The Biblical Foundation
Four people. One pattern. The church God always intended.
Activation. Multiplication. Formation. Stewardship. A pattern that runs through Scripture, through the lives of four people it never lets us forget.
Activation. Multiplication. Formation. Stewardship. A pattern that runs through Scripture, through the lives of four people it never lets us forget.
Look beneath the stories and God returns to one pattern again and again. He reveals the capacity. He turns it outward. He examines the foundation beneath it. He multiplies it through wise stewardship.
That pattern runs through the household of Martha, the impulse of Andrew, the warning of Saul, and the reign of Solomon. Four people, one integrated picture of a church fully alive. Unseen Church is built on that sequence.
Luke 10:38-42
John 11:27
Matthew 25:14-30
Martha opened her home to Jesus and got to work: the meal, the house, everything done well. When she asked why Mary wasn't helping, Jesus did redirect her, and Mary's better portion stands. But He never dismissed Martha's gifts. He named what was missing beneath them.
"Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed, or indeed only one."
Luke 10:41-42Later, in John 11, it is Martha who runs to meet Jesus and makes one of the clearest confessions of faith in the gospel. Formed and grounded, she became a woman of action who was also a woman of confession.
There is a quieter effect, too. When capacity is surfaced and shared instead of carried by a faithful few, the Marthas stop drowning, and finally have room to sit at His feet themselves. Activation done right makes room for formation.
Martha opened her home to Jesus. That detail alone tells you something about her: she was a woman of initiative, hospitality, and action. When the Lord arrived in Bethany, Martha was managing the meal, coordinating the house, making sure everything was done well.
Meanwhile, her sister Mary sat at Jesus' feet and listened. Martha came to Jesus, frustrated: "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself?" Jesus did redirect her. Mary had chosen the better portion, and that stands. We are not diluting that. But read it closely: He does not dismiss Martha or the gifts she carries. Her capacity was never the problem. Capacity carried alone, without formation underneath it, was.
"I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world."
John 11:27The same principle runs through the Parable of the Talents: what God entrusts is meant to be invested, not buried out of fear. Martha's gifts are exactly the kind the church is meant to surface and steward.
Your congregation is full of Marthas: gifted, willing people who are either worn out from carrying too much alone, or overlooked because no one has asked what they carry. The capacity God has placed in your people is already there. It just hasn't been seen.
John 1:35-42
John 6:8-9
John 12:20-22
Andrew is almost never the center of the story, but he is almost always the reason the story happens.
"The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, 'We have found the Messiah.'"
John 1:41Simon Peter, who would preach at Pentecost and lead the early church, came to Jesus because Andrew made one invitation.
Andrew appears again in John 6, when Jesus is about to feed five thousand people and the disciples don't know how. It is Andrew who finds the boy with five loaves and two fish and brings him forward. "but how far will they go among so many?" He found the resource. He made the introduction. He created the moment, even when he couldn't see how it would work.
He brought him to Jesus. Simon Peter, the man who would preach at Pentecost, lead the early church, and ultimately give his life for the gospel, came to Jesus because Andrew made one invitation. That is one of the most consequential invitations in Scripture.
In John 12, when Greeks come seeking Jesus, they come first to Philip. Philip goes to Andrew. Andrew and Philip bring them to Jesus together. Andrew's entire ministry is a pattern of connection: see someone, make an introduction, trust the result to Jesus.
Your people already know people who are spiritually open. What is missing is confidence, clarity, and a simple path. Andrew said, "We found Him. Come and see." The Andrew Project surfaces who in your congregation is ready to invite, and clears the way between intention and action.
1 Samuel 15:22
Psalm 51:10
Matthew 7:24
Saul was chosen by God, anointed by Samuel, and celebrated by the people. From the outside, everything looked like devotion. Commanded by God in 1 Samuel 15, he obeyed partially, then called it worship.
"Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice."
1 Samuel 15:22And Scripture gives us a second Saul: Saul of Tarsus, who breathed threats against the church until Christ met him on the Damascus road, and he became Paul. One name, two seasons. People drift toward performance, and they get called back to surrender. Formation is the journey between the two, and it is the Spirit who does that forming. The work here only helps a church see it and make room for it.
Saul was the first king of Israel. He had proximity to God. He knew the language of worship. He offered sacrifices and led armies in God's name. In 1 Samuel 15, God commanded Saul to completely destroy the Amalekites. Saul obeyed, partially. He spared the best livestock and the enemy king. When confronted by Samuel, Saul insisted he had kept the animals to sacrifice to the Lord.
Saul was performing religion. He was managing appearances. He was spiritually present but not surrendered. And because the foundation was compromised, everything built on top of it eventually collapsed.
The contrast is David, who failed more visibly than Saul, but whose prayer in Psalm 51 reveals something Saul never had: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." David returned. Saul performed. Jesus echoes this warning in Matthew 7:24: the difference between the man who builds on rock and the man who builds on sand is what lies beneath.
Once your people are activated and inviting, the next question is the deepest one: what is the foundation beneath all that movement? The Saul Project is named for the whole arc, the warning and the turn back toward surrender. It offers an honest examination, framed as what your people choose to show you, and surfaces what attendance numbers never can.
1 Kings 3:5-14
Matthew 25:21
2 Corinthians 9:6-7
Ephesians 4:12
Offered anything at Gibeon, Solomon asked for wisdom: a discerning heart to govern God's people. Then he built something that would outlast him.
"Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, I will give you a wise and discerning heart, such as no one before you has ever had."
1 Kings 3:11-12But honesty requires the rest of the story. The wisest man who ever lived drifted until, 1 Kings tells us, his heart turned away, and what he built fractured within a generation. Capacity without ongoing surrender does not last, not even for the wisest. Stewardship has to stay tethered to formation. A Solomon needs a Saul.
When Solomon became king, God appeared to him at Gibeon and made an extraordinary offer: "Ask for whatever you want me to give you." Solomon didn't ask for wealth or the defeat of his enemies. He asked for wisdom: a discerning heart to govern God's people and to distinguish right from wrong.
Then God gave him the wealth and honor anyway. Solomon went on to build the Temple, the most significant construction project in Israel's history. He organized tens of thousands of laborers, stonecutters, and overseers. He deployed resources strategically and built something that would serve generations he would never meet.
The New Testament echoes this in three strands. Jesus in Matthew 25 commends the servant who multiplied what was entrusted: "Well done, good and faithful servant." Paul in 2 Corinthians 9 frames generosity as intentional sowing. And Ephesians 4:12 names the goal plainly: equip God's people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up.
Solomon is about the wise deployment of what has been entrusted, whether money, leadership, expertise, networks, or influence, for something that builds the body and outlasts the individual.
The full warning: Solomon accumulated wealth, alliances, and wives against God's clear instruction. That is the sober warning folded inside the gift.
Every congregation has high-capacity leaders: executives, entrepreneurs, strategists, and major donors whose wisdom and networks are rarely woven into the church's mission. The Solomon Project develops them as stewards, built for the leader who already knows they carry more than they've been asked to give.
Together they form a complete theology of activation. Martha reveals. Andrew turns it outward. Saul examines the foundation. Solomon builds what lasts.
Reveals what God has already placed in your people, and insists it cannot remain buried.
Turns capacity outward. Every congregation has Andrews, ready to be asked. One invitation changes everything.
Asks the question no one else will ask. Without honest formation, everything built on top of it is sand. Activity without surrender eventually collapses.
Ensures what is built, lasts. Wise stewardship that builds the body for generations.
Your church is already full of what God placed there. Fifteen minutes to talk about where to begin.
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