Paul's Vision: Building a New Foundation

I ended my last blog with...What if we spent all of that energy building on the past rather than reacting to it.

Today, I'm going to go switch personalities and argue the opposite. And like before, this is really me processing ideas in written form.

While abandoning vision prematurely can be bad, consider Paul's statements about his own personal calling.

Romans 15

20 It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation. 21 Rather, as it is written: "Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand."

Paul's personal ambition was to preach to the unknown and not build on the foundation of the past. But what were the conditions under which he said this?

1) He's preaching where the gospel is not known. So there was no foundation to build on.

2) He's leaving elder's to build on the foundation he lays

3) He's writing letters to the churches and make frequent returns to check on their progress

So what does it look like for us today?

1) We start from a new foundation when reaching out to a new audience (contextualize)

2) We must establish biblical leadership and build up new leaders

3) We need accountability and encouragement