This week, Silverdale Baptist Church is holding their annual missions conference. As I walked into work this morning, I looked at the tables of all the ministries represented there, and this caught my eye.

It’s from The Encounter Church in New York where Chad and Megan Wade minister. New York City is one of the most unreached cities in the world; less than 2% of the population claim to be believers in Christ.

This is a picture of what the Wades did when they left Chattanooga to move to New York. It’s what my friends Kevin and Kristi Cabe did when they left Knoxville, TN, and moved to Brooklyn. It’s what a group of my classmates in Wake Forest, NC, did when they left friends and family below the Mason-Dixon Line and moved to Boston to be a Light in a dark city.

Taking the Gospel to a lost world doesn’t mean you have to move to Africa or Asia. It could be mean moving to Chicago. Or Detroit. Or San Francisco.

Or staying right where you are and committing to live your life as a missionary in your Southern suburban setting, destroying the lie of religion with the grace of a relationship with Christ.

You can reach any unreached people group in the world w/o leaving America. Go to the big cities. Stay where you are. But obey they command “Make disciples.”

Instead of asking, “Why should we go?” maybe we should ask ourselves, “Why do we stay in our nice Southern towns with churches on every corner?” If the answer isn’t “Because I am making disciples and helping others do the same,” then maybe we should adjust the focus of our lives where we are right now. Maybe we should be the ones who go to be the light in the darkness.

Maybe we need to make sure we are being the Light right where God has us now.

That’s my challenge for myself right now. Is my life making a difference right where I am? Does God want me sharing the Light somewhere else? Short term? Long term?

Am I making disciples? Are you?