If you feel like you have to have the “master plan” before ever making a decision, making disciples or getting started in something new, I want to share three simple words that will change your life forever.
Let me share this simple process that I’ve come to call “What next, Lord?”
This works the same in every area of life, really, but let me tell you a story to illustrate how we’ve come to use this in making disciples and living on mission.
Let’s Invite Everyone
Not too long ago, Tina and I joined a few other friends who wanted to move beyond their weekly Bible study experience into living more like a family of missionaries. We started out by having weekly barbecue cookouts together. One couple would host one week, and another the next. We went back and forth like this for several weeks.
We handed out homemade flyers, inviting people to come for a casual meal to “get to know their neighbors.” Over time, as is always the case, we noticed some natural relationships developing with some of these new friends who were coming back every week.
People Actually Liked Us!
Tina quickly hit it off with a gal who grew up in the same city she had. I was becoming fast friends with a guy who also played guitar and loved riding motorcycles—Harleys, to be specific. We found that while we didn’t all instantly become super-close with everyone who came to our dinners, some people were definitely leaning in to relationship.
One of the women worked in the same field as Sarah, a leader in our MC, and they hit it off. That’s how it went. Each of us naturally built friendships with one or two others. It seemed that God was giving us specific relational favor with a few. These are the people of peace that God was bringing into our circle.
We began to pray for these relationships, asking, “What next, Lord? What do you want us to do next, specifically, with each of these people you have brought into our lives?” We all felt that the Spirit spoke directly to our hearts the things we were to do next to develop these relationships and love our friends. [clickToTweet tweet=”In life and on mission you don’t need to have the master plan if you ask the Master who has the plan.” quote=”In life and on mission you don’t need to have the master plan if you ask the Master who has the plan.”]
It wasn’t anything profound or crazy; it was stuff like, “Give Christy a call this week to see how that job interview went that she was nervous about.” Or “Call Mike and see if he can pick you up from the airport when you return later this week.” We shared what we believed we had heard from God and agreed to pray for one another that week—both for favor and that we would be obedient to our “What next?” opportunities.
Was God at Work?
We got together weekly to share how we each had followed through the previous week. Then we would pray again, “What next, Lord?” God did amazing things over the next several weeks. It seemed as if we were being divinely guided into “perfect” conversations and situations with these neighbors.
I think we were.
Our hope, and what we had asked God to guide us into relationally, was the opportunity to take some of our neighbors through the Story-formed Way, which is a means of introducing people to the full storyline of the Bible in community in a really cool way.
The group ended up inviting seven of these people to join us for this time together over the next ten weeks, and six of them agreed. The one gal who wasn’t ready to do that with us remained close to our circle of friends. It wasn’t as if we rejected her because she said no. With some things we do not everyone will want to take part in it.
“You want to go bowling?”
… “Um, No thanks.”
“Oh wow, a “rejecter of the faith!”
No! She stayed part of our community, and we love her. We still hope and pray for her to “lean in” to a deeper relationship with us and with Jesus, but for now she is where she is.
We saw God do some great things over the next weeks and months together with this group, and we fell deeply in love with our new friends. We saw several come to faith in Jesus as they began to walk in his ways together with us. We continue to pray for them, and for us…
“What next, Lord?”
The next best time to relax and trust God for what’s next in your life–and other’s–is now.
Question: How would your life change if you started living this way instead of having to have the “master plan” for everything and stress over the results? Leave me your thoughts in the comments below or on Facebook.
