January 25, 2021 - "Find Somebody!"

“Man up!”

“Match up!”

“Find somebody!”

“Pick up somebody!”

If you have ever played basketball, these are common phrases telling players to “D up!”… get into a strong man-to-man defense… get up into the opposing player’s numbers. It is either preceded by a coach assigning a player to guard… or the players being very intentional, resulting in responses like, “I’ve got [insert the number of a jersey of the player being targeted.]” (You typically don’t hear these words being shouted when going into a zone defense… because even a match-up zone is based upon who happens to come into a particular area...)

The extreme opposite of an intense man-to-man defense is often called a “church league zone”… a defense demanding much less commitment… a defense where basically the offensive player is only really “confronted” if it doesn’t require a lot of intensity from the defensive player… (Side note: this is not the way zone defenses should be played!)

Last week the emphasis was on making sure we are allowing for real discipleship… that we should be focusing on application… the idea of apprenticeship, where I pointed out the relationship of Barnabas and Paul. (Acts 9:27 records that Barnabas “took him and brought him to the apostles…”) I highlighted the word “brought” which has the idea of leading, guiding, directing… it is a training term.

This week I want to highlight the word “took” that is found there… this word/concept should be at the heart of what we do in ministering to others. The word for took carries the idea of taking hold of… seizing… overtaking… etc. It screams of intentionality… as though Barnabas was yelling “I’ve got Paul!” and getting up in Paul’s numbers…

My fear in ministry is that with our emphasis on programs… that the modern church is designed to just pick up those that happen to come into our zone, missing the opportunities of really engaging in people’s lives. Ministry/Discipleship is meant to be very intentional!

Whether it be ministering to a neighbor or engaging in a discipleship relationship, it is time we:

“Man up!”

“Match up!”

“Find somebody!”

“Pick up somebody!”

“I’ve got (…)” Fill in the blank of who you are going to cover!