Jesus did not just rescue people. He carried them somewhere.
This is both the challenge and burden many church leaders are feeling right now. As Jesus unpacks the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10, He is not giving us a sentimental lesson about kindness. He is handing us a framework for mission. The Samaritan stopped. He bandaged. He lifted. He carried. He journeyed. He sacrificed. He loved unconditionally. Then he partnered with the innkeeper so the healing and restoration could continue.1
That is not random compassion. That is a discipleship strategy.
Too much of the modern church has become skilled at moments but weak in movement. We know how to create a response. We know how to generate a hand raise. We know how to stir a room. But the real question is this: who are we carrying, and who are we collaborating with, to get people all the way from resolving their pain to fulfilling their purpose?
The priest and the Levite saw a problem. The Samaritan saw a person. Then he did something costly. He got involved. He inconvenienced himself. He gave up his own ride. And he refused to confuse first aid with full restoration. There is a vast cost differentiation between the two.
The Call of the Church in this Hour
We are not just called to reach people. We are called to carry them.
And we are not called to carry them alone.
The danger for many churches is that we celebrate rescue while neglecting formation. We rejoice when someone gets up out of the ditch, but then we leave them standing on the roadside with a wound still open and no map for what comes next and call it a win. Mercy gets them breathing again. Discipleship teaches them how to walk again.
Jesus never commissioned us to make impressed attenders. He commissioned us to make disciples.2 That means our job is not finished when someone responds to an altar call, visits a service, watches a sermon clip, raises a hand in a room, or even attends a small group and completes our Next Steps Class. Those moments matter. They are sacred. But they are beginnings, not endings.
This is where the church must recover the courage to become carriers.
Carriers do not just care emotionally. They build practically. They make room in their rhythms, their systems, their staffing, and their priorities to move people forward. The not building something, but someone. They think beyond Sunday. They think beyond decisions. They think beyond counting heads. They ask better questions.
Who is still on the donkey?
Who is still in process?
Who is making sure the wounded do not just meet Jesus, but learn the way of Jesus?
That is where the donkey in the story becomes so important. The Samaritan had compassion, yes. But he also had capacity. He had a way to carry the man. Compassion without a pathway quickly becomes exhaustion. Love without structure eventually becomes frustration.
Fortunately, many leaders today are waking up to this reality. Research shows churches are increasingly committed to hybrid ministry, with most continuing to use digital tools, livestreaming, and church technology as part of their long-term ministry strategy, but coupling those with real-life, skin-on-skin engagement.3 Leaders are also showing growing interest in using AI and digital tools to support communications, administration, research, and outreach.4 Why does that matter? Because these are not just efficiency conversations. They are discipleship conversations that assist in reaching people right where they are at.
Assessing our Donkey
The question is not whether we have tools. The question is whether our tools are helping us carry people.
A healthy church understands that every ministry system should answer one central question: Does this help move people from encounter to formation?
Small groups should not just fill a calendar. They should help carry people.
Volunteer teams should not just plug holes. They should help carry people.
Pastoral follow-up should not just gather data. It should help carry people.
Digital engagement should not just create impressions. It should help carry people.
The strongest churches in the future will not be the ones with the most polished rooms. They will be the ones with the clearest pathways. They will know how to help someone move from curiosity to community, from conversion to transformation, from attendance to assignment.
And this is where collaborators matter.
The Samaritan did not do everything himself. He brought the wounded man to the innkeeper and said, in essence, keep helping him heal. That is leadership maturity. He did not confuse personal compassion with personal control. He understood partnership.
Great ministry leaders know this. The goal is not to be the hero in every story. The goal is to build a culture where healing can continue after your moment of intervention is over. That means pastors, team leaders, small group leaders, volunteers, digital responders, and staff members must all see themselves as part of the same carrying ministry.
Some plant. Some water. God gives the increase. 5
That is collaboration.
Collaborative Churches are Healthy Churches
And let me say it plainly. Churches that refuse to collaborate usually default to one of two unhealthy extremes. Either they become event-heavy and shallow, or they become pastor-dependent and fragile. Neither is sustainable. Neither is biblical. Neither creates mature disciples.
We need carriers who know how to lift. And we need collaborators who know how to continue the work.
That is the future.
Not a church that merely gathers crowds, but a church that carries people.
Not a church that measures applause, but a church that measures formation.
Not a church that stops at oil and wine, but a church that strengthens the donkey and remodels the inn.
This is especially urgent in a culture full of people who look functional on the outside and fractured on the inside. The wounds are not always visible now. Many people are not lying on the roadside. They are sitting in boardrooms, classrooms, coffee shops, and church rows, bleeding internally. Some are spiritually curious but relationally cautious. Some will engage digitally before they ever engage physically. Some need multiple touchpoints before they trust the church enough to walk through the door.6
That should not discourage us. It should disciple us.
It should force us to build differently.
It should move us from asking, “How do we get them here?” to asking, “How do we walk with them from here?”
Worthy Reflections
So let me leave pastors and leaders with three questions.
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First, who are you carrying right now? Not your crowd. Not your audience. Name the person. Name the couple. Name the young leader. Name the new believer. Name the wounded family. Somebody in your world should be on your personal donkey.
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Second, what is your donkey? What real pathway exists in your church to move people from first touch to full formation? If all you have is inspiration without infrastructure, your compassion will outrun your capacity.
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Third, how healthy is your inn? If the Samaritan dropped someone at your church this Sunday, would they be welcomed, healed, discipled, and eventually sent?
Those are not small questions. They are defining questions.
The Church does not need less compassion. It needs more carried compassion.
It does not need less vision. It needs more collaborative vision.
And it does not need leaders who are merely moved by the broken. It needs leaders who are willing to stop, lift, carry, pay, partner, and return.
That is how revival gets traction.
That is how evangelism becomes discipleship.
That is how mercy becomes movement.
The road is still dangerous. The ditches are still full. But the Spirit of Jesus is still moving people off the side of the road and into wholeness.
Let us not just admire the Samaritan.
Let us become carriers.
And let us build churches full of collaborators.
To order my new book, click here: “The Road We Must Travel Again” . Or visit my website at, www.marcestes.com.
Endnotes
[1] Luke 10:25–37. See also your working draft on carriers and collaborators for the central framework of the Samaritan, the donkey, and the innkeeper.
[2] Matthew 28:19–20.
[3] The 2024 State of Church Technology report found that 90 percent of churches reported offering a hybrid model of ministry, and leaders showed continued commitment to livestreaming and digital tools.
[4] The 2024 State of AI in the Church survey reported that 87 percent of respondents were for some degree of AI use in ministry, and 66 percent were already using AI tools at least occasionally.
[5] 1 Corinthians 3:6–9.
[6] Your manuscript argues that today’s spiritual openness often begins with a digital touchpoint and requires a longer runway of trust before embodied community. See The New Roman Road, especially the introduction and early chapters on digital roads, formation, and the local church as the “inn.”