A Call Beyond Church Walls,
A Call to Worship, A Call to Unity,
A Call to Prayer. . . In Every Place.
A Call Beyond Church Walls
The gathering of the Church should be a provocative event. It should provoke questions, raise issues, challenge mindsets. The Church began on the Day of Pentecost as an event that demanded an explanation. Peter had to get up and explain the work of God in these ordinary people because people saw it and were asking questions. Since then, the church has become hidden away behind four walls, often answering questions no one is asking. The salt is trapped in the salt shaker, and the light is hidden under a bushel.
When we have shown our face in public it has often been an angry face. We come out of hiding to confront some injustice or evil in our culture. In spite of our attempts to be kind, our message to the world has come across as “God loves you, but we are really mad!” Our marches and demonstrations get lost in the endless line of special interest groups who have occupied the same streets to promote their agenda, demand their rights, show their strength, criticize leaders, demand that people and powers bend their way. We get a definite response to our confrontation—usually anger, resentment, misunderstanding, or apathy—The same reactions you get when you try to confront someone without an underlying relationship of love and trust.
There is a broadening gap between the church and unchurched people. Our relationship is a love/hate relationship that has become a frustrating standoff between those who need salvation and those who are trying to offer it. They don’t receive our message because they don’t believe we love them. They don’t believe in us because they don’t believe we love one another. They don’t trust us because they don’t trust our motives. We are perceived to be as sectarian, divisive, and selfserving as any other special interest group.
We are not seen as loving and compassionate. We are not trusted. We do not even know those we are trying to confront. Somehow the world has taken on the perception that we are more interested in imposing our agenda than we are about loving and caring and serving. As our message of truth and lifestyle of righteousness becomes more and more a confrontation to the world in which we live, it becomes more and more important to work at building a relationship of love and trust so that our message can be received. Our relationship of love and compassion for our cities must be so firmly established that when we have a difficult and confrontational message to deliver, the hearers will know they are being loved, not condemned.
Even the body of Christ is divided on what our approach should be. Some react with a more militant and more aggressive response while others shrink back, embarrassed by the tactics of some of their brothers. Those who are on the front lines in turn feel abandoned by “apathetic Christians who won’t take a stand.” How can we come together in an approach that will unite the body of Christ, temper the activists with love and call the peacemakers out of the pews to take a stand?
The March for Jesus is one way God has given us to begin to reach across the line. It gives us an opportunity to make our message real, relevant, and provocative. Wouldn’t it be refreshing for the world to see us loving one another?
Wouldn’t it be refreshing for them to see a march where there is no agenda, no ax to grind, no point to argue, just ordinary people who love God, love one another, and love the city where they live? Wouldn’t it be good for them to see us just being who we are?
Even better, wouldn’t it be good for us to do something that is not a show, not a publicity stunt, not a fundraiser, not a protest, not a campaign, just a sincere demonstration of our love for God and for one another? That is what March for Jesus is designed to be.
A Call to Worship
The Father is seeking worshippers. Worship pleases God. The kind of worship the Father is seeking can be summed up in two things, to love Him and to love one another. Jesus said this was the first and greatest commandment.
March for Jesus gathers massive numbers of people in a procession of worship to express their love for God and one another, simply because it pleases our heavenly Father. There is no agenda but to joyfully and enthusiastically exalt the Lord Jesus Christ.
This year the March for Jesus will circle the globe encompassing almost every nation of the world on the same day. It will be an offering of extravagant praise and extraordinary prayer, an event that will unite the body of Christ worldwide.
Imagine the view from heaven as this procession unfolds in every time zone. People from every nation, joyfully proclaiming His name, tear-stained uplifted faces will unashamedly adore Him, little children waving handmade banners, former enemies walking arm and arm. Singing, dancing, shouting, weeping, happy because of who He is and what He has done. Only Jesus could inspire such a celebration.
This must have been in God’s heart from the time man fell. Israel showed the way, Jesus made it possible, the good news has spread from Jerusalem to Judea and to the uttermost part of the earth. And now, people from every tribe, tongue, and nation, are redeemed back to God, reconciled to each other and are gathered together to worship Him. For 24 hours, continuous praise will ascend before the throne of God. Millions of people in nation after nation will offer themselves to Him and boldly testify of His great love before the eyes of the watching world. Multitudes of people for whom Jesus died will offer up an extravagant offering of praise.
Isn’t this the ultimate end of all of our evangelism, teaching, preaching, and discipleship that the love of Jesus would penetrate the hearts of fallen mankind and that a response of worship would echo throughout eternity? All of this effort is not to put on another demonstration for an earthly audience, nor a publicity stunt to get us on the front page, nor a show of strength to reveal how many of us there really are. We are not even seeking another blessing for ourselves. We worship him publicly for the same reason we worship Him privately. It is simply because He is worthy. It is an event spent entirely on Jesus. He is worth it!
The sinful woman understood this idea of extravagant worship when she poured out her expensive offering on Jesus’ feet. Some considered it a waste. Jesus acknowledged her gift as a fitting story to accompany the preaching of the gospel. Her act of worship, motivated by love, became a prophetic statement. It calls upon the best of our motivations to bring forth such an extravagant offering of praise without regard for self, expense, or worldly effect. In the process, we might actually find we have done something prophetic and created the aroma that should accompany the preaching of the gospel.
A Call to Prayer
One of the most loving and affectionate things we can do for people, for leaders, and even for whole cities is to pray for them. Not against them—
for them
. It creates a special bond between the people who pray and the people for whom they pray. Social programs, education, political solutions can be offered by any benevolent group, but the one thing the church has to offer that no other agency can offer is the power of prayer. Government alone cannot bring about the changes we long to see in our nation. Only God can turn the hearts of people from their sin.
I Timothy 2:1-2 instructs us to pray for rulers and all those in authority. Our mayors, police captains, city council members, school board, etc. are under an incredible burden of difficult social problems. I wonder, do they feel undergirded with prayer support from the churches in the city? Or do we become another burden?
This is not an hour for ordinary prayer; it is an hour for extraordinary prayer. It is time for united, concerted, effectual, fervent prayer of faith by all men, everywhere.
A Call to Unity
The church is united. We do not have to make unity happen. Unity happened when Jesus went to the cross and by his death and resurrection broke down every wall that separated us from God and from one another. There is only one faith, baptism, Lord and father of us all. March for Jesus is simply an opportunity to enter into a unity that already exists.
Humanistic attempts at unity require the compromise of important distinctives to a point of finding the lowest common denominator. The March for Jesus calls the church to unity around the highest common denominator, the Lord Jesus Christ. As we exalt Him, we find ourselves in unity with each other. Often we find ourselves next to those to whom we have not yet been reconciled. Worship brings us to a point of humility and repentance so that reconciliation can heal broken relationships.
Unity does not mean uniformity. Diversity enhances the celebration. The comment is common at a March for Jesus, “we are all so different, but we are part of the same family!”
We all have to leave our comfort zone as we gather in the street. It becomes common ground, a neutral location to discover a new identity together. It is level ground rather than watching a few important personalities on a stage; every person is a participant on display as a testimony of God’s great grace and love. Going public challenges some of our hidden judgments, pride, and fears. We might actually be seen with some oddball member of the body of Christ. Some of them might not even be real Christians! How we need to pace these fears and lay down our concern for personal reputation and image.
Jesus had no problem with the idea of losing his reputation in order to identify with people on the streets. His ministry was on the streets, where the people were. And they loved being around Him.
In Every Place
Malachi 1:11 says “For from the rising of the sun, even to its setting, My name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense is going to be offered to My name, and a grain offering that is pure; for My name will be great among the nations,” says the Lord of hosts.
It is easy to be thrilled about the size of the marches. Thousands of people marching down main street for Jesus is very exciting. Some marches have been the largest event of any kind in the history of certain cities! But the significance of the Global March for Jesus is not in its size but in the idea of covering as much ground as possible on the same day to make sure that extravagant praise is offered to the Lord in every place. Our goals for the Global March for Jesus are not numerical—they are geographical. “From the rising of the sun to its setting the name of the Lord is to be praised” (Psalm 113:3) . On June 25, 1994 millions of Christians in every time zone on the earth will together proclaim that the name of the Lord is to be praised. We want to make sure that the inhabitants in every inhabitable part of the earth are giving glory to their maker in the place they inhabit:
We believe that the promise that came to Joshua is for the body of Christ today. “Every place on which the sole of you foot treads, I have given it to you” (Joshua 1:3) . Even the smallest of marches is significant when you realize the importance of proclaiming His name in every place. Some leaders have been hesitant to march in their city because they are afraid that the turnout for the march will be small, and they don’t want the church to be embarrassed. Do not be fooled into thinking that the success of March for Jesus is based on numbers! Throughout history, God has always defeated massive armies with His smaller ones so that the glory goes to Him.
Make sure your city is marching on June 25, 1994. Gather a small army or a large one, but make sure your patch of earth is giving glory to His name. Also, do what you can to help us so that we can include every nation.
“But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him in every place”. (II Corinthians 2:14)
