The Building Project That Has Never Stopped
- Bishop Brian M. Williams
There is a construction project underway that has been in progress for nearly two thousand years. It has survived emperors and dictators, plagues and persecutions, apathy and outright hostility. It has pushed through the walls of communist regimes and into the darkest prison cells on earth. No inspector has ever shut it down. No budget crisis has ever halted it. And according to the one who commissioned it, nothing from hell itself has the power to stop it.
Jesus made a declaration in Matthew 16 that is as bold today as it was the moment he spoke it. After Simon Peter confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus responded with a promise: he would build his church, and the gates of Hades would not prevail against it. That statement was not poetry. It was a blueprint. But here is what we sometimes miss. A blueprint implies a process. Buildings do not appear overnight. They are constructed layer by layer, material by material, with inspections along the way to ensure that what is going up is actually sound. And if we are honest, when we look at the church today, we can see that the project is still very much underway.
A Mission With a Deadline
The New Testament makes clear that two things must happen before Jesus returns. The gospel of the kingdom must be preached as a witness to all nations, and the bride of Christ must make herself ready. Both are happening simultaneously. Both require the active participation of God's people. What is remarkable about this moment in history is that for the first time, the completion of world evangelization is actually within reach. Advances in technology, transportation, and translation have opened doors that were sealed shut just a generation ago. Artificial intelligence is now being used to translate scripture into languages that previously had no written Bible, accomplishing in a single day what once took a decade. The Lord of the harvest is accelerating things. But the external mission is only half the story. Revelation 19 describes the bride of Christ making herself ready. That readiness is not just about reaching distant nations. It is about the character, holiness, and unity of every individual believer. The question worth sitting with is a personal one: are you ready to meet the Lord Jesus?
The Speed of Surrender
Perhaps one of the most arresting truths woven through scripture is this: the advancement of the kingdom of God moves at the pace of the surrender of God's people. God is sovereign, yes. He is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. Nothing catches him by surprise. But in a stunning act of humility, he has chosen to move through willing workers. He has entrusted the keys to his people. In Matthew 9, Jesus does not look at the harvest and simply will laborers into existence. He tells his disciples to pray that the Lord of the harvest would send forth laborers. The harvest does not wait on God. God, in a sense, waits on us. This is not a burden meant to crush. It is an invitation meant to ignite. Isaiah 6 captures this beautifully. After the prophet encounters the holiness of God, after the seraphim cry out their unending declaration and the temple fills with smoke, a question echoes through the throne room: who will go? God did not draft Isaiah. He asked. And Isaiah, undone by the weight of what he had witnessed, said here I am. That same question echoes today.
The War Against Distraction
The greatest threat to the building project is not persecution. History has proven that the church often grows fastest under pressure. The greatest threat is distraction. The cares of this life, the pursuit of comfort, the accumulation of things, the endless consumption of news and entertainment and opinion, these are the forces that pull laborers off the plow. The question worth asking is not whether God is doing something. He is always doing something. The question is whether we are paying attention. Are we aware of the person at work whose soul is quietly unraveling? Do we know the name of the neighbor who has not smiled in months? Are we praying for anyone by name who does not yet know Jesus? Paul writes in Romans 8 that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed. That eternal perspective is not meant to make us indifferent to present pain. It is meant to give us the endurance to keep going when the easier path presents itself. And the easier path always presents itself.
Strong Building Materials
In 1 Peter 2, verses 4 and 5, believers are described as living stones being built up together into a spiritual house. The quality of a building depends on the quality of its materials. God is not cutting corners on this construction. He is building with character. He is building with holiness. He is building with people who have said yes not just once at an altar, but daily in the quiet moments when no one is watching. Four qualities mark a believer who is strong building material. The first is being fully aligned with the mission of Christ. The second is being fully committed to the family of Christ. The third is being fully anointed by the Spirit of Christ, which means returning daily to the source, asking to be filled afresh rather than coasting on yesterday's encounter. The fourth is being fully surrendered to the will of God, releasing the grip on personal agendas and trusting that his plans are better than ours.
The Invitation
The building project is entering its final phase. The tools are available. The commission has been given. The Spirit has been poured out. The canon is closed. The sacrifice has been made. Everything heaven needed to do, it has done. What remains is the yes of God's people. Not a dramatic, stadium-filling yes, though that has its place. But the quiet, daily, costly yes of a teacher who sees seven students as world-changers. The yes of a parent who disciplines and disciples their children as an act of kingdom investment. The yes of a worker who carries the light of the gospel into a workplace full of darkness and does not dim it. The gates of hell will not prevail. That is the promise. But the gates will not fall on their own. They fall when the church, filled with the Spirit, moves forward in surrender. The question is not whether God is building. He is...The question is whether you are a willing stone.
Jesus made a declaration in Matthew 16 that is as bold today as it was the moment he spoke it. After Simon Peter confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus responded with a promise: he would build his church, and the gates of Hades would not prevail against it. That statement was not poetry. It was a blueprint. But here is what we sometimes miss. A blueprint implies a process. Buildings do not appear overnight. They are constructed layer by layer, material by material, with inspections along the way to ensure that what is going up is actually sound. And if we are honest, when we look at the church today, we can see that the project is still very much underway.
A Mission With a Deadline
The New Testament makes clear that two things must happen before Jesus returns. The gospel of the kingdom must be preached as a witness to all nations, and the bride of Christ must make herself ready. Both are happening simultaneously. Both require the active participation of God's people. What is remarkable about this moment in history is that for the first time, the completion of world evangelization is actually within reach. Advances in technology, transportation, and translation have opened doors that were sealed shut just a generation ago. Artificial intelligence is now being used to translate scripture into languages that previously had no written Bible, accomplishing in a single day what once took a decade. The Lord of the harvest is accelerating things. But the external mission is only half the story. Revelation 19 describes the bride of Christ making herself ready. That readiness is not just about reaching distant nations. It is about the character, holiness, and unity of every individual believer. The question worth sitting with is a personal one: are you ready to meet the Lord Jesus?
The Speed of Surrender
Perhaps one of the most arresting truths woven through scripture is this: the advancement of the kingdom of God moves at the pace of the surrender of God's people. God is sovereign, yes. He is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. Nothing catches him by surprise. But in a stunning act of humility, he has chosen to move through willing workers. He has entrusted the keys to his people. In Matthew 9, Jesus does not look at the harvest and simply will laborers into existence. He tells his disciples to pray that the Lord of the harvest would send forth laborers. The harvest does not wait on God. God, in a sense, waits on us. This is not a burden meant to crush. It is an invitation meant to ignite. Isaiah 6 captures this beautifully. After the prophet encounters the holiness of God, after the seraphim cry out their unending declaration and the temple fills with smoke, a question echoes through the throne room: who will go? God did not draft Isaiah. He asked. And Isaiah, undone by the weight of what he had witnessed, said here I am. That same question echoes today.
The War Against Distraction
The greatest threat to the building project is not persecution. History has proven that the church often grows fastest under pressure. The greatest threat is distraction. The cares of this life, the pursuit of comfort, the accumulation of things, the endless consumption of news and entertainment and opinion, these are the forces that pull laborers off the plow. The question worth asking is not whether God is doing something. He is always doing something. The question is whether we are paying attention. Are we aware of the person at work whose soul is quietly unraveling? Do we know the name of the neighbor who has not smiled in months? Are we praying for anyone by name who does not yet know Jesus? Paul writes in Romans 8 that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed. That eternal perspective is not meant to make us indifferent to present pain. It is meant to give us the endurance to keep going when the easier path presents itself. And the easier path always presents itself.
Strong Building Materials
In 1 Peter 2, verses 4 and 5, believers are described as living stones being built up together into a spiritual house. The quality of a building depends on the quality of its materials. God is not cutting corners on this construction. He is building with character. He is building with holiness. He is building with people who have said yes not just once at an altar, but daily in the quiet moments when no one is watching. Four qualities mark a believer who is strong building material. The first is being fully aligned with the mission of Christ. The second is being fully committed to the family of Christ. The third is being fully anointed by the Spirit of Christ, which means returning daily to the source, asking to be filled afresh rather than coasting on yesterday's encounter. The fourth is being fully surrendered to the will of God, releasing the grip on personal agendas and trusting that his plans are better than ours.
The Invitation
The building project is entering its final phase. The tools are available. The commission has been given. The Spirit has been poured out. The canon is closed. The sacrifice has been made. Everything heaven needed to do, it has done. What remains is the yes of God's people. Not a dramatic, stadium-filling yes, though that has its place. But the quiet, daily, costly yes of a teacher who sees seven students as world-changers. The yes of a parent who disciplines and disciples their children as an act of kingdom investment. The yes of a worker who carries the light of the gospel into a workplace full of darkness and does not dim it. The gates of hell will not prevail. That is the promise. But the gates will not fall on their own. They fall when the church, filled with the Spirit, moves forward in surrender. The question is not whether God is building. He is...The question is whether you are a willing stone.