We (along with the rest of the Church of God Movement) have been commissioned to answer three very important questions. All three hope to address the more pressing question: why do we exist as a Movement? Jonathan posted about the purpose of the Church of God movement and Joe shared in response to query about the Church of God’s unique contribution to the Kingdom. The third question is this:
Upon what should the Movement focus going forward?
This is the question I was asked to explore. But how can I be so bold as to propose the focus for the whole Church of God as we move forward into the future? I began to sweat as I thought about what I could possibly suggest. But then it hit me. The question could just as well be “where should my focus be?” As I live my life as a follower of Christ and as a Church of God Pastor, where should my focus be? Because the truth is, if I can’t get on board with the answer to this question (or the others) that we are asking for the Church of God at large, than why am I part of this Movement?
And so, for better or worse, I approach this question for myself. As I move forward (in life, in ministry, as a believer) what is to be my focus? As I think about this question it occurs to me that I don’t have to come up with something new or brilliant. Jesus laid out for us the perfect focus for now and for our future: make disciples (Matthew 28:19). If this was the focus of the Church of God – the world would be changed. If we spent our time and energy on this call – we could transform the lives around us.
I am aware that this focus should be the focus of all churches and not just the Church of God, but I find myself wondering why we have to separate ourselves out before we get to doing the work that God called us to. Wasn’t the whole point of why the Church of God came to be? To “come out of denominational Babylon”? Isn’t that why the Movement was formed? And here we are once again trying to define our uniqueness in the family of God rather than just accepting that we are part of it and that we have work to do.
There are so many people who are truly lost (outside of relationship with God) and we’re worried about our Movement being lost in the tide of denominations. There are so many lost people (people who God created and who God loves) who are separated from God. There are so many people who are dying and need what we have. We are so distracted about things that don’t matter that we’ve forgotten why we do exist – and it’s not to be unique. We exist because we know God and we want other people to know God too.
So for me, what has to be our focus as we move forward is those lost people and the work that still needs to be done. We cannot lose sight of the mission that we are called to: 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you (Matthew 28:19-21).