You might be surprised, even shocked, at how many Christian folk don’t know what the real mission of the Church is. It’s not complicated, even though when you view the workings of today’s Church, one can see how confusion about the “mission” can exist.
The Church’s one single mission, the prime directive... is the one that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are on: to redeem a lost world, to save sinners and transform them into saints. So, who is responsible for carrying out this God-ordained mission?
We are. ALL Christians. You and I may have different roles to play in this mission, and while it’s God’s mission, not ours, it is our responsibility to carry the subject matter of the mission to the four corners of the earth. The strategic mission belongs to God, the tactical execution of the mission belongs to His followers. Jesus says this most clearly to his disciples in Matthew 28:19-20 where He says... “Go into the world, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And teaching them to obey everything that I’ve taught you.”
Everyone in God’s Church [believers, the body of Christ is the Church] is to be involved in His mission. There are no bystander or bleacher positions. Everyone rolls up their sleeves and wades into God’s mission, doing what they can, everything they can to accomplish His objective –– to seek and save the lost, the unsaved. What we are to be doing is not of our making, not of our origin. We are simply the workers in a constant and urgent global harvest of humanity that began at Pentecost, that never slows or stops, not until God calls it finished. Okay, we get that right? So, like most things man touches, even Godly things, there might be a problem with our attention to his mission. Ah yes, there is.
Contemporary missions have become the fad of the few. Matthew 28 declares the primary mission of the church, but it is hardly recognized as such today. Of course, significant efforts have been made to take the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth by churches, missions groups, societies, and individuals; but if we were to count all those involved in any phase of missions, the involved percentage as compared to so-called Christians would be dismally small.
The results of the fad-of-the-few-mentality have been disastrous. Two misconceptions have been most damaging. First, missions is perceived as a super special assignment for extraordinary people. Nothing could be further from truth and certainly God’s purpose. The Bible teaches that God’s method is to use the foolish, the weak, and the despised persons of the world to bring glory to Him (1 Cor. 1:26-31). Seeking the lost –– preaching and teaching the gospel by ordinary people brings great glory to God. God’s purpose is to be accomplished by ordinary people who believe in and place their trust and confidence in an extraordinary God.
Paul has been upheld as the ideal missionary for so long that many fail to realize that the spread of the gospel in the first century was accomplished primarily by people like Barnabas, Silas, Mark, Aquila, Epaphroditus, and a host of other exceedingly ordinary Christians along with Paul. Paul was just one guy. Don’t misunderstand me, he did remarkable things in his mission tours, but while he was dong the one-man thing, many many others, hundreds, probably thousands were preaching and teaching in other places. God intends to use everyone - the Marks and the Epaphrodituses, as well as the Pauls, to accomplish His mission.
If we are to carry out God’s mission during our lifetime, we must erase from our minds the idea that only unusually gifted or theologically educated persons are qualified to preach, teach and be missionaries. Such thinking discourages one from identifying himself with missions unless he thinks he has an extraordinary gift and some “special” calling. This kind of thinking places a halo over the missionary’s head, making it impossible for him or her to measure up to the ideal. A second misconception fostered by the fad-of-the-few mentality is that world missions can be done by proxy. A third misconception... don’t wait for “the call” to serve. If you “wait” you’ll never get the call. God already issued a universal “call” in Matthew 28 for everyone who calls themselves a follower, a Christian, to get busy using your talents, whatever they may be, to help advance His mission. Clear enough?
More on the second and maybe the most debilitating misconceptions... far to many Christians think missionaries are their substitutes in world evangelization. the missionary is a stand-in, so they don’t have to actively participate. They feel satisfied to pray for missionaries, to support them financially, and to encourage them. All these things should be done, but doing them does not relieve each Christian of his responsibility to be involved directly in God’s mission.
Missions by proxy is the standard operating procedure in most of today’s churches. Some leave missions to a woman’s ministry group or a missions committee who make decisions and choices about which missions to support and what activities to be involved in. These efforts are often driven more by the necessity to promote planned church events and mission weekends than focusing on God’s purpose - evangelism of the gospel. Remember this well - there are only two kinds of Christians in the eyes of God: Christian Missionaries - those who go and serve and Missionary Christians - those who send and support with active involvement. No one can escape their individual responsibility to The Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) which is a key centerpiece in our acceptance of the cleansing blood of Jesus. It is a New Testament command to us from our Lord. He wants all people to hear the gospel and be saved. We are His agents, the only resource He uses for this noble endeavor. No one is more special than another, we’re all in His mission together.
Many Christians interpret their giving as paying their part of mission with gifts and thereby discharging their obligations to evangelize [speak out] the world. Missionaries, mission agencies, and mission boards are practical expressions of concern by Christians and local churches, but these alone cannot fulfill the obligation God has given to every Christian and to every congregation. Not everyone can be a missionary, but everyone must be on mission with God.
The Church is commissioned by God to look after His mission and cooperates with Him to send missionaries, full-time preachers, teachers and often those who will venture to foreign lands. These missionaries are all-in, totally committed and therefore set apart by the Holy Spirit and that clear commitment is recognized by a local congregation. These are ones who willingly cross natural and cultural barriers to carry the gospel to the hard of heart and yet unreached peoples. I amplify these distinctions because missions are always in danger of becoming the expression of man’s efforts. God’s mission places His Church (Christians) at the center of the world’s conflicts, and people’s pains and sufferings.
Missions can become identified easily with the culture of the sender or be seduced by elements of the culture in which it is being expressed. People of other cultures quickly point out the inconsistent failures of western civilization. They react to a perceived superiority complex by resisting the efforts of western missionaries.
In spite of that reaction, many naive westerners believe that if modern business techniques and advertising methods were practiced, other nations and peoples groups would flock to Christ. It might be possible to franchise hamburgers, mufflers and theme parks, but a westernized packaging of the gospel is often unpalatable to people of other nations. God’s mission, His eternal purpose, the preaching of the gospel, is a one-to-one, one-to-many endeavor that depends on the Holy Spirit to assist “you and me” in bringing forth God’s purpose to someone, somewhere.
God has purposefully limited Himself in our present time so as to save man by involving all of us, inefficient as we are, in His mission. Our mission is not rocket science... it is simply to seek and save the lost found in every generation since Pentecost. We know from Scripture that the Bible infuses a strong sense of urgency about the second coming of Christ. That urgency was sensed by the writers of the New Testament and born out in their words admonishing all to be vigilant, ready and most certainly to be about the Lord’s business of declaring far and wide.... the life saving gospel of salvation.
God’s mission will be accomplished when Christ delivers the kingdom to the Father, fully complete. Meanwhile, he is giving his people every chance to be partners with Him in establishing the kingdom and in preparing to serve Him for eternity.
What have you done for the Kingdom lately?
