Lesson 105 · Unit 16 · The Sent Ones
Planning an Outreach
Love needs a plan; a harvest needs a team.
Open
That building on the east side of town — how many times have you walked past it? The gray frame has stood there seven or eight years, the tower crane came down long ago, the rendering on the hoarding has faded to pale blue, and half a "Grand Opening" banner is still hanging. Everybody knows the story: gongs and drums on the day they broke ground, and then the money ran out.
When Jesus spoke about the cost of following him, he used exactly this picture: a man who builds without first sitting down to count the cost lays a foundation, cannot finish, and "everyone who sees begins to mock him." Churches have unfinished buildings like that too. Somebody in a small group says, "We ought to do something for our neighbors," everyone nods, and the warmth lasts three minutes. Three months later that sentence is still standing where it was. What love usually lacks is not warmth. It is a drawing.
Scripture
Jesus teaches people to sit down first and count the cost; the church at Antioch sends out the first team in fasting and prayer. (Luke 14:28-30; Acts 13:1-3, WEB)
28For which of you, desiring to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and count the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it?
29Or perhaps, when he has laid a foundation and isn’t able to finish, everyone who sees begins to mock him,
30saying, ‘This man began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’
1Now in the assembly that was at Antioch there were some prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen the foster brother of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.
2As they served the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Separate Barnabas and Saul for me, for the work to which I have called them.”
3Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.
See
Taking care is the shape of love
"Sit down first and count the cost" (Luke 14:28) appears in a passage where Jesus is talking about the cost of discipleship — following him should not be an impulse, and neither should serving people. We easily treat planning as unspiritual, as if love ought to be spontaneous. But you think about a menu before you have one guest to dinner; how much more when you are inviting someone to meet Jesus. Most outreaches do not die of opposition. They die of vagueness: no date set, no roles assigned, nobody following up, and the enthusiasm goes quietly cold in the delay. Turning love into a drawing is not distrusting the Spirit. It is respecting people — anyone you invite deserves an encounter that somebody prepared with care.
The Antioch order
Now look at the first formal mission sending in history (Acts 13:1-3). The list alone is moving: Barnabas a Levite from Cyprus, Simeon nicknamed Niger, Lucius from Cyrene in North Africa, Manaen raised in a royal household, and Saul who had once persecuted the church — a set of people improbably mixed, sitting in the same prayer meeting. More important is the order: it was "as they served the Lord and fasted" that the Holy Spirit spoke. The sending was born out of worship, not out of brainstorming. Have your plan, but before the drawing is unrolled, kneel — and ask not "what do we want to do" but "Lord, whom are you calling, whom are you sending, and to do what?" Prayer first, sending after, and neither can be left out.
Four steps of an outreach
Put the two passages together and you have four steps you can start on today. One, pray and name names: write down who — a few names, or a group (the neighbors on your floor, the parents of your child's classmates) — set a date, and pray for them for two weeks first. Two, form a team and assign roles: four boxes, one name in each — who invites, who hosts, who shares, who follows up. Three people can fill them, and one person can hold two boxes, but every box needs a name. Three, one sincere event: community service, a holiday meal, a games day in the park — the form is open, the sincerity is not. The meal is a real meal, the friends are real friends, no ambush, no counting of results. If you like, a natural word of thanks over the food is already a witness. Four, follow up and do not let go: within a week, every guest hears from somebody — a message of thanks, a return invitation, one concrete next step. There is no minimum size: three people inviting four neighbors over for dumplings is an outreach.
Deeper
Count the cost (Luke 14:28)
sit down first, then break ground: taking care is the shape of love, and vagueness is where enthusiasm is buried.
The Antioch pattern (Acts 13:2-3)
serving and fasting first, sending after: an outreach is born out of worship, not out of a good idea.
An improbable list (Acts 13:1)
a Levite, a North African, a man raised in a palace, a former persecutor: God loves to use combinations that should not work.
The four steps
pray and name names, form a team, a sincere event, follow up and do not let go: every box needs a name and a date.
Sincerity above all
guests are not metrics and a meal is not an ambush; if love has conditions on it, people can smell them.
Story
A-Qiao runs a flower shop in Ningbo on a small shopping street. At a prayer meeting before Mid-Autumn it struck her: the shopkeepers on this street have waved at each other through glass for ten years, and not one of them has been inside another's door. She and a brother and a sister from her small group decided to try it once. Step one: the three of them wrote down the names of eight shop owners and prayed for two weeks. Step two: roles — she would provide the space and the flowers, the brother would cook a table of home-style dishes, the sister would do the inviting in person and the following up afterward. Step three: on the evening of the fourteenth, after closing, a long table was set out in the flower shop — arranging flowers, eating crab, sharing mooncakes. There was no program. Just before the meal A-Qiao said one sentence: "The three of us believe in Jesus. Let me give thanks for this street." Six people came. Step four: within a week every guest heard from them — a small box of flower tea, and a line like, "That arrangement of yours needs fresh water, I'll stop by since I'm passing." By the end of the year the woman who runs the stationery shop and the man who repairs watches were sitting at the small group's table.
Respond
Reflect — alone, or talk it through together
1Acts 13:1-3: what was the church at Antioch doing before the sending? In what setting does "the Holy Spirit said" appear, and what does that say about the order a plan should follow?
2Some people worry that "planning makes love insincere" — in an outreach, what does sincerity look like, and what does taking care look like?
3Of the four steps, which one are you and two or three companions most missing right now? What would the name and the date in step one be?
Saved on this device only — visible to no one but you.
Pray together
Lord who separated workers in the fasting and prayer of the church at Antioch: thank you for putting the first sending inside worship and not inside a meeting. Our enthusiasm breaks ground and does not finish; teach us to sit down and count first, and to kneel and pray first. Give us names, companions and sincerity — a real meal and a love with no ambush in it. Use even the small thing of three people inviting four neighbors for dumplings. In the name of the Lord Jesus, amen.
Walk
This week's actionabout 20 min
With one or two companions, take step one of the four: each of you write down the names you want to invite (or settle on a group), and set a date. From today, pray for those names once a day. Before the weekend, put one name in each of the four boxes — invite, host, share, follow up.
Mark it when it happens — this week, at your pace.
Spiritual practice
Each day as you pray over the list, add an Antioch-shaped request: "Lord, whom will you separate, and what are you sending us to do? We are here, listening."
Memory verse · Luke 14:28
Forwhichofyou,desiringtobuildatower,doesn'tfirstsitdownandcountthecost,toseeifhehasenoughtocompleteit?
Walk further
Barnabas the son of encouragement, the parable of the great banquet, Antioch the city of sending, a prayer for the lost, and Lesson 33 on making the gospel a conversation.