“And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.” – Acts 14:23
Paul and Barnabas were wrapping up their missionary trip by revisiting the towns where they’d started new churches. After a bit of time worshiping and following Jesus together, leaders had begun to emerge within each church. As Paul and Barnabas returned, those leaders were recognized and appointed to shepherd the young churches. The remarkable thing is that every member in those churches, including the leaders, were new Christians. More remarkable is what Paul and Barnabas did…
They “committed them to the Lord”. Rather than panic over the immaturity of the churches and their leaders and conclude they needed to stay and mentor them for years, Paul and Barnabas turned them over to God the Father, Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit within them. It requires enormous faith to turn something as precious as a brand new church led by spiritually immature leaders over to the Lord. Honestly, though Who is better equipped to guide and guard those churches?
Today, in the West, we place entirely too much faith in our ability to plan, organize, and teach people and churches obedience and spiritual success. We trust in humans more than we trust the Spirit of the Living God. We would never say that, but our actions make clear that we believe it. In our pride, we would rather commit spiritual enterprises to seasoned human leaders than to the Lord. We have this all wrong!!!
If we’re going to re-reach the West with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we must regain our faith and trust in the Lord as the Lord. We must be willing to take risks and do everything we can to reach and prepare new believers to grow in Christ. Then we must let them grow in Christ and trust in His Lordship. We must be willing to multiply churches and leaders, committing them to the Lord rather than to the human processes that haven’t served us well in recent decades. Who or what is the Lord asking you to commit to Him?