This week, a team from First Baptist is worshiping and serving alongside the faith family called Fort Baptist Church in Ringgold, Georgia. If you’ve never heard of Ringgold, it’s about 100 miles northeast of Atlanta and 20 miles southeast of Chattanooga, Tennessee.
For the last several weeks, this article and many of our conversations have focused on the opportunities to serve and impact the kingdom of God here on our campus and within our communities here in Brevard County. A missionary named C.T. Studd made this statement, “The light that shines farthest shines brightest near home.”
With that in mind, we will continue to prioritize disciple-making right here in the homes, neighborhoods, and communities God has called us, where we live, work, and play. We will also continue to go… wherever He opens the doors and provides relationships and opportunities.
After His resurrection and just before He ascended into heaven, Jesus was preparing the disciples for the arrival of the Holy Spirit and their new assignment. He said to them,
You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
Acts 1:8
Jerusalem – the city in which they lived, worked, played, and did life; the community that included their families, their friends, regular acquaintances.
Judea – the area of the world in which they lived; geographically, a larger territory than just the city of Jerusalem, but still a society that represented their culture, their way of life.
Samaria – geographically, not a terrible day of travel, but socially speaking, worlds apart; a people who were completely different in every possible way.
The end of the earth – wherever God called them (Rome, India, Ethiopia, Lebanon, etc…);
There isn’t a super spiritual explanation here; it means what it means I don’t know what missions and disciple-making will look like 5, 10, or 15 years from now, but I do know this:
- It will always mean right here, on this campus and in our communities
- This week, it means Ringgold, GA, with Fort Baptist Church and Pastor Ryan Ralston
- Wherever He calls us next, our answer is already – yes.