The Great Collaboration

“If we want to see a gospel movement among every least-reached people group in our generation, we will have to come together, stay together, and work together—for the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Henry Ford, the American automobile manufacturer who is credited for developing the assembly line mode of production, once said “coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.” That statement holds true at work, in sports, at home, and in almost every human endeavor. It even holds true in our pursuit to obey the Lord’s mandate to go into all the world and make disciples. We have to work together if we are going to be successful in finishing the task.

In a recent conversation with a friend from the NewThing Network, he said: “We talk about the Great Commandment, we talk about the Great Commission, but we need to start talking about the Great Collaboration.” He was talking about followers of Christ working together. As Christians who serve the same Lord and preach the same Gospel, we do a poor job of working together. We often work together in our own circle to build our kingdom, but we resist working outside of our circle to build the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus prayed for us to “be one,…that the world may believe” (John 20:20-21). He reiterates the implications of unity again in verse 23, “…that the world may know.” Jesus is praying for His disciples, the church, to be united in Christ to one another so that the gospel would multiply. These verses are speaking of unity, but unity without collaboration is empty rhetoric. 

When you study gospel movements of the past and present, you can trace their origins to the preaching of the gospel, repentance, obedience-based discipleship, and collaboration. We see this in Acts 11. A group of disciples who had been scattered by the persecution in Jerusalem made their way to Antioch. These disciples were sharing the gospel with other Jews, but a few of the disciples decided to do something different. They broke formation and preached the gospel to the Greeks. “And the hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord” (vs.  21). Revival breaks out. The Jerusalem church hears about it and decides to send Barnabas to see what was going on. Barnabas arrives, sees the grace of God at work, and immediately set out to find Paul. Paul and Barnabas return to Antioch and work together for an entire year before being sent out as missionaries. The disciples came together through the gospel. That is progress. They stayed together in the gospel. That is growth. They worked together for the gospel. That is success. If we want to see a gospel movement among every least-reached people group in our generation, we will have to come together, stay together, and work together—for the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. We really are better together.