Getting Back "On Mission"
Author: Tim Birdwell, Student/DTS
"Missional Church" is definitely a buzz-phrase that is all over the place these days. The fact that we need to label a church, "missional", has always been a little odd to me. I mean, shouldn't all churches be missional in their very nature? Shouldn't a church, at it's very core, desire to engage their culture and community with the gospel as a missionary would in a foreign country? Isn't that what the church is commanded to do in the great commission in Matthew 28:19?
As believers, we are not called to isolation, but to be missional people who are actively going out and meeting people right where they are with the gospel. We have seen this throughout history: God sends Abraham on a mission to leave his country and his people and go to the land that God would show him (Gen. 12:1), God sends Moses on a mission to rescue an enslaved people and lead them to freedom (Exodus 3:8-10), God sends Jesus on a mission to earth to reconcile all things to Himself through the cross (Colossians 1:20). And now... God is sending us on a mission to engage communities, cities, people groups, and even nations with the gospel (Matt. 28:19 Mark 6:7 Luke 10:1 John 20:21 Acts 1:8). If we resist this call and continue to treat the church like a "members only" country club - demanding that people clean up their act, pay their dues, and come to our building... God will continue His mission without us. So the question is... Will we get on board or will we miss out?
We should be on mission because God is on mission himself. Since the beginning, God has been on mission... to bring glory to Himself and to fellowship with the people He created. For some reason, I'm not sure why, God has invited us to be on that mission with Him. We are given the opportunity to be a part of the magnificent story of God. We all may not go to Zimbabwe and live in a tent, but we are all called to be on mission for God in whatever location He has us.
Jesus gives the command in Acts 1:8 saying, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." Acts 1:8 exemplifies this idea as, right before Jesus Christ ascends to Heaven, He sends the disciples on a mission that would launch right in their own community. He begins with their hometown of Jerusalem, and then stretches the call to the uttermost parts of the earth.
As a church body, we have done an inadequate job of communicating the idea that everyone is on mission. We have made missions out to be something that we show a slideshow of pictures about, something that is preached on once a year, and something we give money to. This view of missions has compartmentalized its meaning and has caused many believers to have a shallow view of what missions is all about.
We must understand that everything we do in the Christian life should be woven through the mission of God, which is to point all people to Him and His glory. We have confused this by making missions something that you go and do in a foreign country for a couple of weeks and then come home, instead of it being an integral part of your everyday life.
Now, a huge part of missions definitely involves short-term trips and praying for, sending, and supporting missionaries from one's church, but it is so much more than that. It is a day-to-day call on all our lives to draw people to the joy of knowing God by pointing them to the person and atoning work of Jesus Christ.
If we work at the bank, then the bank is our mission field. If we go to school, then classes are our mission field. When we work out at the gym, go to church, or go to a movie (you get the idea), we are engaging with people in our mission field. If God is our utmost joy personally, then our only natural response should be a desire to be a radical representation of that joy to whomever we interact with.
As the local church acts more and more like the body of Christ by seeking joy in God and not ourselves, the people around us, in whatever environment we are in, will have no choice but to ask us, "Why?" Why don't we find our joy and satisfaction in status, money, and fame; "Why" we find joy and pleasure in knowing and relating to our creator. These questions can help the local church stay on mission by calling all people to experience the eternal joy of knowing God.
Category: Church