Unit 1. Mission: Purposes of the Church
The church belongs to Jesus. It is in the world to accomplish His purposes. These are the very purposes that define the nature and the mission of the church. Why’ does the church exist? Consider these purposes as you develop your mission-centered leadership. There is an intentional ordering of these functions. All ministry and witness flow from worship. And, the highest expression of discipleship is the obedient response to our Lord’s command to “go into all the world.”
- Worship – A host of passages makes it clear that the mainspring of all else the church does is to worship. Worship provides the church direction as it gives praise to God. One striking passage is Ephesians 1: God’s predestination and adoption is that His people might give “praise to the glory of His grace” (Eph. 1:12-14). Again, in the Ephesian benediction of chapter 3, Paul refocuses the importance of worship when he writes, “To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen” (Eph. 3:21). Worship is the primary purpose of a church and is not an activity as much as it is an attitude. In worship God speaks to man and man finds relationship and fellowship with God. Worship is primary to the mission of the church and provides the fuel and motivation for all the church does.
Fellowship – Isolationism has never been God’s way, and biblical separation should be interpreted neither as isolation from others nor as, insulation from the very world that needs the witness of the church. Eph. 3:18 provides a wonderful contextual phrase…”with all the saints.” It is clearly evident from this and other passages that God wants the world to see Christians living and working together in a harmonious family.
- The New Testament word for fellowship is koinonia and implies that “all” the saints are bound together by the Spirit in love and unity with one another. There is no more demonstrative witness to the world than the caring, compassionate benevolence of God’s people testifying not to their own merits but to the mission of Christ whom they serve (John 13:35).
Disciple (Educate) – This cardinal purpose of the church emerges directly from the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19-20). Read it again. Notice that it is a teaching commission. It is truly a call to make converts, but it is also a call to make disciples. Another passage that speaks clearly to this purpose is Ephesians 4:11-16. Paul underscores several facts that form the biblical basis for the church’s teaching ministry. For example:
- In verse 11 we discover that those the Holy Spirit first gifted to lead are the ones that carry on the ministry of the church.
- In verse 12 Paul writes that the teaching ministry is to help God’s people mature so they can minister.
- In verse 13 the writer says that the teaching ministry results in a harmonious relationship among believers because they are becoming more like Jesus.
- In verse 14 the teaching ministry is highly theological, producing discerning learners of truth who are able to detect and avoid error.
- In verse 15 Paul summarizes by emphasizing that the teaching church will effectively combine truth and love without sacrificing either on the altar of the other. To state it biblically, the all-embracing purpose of the church is total Christian maturity for all its members.
Minister – Unless the church cares deeply for people — all people — it cannot be effective in witnessing to the power of Christ’s redeeming love. When Jesus commissioned His church, He commissioned them to minister. He no doubt saw the multitudes, and He looked at people with compassion, for He saw them as sheep without a shepherd (Matt. 9:36).In a world bombarded with all kinds of words and messages, people may not rake our word for the truth of the gospel. Many are suspicious of words and may question the claims of the gospel. However when a believer in Christ demonstrates radical love to someone choked by life’s difficulties, curiosity is always aroused. At that moment there is incredible openness and opportunity to clarify with words (truths) of the gospel why one acted in behalf of the needs of another. Ministry acted out without thought of a response may be used by the Holy Spirit to evangelize people. Our Lord’s ministry always centered on people. He focused on meeting their spiritual and eternal needs. If the church is truly God-centered, it will be person-centered. Mission-centered leadership requires awareness of and sensitivity to human need, as well as an appreciation of how we can meet that need through God’s truth and Spirit.
The biblical evidence overwhelmingly states that the will of God is lo love Him in a way that leaves no room for idols and to love our neighbor in a way that liberates him from poverty or oppression either spiritual or physical.
-John Perkins
Ministry is what we leave in our wake as we follow Jesus.
-Gerald Hartis
Evangelize (Missionize) – At the heart of the Great Commission, is the imperative of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ (Matt. 28:18-20). Just prior to His ascension, Jesus said to His disciples: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Proclamation of the gospel to everybody, everywhere is not an option. It is at the very heart and center of what God wants His church to do.God’s plan is that those who have accepted His love and received Jesus as Lord are to be living witnesses of their salvation (Acts 5:32). There is no boundary that Jesus does not cross, no people or land or cultures that He does not want His followers to penetrate. He wants us to go everywhere human beings exist.The Greek word translated nations in Matt. 28:18 is the word ethnos. From it we get the word ethnic. It literally means every race, every tribe, and every culture. And though an individual can’t personally share the gospel with every person on the face of the earth, it can happen through prayer, through giving to support the representative work of a missionary/evangelist, and through one’s own individual involvement. The church helps each believer develop a compassion for the whole wide world. Phillip Brooks reminds us, “We cannot believe in Christ for ourselves without believing in Him for the whole world.”