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A quote trending across Christian circles right now goes something like this:

“God’s ‘Plan A’ to establish His kingdom in making disciples of all nations is through the church, and He has no Plan B.”

I want to challenge your perspective when you hear this quote, and others like it.

The point of emphasis lies in this statement lies within our belief of who and what the Church is. I would venture to assume that the majority of us immediately think of a building or the name of the church we attend on Sundays when we hear and talk about the “Church.”

While the local church and the organized structure our local churches thrive under are both very good things, I think there’s a problem in our mindset.

Far too often, I see and feel that we—as followers of Jesus—punt on our responsibility to participate in the Great Commission because we think that’s what our organizational church’s missions budget will take care of. Our view of the Church tends to be limited to the organization.

But when I look at Scripture, the church looks different.

When Paul addresses each local church in his letters, he calls out names of individual people who collectively make up the local community of believers. This is the very definition of church.

What would happen if—when we considered the church—we stopped thinking about the name of the organization of our church and instead think about the names of the people who make up our church—like Andrew, Sarah, and Jake.

I think this paradigm shift would at the very least increase our awareness that when Jesus talks to the church, He’s talking directly to you and to me.

Maybe this would propel us as individual followers of Jesus to own our responsibility to make disciples. After all, the gospel is news about the grace of Jesus to die for and redeem sinful people, not organizations.

So next time you talk about church, try to think about the people. And then realize that you and the people that come to mind are God’s “Plan A” to establishing His Kingdom among all nations.