It is not the job of other people to be God’s missionaries. It is our job, because we are God’s people!
David used these two sentences to end his post how the Church of God has as a part of our identity the call to be a missionary church. David’s post highlighted the fact that God has worked through people to be a blessing to the world for his sake since the call of Abraham in Genesis 12. I would argue that it goes even further back than that. One of the significant threads that runs right through the whole of scripture is God’s design to use men and women as his representatives in the world. And it’s by going all the way back to creation that I believe the Church of God must find our roots for being just what the title of these posts call us to be, A missionary CHURCH.
Alone ≠ Good
When God first created Adam, and he stood there ready to do his work in the garden, what’s God’s judgement of the situation?
It’s not good.
It’s not good for Adam to be alone. He can’t fully reflect the goodness of God who is love all by himself. And so God has to create a team through which he will reflect his image in the world. A community, a family, husband and wife.
Even after the whole thing comes crashing down, and man and woman choose to reject God in the garden, God continues to call a community of people through whom he will work in the world. The children of Abraham, the nation of Israel, will be his light to the world.
And when the story reaches its climax and Jesus comes as God dwelling in the midst of his creation, Jesus gathers around him a community of people to be his kingdom people in the world. It is to this group of people that Jesus is speaking when he tells them all to go and make disciples. And while the great commission ought to hit home for each of us as individuals, challenging us to share the good news with the people in our lives, what does it mean to consider that we as the church, we as the Church of God, have a missionary calling as a community? If Adam couldn’t reflect God’s image fully by himself, or Abraham, or Moses, or Peter, or Paul, then is it possible that we cannot fulfill the great commission fully by our own individual witnesses either?
And surely this makes some sense.
OUR Witness in the World
How will the world know that we are his disciples? When we love one another. That’s difficult to do alone.
As the Church of God, there may be not more critical question to ask concerning our effective witness in the world than the question, “Are we a missionary CHURCH?” And it seems as though it ought to flow out of our own identity at that. When we demonstrate that our heart is to be holy, to love like Jesus, and that this holy love binds us in unity, that ought to compel us to go out together, as a demonstration of what is possible because of Christ. We offer a gospel that begins with a new-birth, but a new birth into what? A kingdom, and a community that will love and nurture new believers. That love and nurture shouldn’t begin only after baptism. In a world where more people are likely to belong to a community before they believe what they have to say, that love and nurture can begin much earlier in the process of proclaiming the good news of Jesus and inviting others to partake of his grace and mercy. The bible teaches that throughout all of history, God has desired to dwell with and work alongside men and women, and that he did that most acutely in the person of Jesus. Therefore we are a church that can work together to join God’s mission and proclaim the good news that Jesus is not just my Lord, but he is OUR Lord.
All of who we are as the Church of God ought to draw us toward the reality that it is in our loving witness for Jesus as the church, that the world will see and know that we are disciples of Jesus.
Reading With US in Mind
It is not the job of other people to be God’s missionaries. It is our job, because we are God’s people!
This is a true statement, and David’s post is filled with plural, first person pronouns concerning the missionary nature of the people of God, but I wonder if it’s far too easy for us to read that with individualistic eyes. Go back and read his post again, but this time, where it says we, or our, or us, think of the church. Can the Church of God live into our identity and become a people who are on mission together for the kingdom?
Can the people in any one of our congregations come together and see ourselves serving this one mission of God to see the world reconciled to himself through Christ? Can our churches work together in a city or a region to put the good news on display and invite others to make Jesus Lord? Can we, all of us as a movement, offer our hand to every blood washed one, and ask the question, “How can we, as the Church of God, declare that the Kingdom of God is near, and that Jesus has come to bring abundant life?”
It is a challenge to be sure, especially right now when we seem to be struggling in every way to put our finger on our identity. But how beautiful would it be to see the Church of God embrace our roots of old? Can we lay aside differences, petty and deep, and become a people who together proclaim that Jesus is Lord, that he brings forgiveness and salvation in his kingdom, and then demonstrate what it means to be one body, on mission, for the sake of the world?
We ought to be able to do that. For by the grace of God we are called and equipped to be a missionary CHURCH.