Spend a few moments reflecting on these words from Christian Author EM Bounds from over 100 years ago:

We are constantly on a stretch, if not on a strain, to devise new methods, new plans, new organizations to advance the church and secure enlargement and efficiency for the gospel. This trend of the day has a tendency to lose sight of the man or sink the man in the plan or organization. God’s plan is to make much of the man, far more of him than of anything else. Men are God’s method. The church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men…What the church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Spirit can use—men of prayer, mighty in prayer. The Holy Spirit does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men—men of prayer.[1]

· Do you think Bounds’ challenging critique of ministry in his day still has relevance today? Why or why not?

· Describe the circumstances surrounding the Antioch Church’s launching of Barnabas and Saul from this passage in Acts? What do you think the significance might be of this “sending” coming out of the context of corporate worship and devotion? What implications might this experience have for us as we seek God’s will for our own lives and ministries?

· As you read this passage thinking about how worship launches us in mission, is there anything you sense God calling you to be or do? Prayerfully commit yourself to whatever this sense of calling might be.

“Father, thank you for allowing us to know and worship you. Forgive us for times when we live as though you’re not even real. Shape us that our worship might become more and more the defining part of our story. In the mighty name of Jesus we pray, amen.”