Here’s my thought… We spend a lot of time these days “doing” church, at the expense of “being” the church. At the end of the Gospel of Matthew, the Great Commission is recorded, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

The discples had a dilema on their hands as they tried to figure out what had just happened, the guy that they thought was the coming messiah just got crucified. The plan was not going well, even though they had been sufficiently prepared for the task in front of them. Then, He showed up! How freaked out they must have been, and when the freaking was over He commanded them to “go.” Unfortunately, the English translations don’t really do this word justice; in Greek, the word is used in a tense that would more closely resemble “while you go” or “when you go.”

They had spent the last few days “gathered” in a panic, now they’d been given the command to “scatter” by the One who’d died and came back to life. They now not only had the preparation, but they also had the “authority” and promise, “And behold, I am (think God’s name to Moses at the bush) with you always, to the end of the age.”

How about you, do you scatter or gather?