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Friends of mine, Navigators in Colorado Springs, have accepted a call to be on church staff at a small town in Nebraska. Does it make sense to leave Colorado Springs, a city of nearly 500,000, to move to a town of 3,500? The short answer is, yes, of course, if that’s where God is sending you!

Jesus lived and ministered in a small country (six “Israels” will fit into the state of Alabama). And most of the time he was in Galilee, away from the power center of Jerusalem. After the resurrection, he told the disciples:

This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. (Luke 24.46-48, NIV, emphasis mine)

Lorne Sanny, second president of The Navigators, said, “Why did Jesus say, ‘beginning at Jerusalem’? Because that’s where they were! You certainly cannot reach the world starting from where you are not!”

That’s a perspective changer! No matter where I am, my mission is to reach the world from there. When we were in Alabama in the early 2000s, someone who had been in our ministry retired from the Air Force and was moving to Houston. When he told me, I said, “Great! I’ve been to Houston and have no desire to go back. But you will be there.” My mission was not to reach our church or even the city of Montgomery or the state of Alabama. My mission was to reach the world, starting from Montgomery.”

It goes on. Today we happen to be in Monument, Colorado. Our friends, in whom we invested when they were part of our Navigator team, are going to Nebraska. Others are in Nigeria, Haiti, India, Nepal, other countries, and many states. Some of those places we’ve been to, and some we haven’t.

So I’m excited for my friends’ new opportunity to reach the world from a small town in Nebraska, and I’m excited that God allows us to invest in people who then move!

…repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. (Luke 24.47, NIV)