I remember when I first heard the concept of a “person of peace.” The concept is based on the account of Jesus sending out the disciples two by two to minister in the surrounding communities recorded in Matthew 10, Luke 9, and Luke 10. As He sent them, He gave certain instructions about what they were to do, what they should pack, and how they were to respond based upon a person’s reception. Specifically, in Luke 10: 5-7 Jesus instructs them:
“When you enter a house offer peace. If a Person of Peace is present, your peace will rest on him. Stay in theat house, eat and drink what is put before you, and do not move around from house to house.”
I wasn’t sold on the concept because I thought that it was too much system for so little scripture. Entire techniques have been developed around this passage. How to find people of peace, what their characteristics are, how to engage and develop them, etc. In a way, we become “scouts,” for the Kingdom. But is this right? As Ross Rhode states in Viral Jesus: Recovering the contagious power of the Gospel (p. 45). Strang Communications. Kindle Edition.
“If Jesus could do only what He saw the Father doing, we can do no more or less. This process of talking to only the person of peace and his household—a person God will indicate—or doing only what we see the Father doing is a supernatural process, not a natural human one. Therefore, evangelism done biblically is not a matter of randomly preaching on our own initiative to anyone who will listen. It is God setting up the circumstances for preaching, Peter (Acts 2–3). Or it is God setting up the circumstances for us to meet the person of peace, as He did when Paul met the Philippian jailer (Acts 16).”
Ross is right, it is not for us to determine who this person of peace is, but only to identify whom God has already chosen. As a missionary on the field or even short-term missionaries, we tend to get over zealous in identifying these people of peace, crowning and anointing them as such, and then developing our desires without taking a reflective and discerning pause. We rush into church planting or even disciple making “through” this person of peace. We tend to put all our eggs in one basket. When we’ve come to the understanding that any sort of manipulation in evangelism is wrong and leave those practices behind, the church often substitutes those practices for manipulating the person of peace. I’ve seen and experienced what can happen when our desire to discover a person of peace is swapped out for a self determined declaration of who that person of peace will be. We want to be credited for “starting a work.”
I have one issue with Ross’s statement above, is that the parable of the sower would seem to indicate that it’s fine to “randomly” preach (scatter) on our own initiative with God’s directive Mark 16:15 and with the Spirit’s guidance. John 16:13
Finally in this first part of the series of the Person of Peace, I’d like to address the issue of haste. I’ll admit that I am just as eager to see entire communities come to Christ. I always have great anticipation when going into a new region, especially where Christ is not known or the people are held captive in some other Kingdom. I want to find a person who can be a liaison, go-between, connector, or person of peace. But, if my desire is to do this first, principally, or hurriedly, then I’ve lost my way. The only way to avoid hastiness in discovering this person of peace, is to make disciples like Jesus told us too, which is often slow and messy, and wait patiently. As much as I or a short-term missions initiative would like to establish a person peace before we depart, it often does not happen on our time schedule. In part II of this series, my goal is to discuss “Electronic People of Peace,” or “Looking for people of peace in virtual communities.” For now, a few questions:
1. Have we made entirely too much of this doctrine? Why or why not?
2. Should we seek to make many persons of peace and let the Lord sort them out, or is that counter productive?
3. We stumble on these people of peace by going out and announcing the Gospel of the Kingdom. Shouldn’t that be our primary concern?
Missionary in the Andes Mountains Cloud Forest Region of Ecuador. My last name, "Labrador," is the word that's used for "Vine Worker" in the Spanish Bible, and it's OK with me. 
Eli on The Problem of a Missional Prophet
Peter on The Problem of a Missional Prophet
Abrown on The Problem of a Missional Prophet
This is a wonderfully thought-provoking post, and rather convicting as well. I won’t answer the 3 posed questions for now, because that will take quite a bit more reflection and soul-searching. However, I would like to offer this tidbit from experience.
Very specifically, where we cross-cultural ministers are concerned, when we enter into a new community, or any community, bearing smiles, enthusiasm, gifts and whatnot, it doesn’t take a lot of effort to receive smiles, enthusiasm, and peaceful welcomes into the community. We often view these folks as “persons of peace” simply because they are at joy and peace to receive us vs. reflecting signs of animosity. But perhaps it’s a bit ‘hasty’ to make such a rapid determination, and here is why. A true person of peace is not only peaceful and welcoming with his/her guests and visitors, but also peace-spirited/centered with his family and neighbors/community as well. Many times we are unable to see the depth into how one relates within his community and family, because we are taking a superficial glance. We may be there for a day or a week. Unless something profound occurs that gives us deeper insight, discerning a person of peace among his community takes some time–much more time than a couple of superficial visits–and by superficial I do not mean disingenuous. I mean it in the sense that we are barely scratching the relational surface.
Not long ago we entered a community, and hastily concluded that a person/family household was peaceful. Why? Because they so lovingly received us. We then visited them again with a group that became quite enthused to advance things for this community via these persons of peace. We found in time that they were indeed very peaceful towards us, but not so interested in being engaged in their community with regards to Christian fellowship. In fact, when it came to fellowship on deeper, relational levels, we were met with an enormous spirit of the family becoming distracted in any and all ways. That said, it took a bit of time to cut through the superficial, and unfortunately we made some mistakes that were directly associated to our lack of discernment which caused more damage than good, for a time. We are hopeful that now being in the process of meeting with other families and continuing to minister to the initial family in various ways that there will be advancement in healing any damage, and that we can move forward in making lasting community connections among local brethren there, and equip the Body of Christ for healthy growth.
I certainly like to report the wonderful things that go on in our ministry efforts here. It isn’t so fun to report on the failures. But thankfully the Lord is quite a redemptor and full of grace, which while painful and humbling, gives us a bit of wiggle room to make mistakes, be real in front of brothers, repent and come together as One Body, and move forward to His glory.
Thanks Miguel for you kind mention of my book. I would tend to agree with you that we’ve made a technique out of the “person of peace” in Luke 10:6 and Matt. 10:11where this type of person is called a “worthy person.” The power is not in the technique, it is in following Jesus into the harvest. Jesus has the power, not the technique or system. We follow what He is already doing, not go out an make something happen.
I would say two things. While the idea of a person of peace is specifically mentioned only twice in the Gospels we see the pattern throughout the New Testament: the woman at the well, Cornelius, the jailer at Philippi are three examples that come to mind, but there are more. I think the issue isn’t trying to “make the man of peace “technique” or pattern work; we can’t. It is in recognizing that human society is not really just a set of autonomous individuals. We are socially connected to affinity groups and not just one. We are members of many groups and these individuals have their own sets of groups. These groups whether they are families, bowling teams, work mates, or groups friends at school are the highway for the gospel.
Our tendency in Western Christianity has been to “convert” someone ( a word I personally despise), then pull them out of their social network and place them in a new one called a church (by which we mean a congregation). This stops the flow of the Gospel dead in its tracks. Jesus’ genius in Matt, 10,Mark 6, Luke 9, and Luke 10 was to give us a pattern which allowed the Kingdom to flow into interrelated and interconnected affinity groups (called households in the New Testament). Jesus’ pattern (not a technique) doesn’t truncate the flow of the Gospel into society but rather recognizes that all human societies are built around interlocking affinity groups “households” and these can become a natural highway for the flow of the Gospel. The man of peace is just the “door opener” to these affinity groups.
I also think we tend to dichotomize when we should integrate. We shouldn’t think of mass evangelism (or even individual evangelism) vs. man of peace. I suspect that what was really going on in the New Testament was that as a general pattern they “healed the sick, raised the dead, cast out demons and healed lepers (see Matt. 10:8). This gave them opportunity to preach the gospel of the Kingdom, which was casting seed rather widely. Not that Jesus was so strict to his pattern that he didn’t use it when he was talking to only one person (the woman at the well in Jn. 4). But, in my opinion, when a few responded, Jesus and the apostles treated these people as “people of peace” and allowed them to open doors to a whole networks of people through allowing them to introduce the gospel to their household/ affinity groups. So it is not person of peace vs. casting the seed of the Gospel widely, it is how to they work together so that the Gospel can flow naturally in human society based on how societies naturally work.
Most importantly, in my opinion, is to understand that when we share Jesus and make new disciples we are not just sharing with an autonomous individual. That person most likely has intimate contacts and Jesus can use these natural relationships to guide us not merely to that individual but their ever widening network of relationships. I think that’s what we need to learn from the concept of “people of peace.” Not that it is a one size fits all technique but rather that it is an ingenious insight of Jesus on how societies work and how that becomes an ongoing highway for the Gospel instead of a one time event of preaching to an individual.
Thanks, Ross, for the input. I fully agree.
I have nothing to defend because I have no ego invested in the “person of peace” approach. I see, like you, that Jesus commanded his disciples to go into new communities, look for the man/household of peace, bless them, and see if God’s blessing resided on them – and if so, that would become the foothold for the Kingdom of God in that community because they naturally would draw people into the Kingdom as they expressed enthusiasm for what God had done. I also see that Peter and Paul continued use this approach. Often that person/household is not a Christian, but they quick come to Jesus when He blesses them. I never “label” them or even tell them they have some special role. I just encourage and lay a foundation among them for a fellowship to emerge.
This has borne much fruit in my own work going into various subcultures in my area. I can only speak to what I have seen and the fruit it has borne. But certainly, I would never tout it as the only or exclusive way that the Lord can send us.
1. Have we made entirely too much of this doctrine? Why or why not?
I don’t think so. That’s because, as you said, we tend to approach things programmatically and rely on our own strategies. We need to follow God’s leading more and rely on him.
2. Should we seek to make many persons of peace and let the Lord sort them out, or is that counter productive?
This question misses the point of following God. I think we’re commanded to sow and then let the Lord show us the persons of peace. I can’t tell the Lord how many persons of peace to show me. Whoever he leads me to, he will provide the means for discipling them.
3. We stumble on these people of peace by going out and announcing the Gospel of the Kingdom. Shouldn’t that be our primary concern?
My concern/responsibility is to share the Gospel when I can. Right now, in my phase of life, I’m working hard to be a friend to sinners, like Jesus was. My first priority isn’t to give them a gospel presentation but to be the Gospel to them. A coworker of mine calls it the cotton candy effect. You swirl or circulate the tube of paper around the tub and the spun sugar collects and grows. You have to do two things — “circulate” among people and, whatever you do, don’t forget the sugar, meaning be sweet to people. Leave a good taste in their mouth.
As I read these comments I realized that our ministry was clearly functioning on the “person of peace” principle. We offer retreats where folks come for deliverance ministry. For the last five years, we have filled retreats primarily by “word of mouth.” People who have come and had a profound experience, went home and shared the “good news” with others. We have several “streams” of people coming as a result of people who are people connectors. Over the years, we have seen less than 1% come as a result of randomly finding us on the internet. So our ministry is completely dependent upon the person of peace and their friends and families.
This “person of peace” is not just a tool of evangelizing the pre
Christian but also to reach the unbelieving believer.