On the Mission of the Church

The following is one of six position papers written for the ordination standards. The prompt for this paper was: “What is the mission of the church? Does the local church have any responsibility for the advance of the gospel in other nations? Does it have any responsibility to transform the culture of its own nation? What is your role as a pastor in these areas? “

Introduction

It is central to the Christian faith to understand that we are not solo-Christians nor live on a faith-island, but belong to a body (1 Cor 12:12–28). To belong to a body means that we are a part of something that is bigger than just ourselves, and that this is not a dead thing, but a living and active organism that is on the move. So the question that this paper will seek to answer is where is the body going? In other words, what is the mission of the church?

The Mission of God

In order to understand the mission of the church, we must first understand what is the mission of God. If God is not after the discipling of the nations, neither should we. If he is, we should be too. The church is the bride of Christ and we submit to him as he leads and empowers her (Eph 5:22–24), so we must take all of our cues about our mission and vision from that of God.

I would define the church as the elect people of God who serve him in worship, in discipleship, and in witness. The mission of God then has been from the beginning to have for himself that kind of people to dwell with (Titus 2:14). We see that in the Garden where God made for himself a creature in his own image and then gave them a mandate  (i.e. a mission) to be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it (Gen 1:26–31). In short, they were, both man and woman, to expand the Garden of Eden by subduing the wilderness and filling it with more image-bearers. 

After the Fall (Gen 3), this mission did not change. We see that clearly in the promise given to Eve that there will be God-assigned enmity between the seed of the woman (God’s people) and the seed of the woman (not God’s people). This highlights both the division between the serpent and God’s people as well as the final victory in Christ, the promised snake-crusher (Gen 3:15).

The entirety of the OT then could be seen as a tracing of that promised seed of God and a growing delineation between God’s people and all those on the earth who hate him. This line goes from Adam to Seth, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, David, and finally to Christ. And we see in the OT the expansion of the people of God from one man (Gen 12:1–3), to a large family (Gen 49:1–27), into a large nation (Ex 1:1–7, Deut 7:6–11). This expansion then exploded from a singular nation into a new humanity that is, through faith, remade in the image of Christ.

Like Adam, Israel failed in its mission to honor God and to be his chosen people and light to the nations (Deut 7; Isa 49:6). So in the fullness of time, God sent for Christ to secure for himself a people (Titus 2:14) that would be marked by his Spirit (Acts 2:38–39), and would then continue the mandate to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth and subdue it. But this multiplication and subduing was not to be done physically, but spiritually by the making, multiplying, discipling, and baptizing of disciples of Christ (Matt 28:18–20).

The Advancement of the Gospel

The mission of God is clarified and advanced in the Great Commission, and the means of that advancement is the preaching of the Gospel (Rom 10:14–17). This begins in our own homes with our children (Eph 6:4) and then goes on to spread to the ends of the earth. And because the message that we preach is Christ and him crucified (1 Cor 1:23), and because all authority in heaven and on earth have been given to him (Matt 28:18), we should expect the mission of God to be successful. So successful, that we anticipate the day when the whole earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Isa 11:9; Hab 2:14).

The church is commanded to carry that message to the ends of the earth (Matt 28:18–20). However, what this looks like as a local church is to be a faithful witness in our local context. The means to evangelize the world is to start with ourselves, our families, our neighbors, our workplaces, our towns, our states, our nation, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). We do this not by the power of the sword or by the power of government, but with the message of the good news of Jesus Christ by the power we receive from on high; namely, the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8).

While the local church does not have a responsibility to transform the culture, we do have a responsibility to preach the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27; 2 Tim 4:1) and to apply the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the entire life of the Christian through discipleship. Because Christians live and work in the world, and as we are transformed more into the likeness of Christ (2 Cor 3:18), the culture will necessarily be transformed as a result. As pastors, we are called to shepherd the flock (1 Pet 5:1–4), and that means feeding, protecting, caring, and leading them in this world where they live and work and die with the gospel hope that Christ is King (Rev 19:16), and all rulers and authorities are subject to him and his rule (Rom 13:1–7).

Since we are the body of Christ, we are expected to suffer as Christ suffered (1 Pet 3:18, 4:12–19). We understand that the seed of the crushed serpent is still active in our midst (1 Pet 5:8–9), and so we expect to experience trouble. But we have every confidence in the midst of our suffering that it is for our good and for his glory (Rom 8:28) and we can and must take heart because Christ, through his suffering, has overcome the world (Jn 16:33).