Phil Boydell invites you to preview a brand new resource, The Alongsider Course.

Francis Schaeffer wrote: ‘There are no little people and no little places’ (No Little People, Crossway Books, 2003). When it comes to Jesus’ kingdom purposes, everyone matters and every place is significant (family, friendship groups, workplace, local church, neighbourhood).

When I first read that quote 20 years ago, it set a fire burning in my heart – a conviction that every believer is uniquely positioned in the world and gets to play a part in God’s purposes there.

Can I do this?

So often we disqualify ourselves from taking part in what God is doing in the world. It’s easy to list reasons: It’s for those standing up front on a Sunday… It’s for those who are good at evangelism… It’s for those ‘less sinful’ or ‘less complicated’ than me… Schaeffer’s point is that God is not looking for impressive qualifications, but for consecrated people – those who, on the basis of Christ’s finished work, are willing to be wholly available to God right where he has placed them.

It turns out that our one qualification for God to use us isn’t about our credentials at all, but about relying on HIS.

Jesus doesn’t discount any of us. Far from it! 1 Peter 2:9 says, ‘But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession’. We shine God’s light and love into our broken world in the most ordinary and unexpected of ways.

Ordinary relationships, unexpected influence

We display the beauty of God to the world in many ways – in how we work, rest, create … and, of course, how we love people. It is our conviction that a primary way we get to participate in God’s loving transformation of the world is through our everyday relationships. God uses these ordinary relationships be it with a friend, colleague or mother-in-law, for his purposes.

The problem is that most Christians don’t think this way about their relationships (whether with Christians or with those who don’t know Jesus). We can be passive in our relationships, unaware of their potential to profoundly influence and transform people into the likeness of Jesus.

Not what, but who

Think for a moment about how you came to faith and how your grew in your faith. Who played a part in that journey?

All of us who are Christians have been influenced by lots of different things (what we’ve read, heard, prayed, that place we went on mission or that conference we attended) but I can guarantee that in all of those stories there is a significant who, a person who played a key role in that journey.

Our passion through The Alongsider Course is to see thousands and thousands of believers across the UK join in with what God is doing in and through their everyday lives and relationships.

There are no little people in Jesus’ kingdom, no one that God isn’t able to use. Why? Because Jesus is the only qualification you need.