By Larry Barker 2/22/21
Your core values are why you do what you do. Mission is the “what” you are suppose to be doing by obeying the Great Co-Mission in Matthew 28:18-20. God has commanded every Christian and every church to cooperate by working with Him in HIS mission. It is much more than the fact that your church has a mission to carry out. God’s mission has churches to carry it out. How well are you doing that? How often are you sharing the gospel one-on-one with people who are far from God? Are you intentionally making His mission your mission?
In Rings of Fire Leonard Sweet says, “If we loved the world as God so loved the world, we would love it well and love it to life.” The mission is to constantly share the gospel of Jesus Christ by planting the seed, watering the seed, and then watching Him give the increase. Being convicted to carry out this mission is not enough because your efforts will always fall short. Mission is hard and requires the work and the power of the Holy Spirit. Do not confuse your mission with your purpose. You mission is to make disciples and your purpose is to glorify God.
In Acts 20 Paul is directed by the Holy Spirit to return to Jerusalem but he journeys there with much uncertainty not knowing how it would turn out. He obeys and in verse 24 says, “But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.” Being a missional church requires living on mission in the time and location that He has placed you. Are you finishing the work He has called you to? Is it the Great Co-mission or the Great Omission? Mission is central to the identity of every church! It demands that a congregation adopts the posture of a missionary. It means you have an intentional pathway for developing disciples who are living on mission. Mission determines your direction and keeps your priorities on what God truly values. Lesslie Newbiggen said, “When the church… ceases to be missionary, it contradicts its own nature. Yet the church is not to be defined by what it is, but by the end to which it moves!” Your mission is making disciples? How is that going?
This requires a leader to see the mission, hear the mission, and live the mission. A leader must know where they are going, what they will be doing, and be able to clearly articulate that preferred future. These are challenging days we live in and they may become more challenging as Christians begin living in a potentially unfriendly environment. Will your church proceed forward with a fear-based approach or a faith-based message? This is not about keeping up with the times but rather staying in step with the heart of God.
It begins by challenging your church to live on mission and you setting the example. You must train your congregation to be good listeners as people around them share their concerns and their fears. The time is ripe for your church to work the fields where you live. Train your people to be prepared to share their story by writing out their personal testimony and practice sharing it with other believers to become comfortable in its delivery. You must also train them to share His story. There are many good plans for sharing the gospel such as the Romans Road.
Now is not the time to run and hide or try to escape a culture spiraling downward further and further away from God. Now is the time to engage the culture with a biblical worldview. Remember that outrage is not a strategy but you must be ready to give an answer to anyone at anytime. Leonard Sweet says this will call for “the most creative evangelism and shrewd apologetics the church has seen since the first century.” If you are ready, go for it. If you are not ready, get ready because there are no excuses only obedience and disobedience.
Study the soil where God has placed you and understand the nuances of the culture for such a time as this. The men of Issachar in I Chronicles understood the times and knew what needed to be done. Sharing the love of Christ at this moment in time, no matter how wicked the times may become, is why your church exists and it is what He has called you to, living on His mission. Barry Whitworth has put together an excellent tool for studying the soil entitled, How to Exegete Your Community! Its purpose is to follow Paul’s example in I Corinthians 9:19-23.
Barry writes, “When exegeting a community you are observing and conversing with the people in their cultural context. Your goal is to form an opinion to whether there is an evangelical presence that will foster spiritual transformation in that community. There are four area to focus … social, economic, physical, and spiritual climate.” You observe with your eyes (what do you see?), you listen to their conversations (what do you hear?), and you begin to implement a plan (what should you do?). If you would like a copy of this tool please let us know.
Let’s be obedient to His Great Co-Mission by living on mission!