Are there too many people in your church?
You may have heard the incredible story of Gideon in Judges 6-8. An unlikely leader, he rallies the Israelite troops to fight the huge Midianite army. 32,000 of them gather and God tells Gideon there are too many of them. He tells the people who are scared to go home and 22,000 do exactly that. God then informs Gideon that he still has too many of them in order to fight this massive army. So Gideon instructs them all to drink from a lake and keeps only those who drink out of their hands. This was only 300 men.
So with his microscopic band of 300 blokes, Gideon defeats a formidable and enormous army, without even having to lift a sword. God showed them that he did not the Israelites to fight in their own brute strength. It was impossible for them to claim the credit for this one. It was all God, through a tiny group of obedient men.
The 300 fascinate me. A small team of blokes with no fear in them and an unusually high awareness. It goes against the world’s understanding of strategy. It is counter-intuitive; it doesn’t make sense.
Think about the city or the university that you are in. What would it take to win this place for Jesus? I often hear church leaders commenting that they can’t make an impact on the student world because they don’t have enough students. I reckon it’s the opposite; they have too many. Are there too many people in your church? Perhaps you should offer everyone the chance to go home, like Gideon did!
What we really need in order to shape the universities of the UK and change this nation is a minuscule group of people who trust completely in their God, who believe with everything they are that Jesus is genuinely the way, the truth and the life. People who live for Jesus and would die for him. People who are bursting with love for their mates, because God loved them first. A fearless, self-aware bunch of Jesus-freaks.
I wonder if there are 300 students in the UK who are willing to commit 100% themselves to loving their uni, loving their mates and being so connected to God's all sustaining love for them they live today with an eternal paradigm.
Who are the 300? Are you one of them?
