospel was preached at home before it was preached abroad!

If we want to see the church grow, then we must realize that the great commission begins next door! Yes, we are called to go ―into all the world‖ (Mark 16:15), but the world doesn’t begin across continents—it begins across the street. Every local church has a unique zip code, each local church sits in its own community, and every congregation has incredible opportunities to reach the lost in their neighborhood. Many churches spend large sums of money to reach the lost overseas, but what about spending funds to reach the lost in our backyard? Most churches send trained missionaries to different parts of the globe, but what about training missionaries to reach out into our local communities? Unfortunately, many churches are keeping their missions overseas and they are neglecting the mission in their own communities! You see, it’s incredibly important to remember your church’s address! God is calling us to be a light in our community, to be a church on a mission for Jesus in our neighborhood, and to turn this part of the map upside down for Jesus. The location of this church is no accident. God has put us here for a purpose. The time is now to start preaching, helping, ministering, and reaching out where we have been planted!