The small things of God’s kingdom
Ed Stetzer writes:
The small interaction of disciples, lives, and groups is what makes their life together matter.
But that’s what makes the kingdom of God so baffling and backward-sounding to most people. Successful kingdom activity doesn’t have to come with brisk retail sales, a snazzy logo, celebrity endorsements, and a marketing campaign. It doesn’t have to generate ten million user hits or get written up in Newsweek. In fact, it’s often just the opposite. Kingdom work is typically most recognizable by how small it is.
As agents of transformation in God’s subversive kingdom, we don’t have to apologize for being few in number, focusing on one little area or need around us, making what seems to be a small impact. Our King’s own teaching tells us not to be thrown off or discouraged by worldly perspectives that minimize what we’re doing or try to stop us from getting started altogether, making us perceive our kingdom work as being too insignificant to matter.
Small strides are actually God’s deliberate design for effective growth. It’s how his kingdom happens. Jesus was born in a manger in a little town on the backside of nowhere, and today more than a billion people on the planet consider themselves His followers. That’s kingdom economy. A mustard seed “becomes a tree, so that the birds of the sky come and nest in its branches” (v. 32). Little by little it produces shocking, unexpected growth until “birds of every kind will nest under it”– representing all the nations of the world–“taking shelter in the shade of its branches” (Ezek. 17:23).
For information about Ed’s new book, The Subversive Kingdom, click here.
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