Immediately after the resurrection there were few believers. Few people outside of Jerusalem knew what Jesus did. No one had told them yet. People outside of that area did not have access to the Good News about Jesus. Fifty days later, at Pentecost, that began to change.
Wherever the Church exists in the world God’s people will be conducting the ministry of the Church. We will be evangelizing the lost, ministering hope, caring for widows and orphans. We will be healing the sick, standing for righteousness, and discipling people. We will be helping people to overcome sin. We will be ministering to the poor, and equipping each other for ministry. We will be sending people to other places for ministry.
Where the Church does not exist these things are not happening.
Wherever the Christ-followers go there will be the ministry of the Church. The Church will glorify God through ministry wherever the Church exists because of our love for God and our obedience to His written word.
The purpose of missions is to establish the ministry of the Church in places where the Church does not exist.
Is there a difference between the ministry of the church and the mission of the church? I think that there is.
Jesus made it clear that we can do “good” things in His name without knowing Him and we can engage in ministry without engaging in His mission. Matthew 7:23, 28:20
Churches can send people to very remote people groups to minister, doing good things in the name of Jesus Christ, without once sharing the Good News about Jesus in a language the people they serve can understand.
Ministering to people is not necessarily fulfilling the Great Commission.
We can be good without making the extra effort to do good. We can also do good without actually being good. Furthermore, we can be good while doing good without engaging to accomplish God’s purpose for us. John 15:5
We can do good things for people without ever sharing the Good News.
We can minister to people in our communities through evangelism, compassion, discipleship, and equipping without ever sending someone to a place where people have had no prior access to the Gospel.
Addressing poverty, alleviating hunger, caring for orphans, digging wells, constructing buildings, and providing medical services are good, noble and necessary ways to bring glory to God as the ministries of the universal Church.
Are these things the mission of the Church?
Ministry can be accomplished without ever meeting the greatest need; delivering the message that will save a soul from an eternity separated from God in the lake of fire.
Ministry is necessary and desirable for accomplishing our mission. It is God’s love that compels us.
Showing that we care by what we do may give us the opportunity to share Christ as our treasure. Our care for people is often what gives us the right to be heard. Ministry is a necessary part of our work.
While physical and material needs may be more visible, the greatest need of every person is the spiritual need to be brought into a right relationship with the living God through faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
On the highest authority in all of heaven and earth, Jesus told His disciples to go to every ethnic group, to all of the world, to every creature, preaching, baptizing, and teaching people “to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.”
How did it become second place to go where people have never heard of Jesus to teach them everything?
Where the Church exists, ministries of the Church will occur. The point of global outreach is to establish the ministry of the Church in places where Christ has been unknown.
In the early Church, when they appointed deacons, the apostles recognized both the importance of ministry and the importance of accomplishing the mission of the Church. “Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, “It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables.” – Acts 6:2
There are times when God permits events such as Acts 8:1 to occur so that Acts 1:8 may be accomplished.
At other times God uses more ordinary means to identify laborers who can be set apart and sent to places where the Good News about Jesus has not yet reached. Saul and Barnabas were already active in the church when the Holy Spirit moved the church leaders to set them apart for a special long-term mission. – Acts 13;1-3
Should we be so involved in the ministry that we never accomplish the mission of the Church?
Let’s keep the main thing as the main thing and minister to people while completing the Great Commission; going, preaching, baptizing, and teaching obedience to all of the commands of Jesus.
Why Missions? – stilluntold.com