To stay in a personal home, not in a hotel?

There were plenty of hotels all through the land. Not Hilton’s, no… But inns for hire. This wasn’t for lack of availability. Jesus purposefully told the disciples to visit people and stay in their homes to reach a city. There must be a reason that He was so specific.

Perhaps there was a deep reason. People. It’s all about people. Not the people serving, but those served. Those hurting and needy. It’s about the best way to reach them.

What better way to understand the community you enter than to live with the people? “Seek out he who is worthy”, because that person has the pulse of the community. They know everyone, they know who is sincere, who is hungry. The worthy person has been praying for each. By staying with that worthy person’s family, the traveling evangelist is most capable of reaching the community.

Not in a weekend revival, but long term! The “evangelist” comes and goes, but those worthy people are embedded within the community for the long haul. They are part of it. The worthy people are who will be ministering to the hurting souls long after the evangelist moves on. It is the good people living in the community that do the work day to day!

It is you.

Jesus sent the evangelist to minister to you, so that you could spend your life, your days, portraying Christ to your community. The evangelist doesn’t come with a flood light to glare across the community, he comes to light a candle in a worthy persons heart. A community is not won by a strong dynamic preacher that attracts huge crowds. A community is won for Christ through the tireless lives of regular but worthy people shining the light of Christ day by day.

As a young boy, I watched many a traveling preacher come through our home. They came and dazzled the church and the masses with flowery speech and inspiring stories. All good stuff! But… It was my dad, just the local guy, that visited the sick and lonely. He spent nighttime hour after nighttime hour pleading truth with individuals. He stood between enemies in a broken family to mend them. He held the hand of the dying. He prayed with the hurting day after day. It is the local quiet worker that illuminates the community for Christ in the long run.

You can be that worthy person. You can change your community. You can be the light of Christ seen by those you care about the most. All you need to do is listen, live, and do. Be the worthy one in your community that God honors.

Jesus was one. Disciples were twelve. It’s not in the numbers, it’s in the heart.