The Butterfly Effect

The term "Butterfly Effect" refers to the effects of a seemingly insignificant event in one place (i.e. a butterfly flapping its tiny wings) that results in a major, unexpected event somewhere very distant (i.e. a tsunami on the other side of the world). It is connected to some sort of theory that some guy much smarter than I came up with that I don't fully understand, but we can all appreciate how seemingly insignificant acts can have major, unintended results down the road.

This weekend I was at a student ministry conference listening to Scott Kindig, a pastor from Georgia whom I respect very much. He was talking about disciple-making and he said we often will make an impact 4, 5, or 6 generations away that we are never aware of. When he said that I immediately thought, "butterfly effect".

Christ has invited us to join Him in impacting our world. Sometimes we wonder how we could possibly impact the world, but the reality is that most "big" things start very, very small. Jesus turned the Roman world upside down not through military, or economic, or political means  but by investing into the lives of 12 guys (one of whom betrayed Him). When Jesus left the earth around A.D. 30 He had these 11 guys He'd prepared for leadership of about 120 people, and that was it. From a human perspective His mission was a failure. However, by the year A.D. 325 half the Roman world was Christian. How was such a remarkable change brought about? Jesus had made disciples (the 12), whom He told to make disciples (Mt. 28:19-20), who then made disciples whom they told to repeat the process (2 Tim. 2:2), until half the Roman Empire were disciples of Christ. This is the greatest "butterfly effect" of all time.

The thing that we have to understand is that every one of us who is a follower of Christ are connected in a chain that stretches two millennia from Jesus, through the Apostles all the way down to us. The commands that Jesus left His disciples to "Go into all the world and make disciples" still applies to us today. The question then is, "Are you making any disciples?" If not why?

Maybe you'd say, "I don't know how!" Fair enough. Disciple-making is a lost art in the North American church, but it is something that you can be trained to do very easily and very quickly. So that's not an excuse. If you don't know how, find someone who can teach you how and then take what they teach you and turn around and teach it to others who will teach it to others. In our church all of us pastors are discipling a group of guys with the expectation that they will be able to turn around and disciple someone else. Talk to your pastor and if he blows you off contact me and I'll help you find someone to disciple you.

You never know the impact that your simple obedience to Jesus' command to make disciples will have. If you want to make a difference, if you want to impact your world, if you want to change the course of history then start making disciples. Jesus only had 12 and changed history. Let's join in His mission and change our world!