The NEW Church

The NEW Church three in the extremes of His spiritual journey. At the Mount of transfiguration (see Matthew 17:1-3), the three saw Jesus in His glory—His true identity was revealed. At the raising for Jairus’s daughter (see Mark 5:22-42), the three witnessed Jesus’ unique giftedness—He has power over death. And in the Garden of Gethsemene (see Mark 14:32-36), the three saw Jesus in His grieving—struggling to keep the Father’s will as His own primary focus. At each of these times, Jesus specifically called these three out of the 12 and instructed the other nine to stay behind. He made it clear that He was pouring special time and training into Peter, James and John.

In our ministry, we too will be most effective if we pour ourselves into others in this selective and intentional way. By focusing our nurture on only a few, we can create a deep bond with them and invite them into our moments of glory, giftedness and grieving.

Jesus understood that you cannot pour yourself fully into more than a few people. He didn’t see anything wrong with playing favourites. In fact, He seems to have seen it as a necessity. Why He chose Peter, James and John we can only guess. But one thing is certain—Jesus had a core group of three He nurtured in a special way.

I would challenge you to develop a nurture group of just a few people.

Once, after presenting this picture of Jesus’ ministry to a multi-denominational group of church leaders, a Lutheran elder 12