Glorify the Father in Completing the Great Commission
Where are we going?
Are we there yet?
All Christians have this in common:
We were able to believe because someone told us about Jesus.
What is the worldwide vision and mission of the local church?
Vision, knowing where we are going, why,
and communicating it to the team,
is essential to be effectively pulling together
in the same direction.
Vision is essential to pulling together in the same direction.
Where are we going?
On this page I hope to emphasize the necessary, essential ministry of the local church.
What did Jesus tell His disciples to do?
If we are His Body, where is the Head directing?
It is our commission under our Head to equip saints and share the Gospel with people even in the uttermost parts of the earth; to the fruitfulness and joy of the Body.
Missions is about establishing thriving communities of Christ-followers in where a local church does not yet exist.
The ministry of the church and the mission of the Church, though intertwined, are not the same thing.
Ministry is what we do. We can do good things for people without ever giving them the message of eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ.
The mission is why we minister; some people have no way to learn about Jesus.
We need to engage them about Him.
Missions is about giving people access to the Gospel.
On the highest authority in heaven and on earth, Jesus commanded His disciples to go everywhere to teach people to observe, to obey, all that He commanded us.
How can this be less than central to every endeavor of the Church?
There is much to say about how God’s work can be done well. Of course, faithfulness to God’s Word, dependence upon the Holy Spirit’s leading, and love as a we serve one another in the Body are very important aspects.
This page is a work in progress. Until I find a better way to express what is on my heart to communicate, I have chosen to bring attention to these five aspects of an overview of the Great Commission:
- Reached (The Church)
- Unreached (The Untold)
- Perspective (The Mission)
- Handoff (The Discipleship)
- Relating (The Partnership)
Thriving Churches
The Multiplication
The Team.
Churches as partners growing in capacity to glorify God.
Vision for the Mission
If mission is God’s idea,
then in order to be in alignment with what He is doing,
we need to know His Person, His Purpose, His Plan, His People, and His Process.
His vision for us must be our vision to serve HIm.
Growth Toward Maturity
There is a tendency to look at evangelism and Christian growth as a food buffet where anything you choose will help you grow. While there is some truth to that, if the objective is spiritual growth to reproductive maturity, then there is a process to growth. There is age appropriate food. There are spiritual truths that will make an infant choke. There are things one must know and do before other things can be understood and applied into practice. There are things to put off that hinder growth and are incompatible with our new identity. There are things to put on.
An unbeliever who knows nothing of the identity and character of God will have little understanding of his/her own sin and accountability to God for trespassing. As a result, an unbeliever will have little understanding of the identity and purpose of Jesus Christ and will have no need for His work as our Savior. A low view of God results in a low view of accountability in regard to right living and a low regard for the well-being of other people.
There are reasons why new believers are not qualified to lead Christ-centered, Bible-teaching, thriving churches. They must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
There are things leaders must know and practice before they have the capacity to lead and teach other people with grace and truth. There are Biblical qualifications for leadership. (1 Timothy 3 & Titus 1)
While as partakers of the divine nature all believers have everything needed for life and godliness, there is a path to maturity that involves putting off some things and putting on others. (Ephesians 4:22-32, 2 Peter 1:3-4, Colossians 3) There are foundations to faith. (1 Corinthians 3:10-15) To be fruitful requires abiding in Christ and adding to our faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity. (2 Peter 1:3-11)
My point is that there is a process for spiritual growth and maturity. If what we are trying to do in missions is an extension of what is happening in the local church, then the process of missions will be similar to the path toward spiritual maturity that occurs in your local church.
We will be discipling people from spiritual infancy to where they can actively serve as functioning members, Biblically qualified leaders, senders, and go-ers who are “teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you”, as Jesus specified in Matthew 28:20.
Churches generally do not hire new believers to be the Senior Pastors of their churches. Teaching people to observe or to obey all that Christ commanded us means establishing local churches.
There are Biblical qualifications for leadership. Church-planting missionaries are sent to equip people for leadership. They are to establish maturing, growing, reproducing, thriving churches – in another country where they do not know the people, the language, the culture.
Unless the foundations are laid carefully, the result may be groups of people who are singing Christian choruses with lives that reflect no understanding of the identity of Jesus or what He accomplished for them.
It’s not that all career missionaries need to be at a Senior Pastor level of spiritual maturity to be sent, but that those who will be teaching and ordaining elders someday should give evidence of being on a trajectory where they can be equipped to establish Biblical leadership in the future. To have people with that level of maturity will require intentional discipleship and equipping in the local churches. The career missionaries we send to support their work should be able to carry some of the physical load in a way that demonstrates growing maturity in Christ, too, so that the work of the ministry is promoted rather than hindered.
Cru.org created a diagram on “The Stages of the Discipleship Process” which I have adapted below and used as a pattern to illustrate some stages of missions awareness.
Missions is about sending disciples to establish disciple-making disciples in places where Christ was not known — through preaching, baptizing, and teaching everything. It’s about glorifying the Father through establishing reproductive fruit bearers. (John 15:8)
Global ministry is a function of local churches sending qualified church-planting missionaries to establish church-planting churches through discipleship. Discipleship, equipping, and sending take time. Establishing a thriving church in a cross-cultural context requires a team commitment. These ministers will be more effective if they take time to learn from experienced missionaries.
Missions is also about finishing well.
With intentional effort to equip believers, there is an end to missions as a pioneer ministry; as the Apostle Paul stated in Romans 15:23. He had completed the establishing of churches and trained faithful men who were able to teach others also. (2 Timothy 2:2)
What are His objectives?
What is the highest power or authority you obey?
After being given all power in heaven and on earth, Christ’s commission to His disciples was to go to every ethnic group, preaching, baptizing, and teaching people to observe all that He commanded. (Matthew 28:18-20) This would include laying foundations for faith (1 Corinthians 3:10-11), teaching people to love God with all of their heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love their neighbors as themselves (Matthew 22:36-40).
“Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom;
that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:”
– Colossians 1:28
And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations (ethnos), beginning at Jerusalem. Luke 24:47
“And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” –
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Objective: The Good News of Jesus Christ is to be preached to every creature in every tongue, tribe, people, and nation (ethnic group) and every person brought to maturity in Christ; equipped for ministry through life on life discipleship.
Why? The whole of Scripture reveals that from eternity past into eternity future God has desired a good and eternal relationship with each person He has created: whosoever will. Therefore our reason is to teach people to love God with all of their heart, soul, mind, and strength through the knowledge of His person, purpose, plan, people, and process.
Knowing God and His love for us is the cause behind loving our neighbors as ourselves and telling everyone in the world about the glorious God who has provided everything we need for an eternally good relationship with Him.
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Any journey can be difficult to complete if we do not know where we are, the destination, or the path between the two.
In a remote village of Papua New Guinea, I once met a man named Jeniae who was blind. He had been abused most of his life, so, when he heard about Jesus, he wasn’t sure that message was for him, too. When he realized and believed what Jesus had done for him, he had to tell everyone in the distant villages about Jesus. Being blind slowed him down but it did not stop him. His message was so urgent that there were times when he traveled in the jungle alone to tell others, and even got lost because nobody would go with him. He knew the message, he knew the mission, he knew the urgency of the task, and he was going to trust God to do what he could do. (See Jeniae’s story.)
On this page we will consider where we are as believers in regard to the mission, the needs of the world, the task to be completed, equipping people for the work, and empowering others to fully engage with us.
The word “missions” means a lot of different things in the Christian community. There is much confusion in churches today about what we are to be doing. To communicate clearly one must often define terms so that what we talk about has the same meaning to the listener as to the speaker.
Throughout the history of the Church there have been both the leaders who work within the Church and local community, and the leaders who have been recognized within the Church, set apart, and sent out from the local churches to represent the Church as teachers in other communities. Along the way, there has been the ministry of the Body of believers, both as recognized deacons and unrecognized assistants, who have engaged in support ministries to glorify God in both home and foreign ministry.
Ministry is a Body function which requires the efforts of every part using their gifts. When the Body disregards the direction of the Head, that is when the Church is ineffective and even self-destructive, with parts doing their own things independently.
This is where the teaching and vision-casting of leaders assists the body to understand the mission and engage in the instructions of the Head. This is where leaders can create a culture of community with Christ-honoring purpose and intentional action.
What is the mission of the church according to God’s written word? What did Christ command us to do? What are the roles of the local church, the leaders, and individual believers in regard to Christ’s commands?
Where are we currently; in relation to accomplishing His mission?
How do we get from where we are to where we need to be?
I hope to make this page to be a high level view of the objective: the Great Commission. God’s word rather than ours.
Let’s examine the role of the Church, the needs of the world, the objectives of the Church, equipping the messengers for the handoff, and relating to the new churches as co-workers and heirs in Christ until He comes for His bride.
The intent is to bring into focus the key objective that Christ has called us to accomplish abroad, while not leaving undone what He has called us to do at home.
- What did Jesus do and why?
- Jesus fulfilled the promise of Genesis 3:15, creating for every person the permanent path to restored intimate and righteous fellowship with God the Father. He wanted us to enter into His fellowship by faith (by believing Him).
- 1 Peter 3:18
- What was so important that Jesus stayed around for forty days AFTER the resurrection to communicate to His disciples?
- He gave them many convincing proofs that the resurrection was real.
- He talked to them about the kingdom that is coming.
- He told them to tell everyone in every part of the earth.
- He told them to make disciples who could make disciples by teaching them to observe all that He commanded.
- Acts 1:3.
- Matthew 28:18-20, Mark16:15, Luke 24:47, John 20:21, Acts 1:8, Romans 10:13-17, 1 Corinthians 2:2, 2 Corinthians 4, 5, Galatians 3:8, 6:10, Ephesians 2:10, 3:6, 4:12, 6:19, Philippians 1:12, 18, 21, Colossians 1:28-29, Thessalonians 1:8, 2:16,
A right understanding of missions is rooted in knowing God’s
Person, Purpose, Plan, People, and Process.
It is His mission in which we have been given a role.
For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 2 Corinthians 2:2
The objective of mission is …
to bring people into a dynamic relationship with the living God; …
to grow in recognizing the glory of His person,
to lead people into His fellowship,
to be established in the knowledge of His grace,
to be empowered to live lives that reflect His holiness,
to enable each person to serve Him by faith – investing in other people,
to equip each person with the tools
to join the Body as a team of effective ambassadors
who are representing Him to the farthest corners of the earth,
until He comes to bring us to be with Him.
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
"For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
Definitions Anyone?
Words have meaning within the context of a sentence and a culture. As a result, the same words in a another culture even in the same language can have different meanings. This is also true when people talk about missions. Here is what I am thinking as I write.
- Evangelism is the process by which people come to understand the goodness of God’s identity, purpose, and plan as well as their own standing before His perfect righteousness and judgment. The objective is to give people what they need to make an informed decision whether or not they will believe God’s written word.
- Discipleship is the life-on-life process whereby believers learn to become followers of Christ in faith and practice.
- Church – The Church, beginning at Pentecost, is the body of Christ comprised of those who have trusted Jesus Christ as Savior.
- Thriving Church – See WILD.
- Church Planting is the work of evangelism and discipleship toward establishing groups of individual Christ-followers who revere and obey Him, His word, His purpose, and His plan, joining in Christ’s mission.
- Cross-cultural planting is establishing thriving communities of Christ-followers across barriers of geography, ideology, worldview, language, and culture.
- Missions is the corporate work of the Church to proclaim Christ where He is not known and of establishing thriving communities of people who believe God’s Word and who are able to join us in working to complete Christ’s commission.
- Missionary, usually a career missionary, is a person who has been recognized, set apart, and sent by a local church as a messenger or assistant to a messenger to establish thriving churches in communities where Christ is not known.
- People Group -An ethnolinguistic group of individuals, families or clans who share a common language and ethnic self-identity.
- Reached – Language groups of people who already have access in a language they understand to the message of the Gospel through Christians, churches, and Bibles.
- Unreached – Or unreached languages. Ethnolinguistic groups of people who have no access to the Gospel; People who have no opportunity to hear about the identity and provision of Jesus Christ in a language they fluently understand. There are no Bibles, no churches, and no Christians among them.
Definitions used by others (not necessarily the same)
Objective: The Good News of Jesus Christ is to be preached to every creature in every tongue, tribe, people, and nation (ethnic group) and every person brought to maturity in Christ; equipped for ministry through life on life discipleship.
Why? The whole of Scripture reveals that from eternity past into eternity future God has desired a good and eternal relationship with each person He has created: whosoever will. Therefore our reason is to teach people to love God with all of their heart, soul, mind, and strength through the knowledge of His person, purpose, plan, people, and process.
Knowing God and His love for us is the cause behind loving our neighbors as ourselves and telling everyone in the world about the glorious God who has provided everything we need for an eternally good relationship with Him.
Reached
What is God’s purpose in the world for those of us who have been reached with the Good News and believed; the Church?
“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” – 2 Corinthians 11:3
For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 1 Corinthians 2:2
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Missions is a body function of each local church.
Under the headship of Jesus Christ, directed by the Holy Spirit, under the leadership of the elders and deacons, missions is a function in which every member uses the gifts God has given to evangelize, disciple, equip, support, and send other members to reach those people who have not heard of Jesus and to establish thriving churches among them.
In other words, the living, breathing function of the Body of Christ is to introduce people to our Savior, to teach people to walk with Him, to guide people to feed on His written word, to lead people to live holy lives, to equip people to minister in His name, to send people in the power of the Holy Spirit, as part of the church under the leadership of the church, and to equip people in other places where Christ is not known to do likewise.
Our goal is to know Him and make Him known. (John 15)
We have been blessed to be a blessing.
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One thing that all “born-again” believers have in common is this: someone told us about Jesus.
The ministry of the church is to love God, love people, to make disciples, and tell everyone in every language of Christ; as laborers bringing in His harvest.
The work of the Church is to grow in the recognition of the glory of God, to reflect the glory of His goodness back to Him in the way that we live in the world, and to proclaim Him to every creature in all of the world so that those people may also recognize His glory and worship Him.
The purpose of the Church is to glorify God by recognizing His worth, living holy lives that reflect His goodness and authenticate His message, equipping the saints for the work of the ministry, and shipping the knowledge of Him, His worth, to every person, in every language, in every people group, in every part of the earth.
Purpose of the church?
- Exaltation of God
- Equipping of the saints
- Evangelize the world. *
Warren suggests that these purposes are Worship, Fellowship, Discipleship, Ministry and Mission and that they are derived from the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:37–40) and the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19–20).
Piper says, “Missions exists because worship doesn’t.”*
Worship = Worth Shipping
Dictionary definitions of the word “worship” are so lofty as to be almost intangible.
For the sake of missions, may I redefine the word worship a little?
Worship is about something that has enough worth to ship it to someone else.
Worship is worth shipping. Worship is about valuing God so much as to glorify Him through holy living, to grow in the knowledge of Him, to serve others because of Him, to tell others about Him where we are, and to proclaim His glory where He is not known.
Worship is about holding God in such high honor that my knowledge of Him affects how I think, what I say, how I act, and where I go.
Equipping the saints for ministry
How are we preparing believers today to reach this generation of the least-reached people groups?
What are we doing to deepen their understanding of God and His mission in the world? What do we teach that helps them to know and love Him with all of their heart, soul, mind, and strength, and because of Him, to love their neighbor?
How do we create a culture of casting vision for the world? What practical tools and ideas are we putting in the hands of local believers?
How are we doing in regard to moving the needle on accomplishing the Great Commission among those language groups of people who have no opportunity to hear the Good News?
A great place to start on mission is to evaluate how, why, and what we are doing.
Faith in Him
Jesus is building His church. His means is through people who have heard and believed His written word sharing His word with people who have not yet heard. His work through the Church is establishing gatherings of believers in every language, people group, and ethnic group who glorify Him in the way that they live as a holy community of life, growing in faith and maturity, equipping each other for ministry, and reaching out into the world to proclaim Christ where He is not known.
What is our view of mission? Is our view of God big enough for us to engage the world? Where do we allocate time, resources and vision-casting? Who are we intentionally discipling for the purpose of equipping for ministry and sending out to represent the church – in a sustained effort to teach everything that Christ commanded? What is the general preparedness in the church body to send people to accomplish the task of establishing reproducing, multiplying, maturing churches among the least-reached?
How much of mission effort is going to people who have no other opportunity to hear about Jesus? What is our understanding of heart language ministry and Bible translation? How much of our “missions” effort could be accomplished by the Red Cross, Save the Children , WellSpring Water, or police work? What are the eternal consequences of our on-going “missions” efforts?
If a person we teach misses the identity, character, and work of Jesus, that person has lost everything. The end result is the same if it is due to a messenger’s lack of foundation to clearly communicate the gospel message, or the distortion of a listener’s language and cultural barriers, or the miscommunication of an interpreter, or if we just didn’t take the time to clearly tell them.
If a person, while believing unto salvation, misses the mark on understanding God’s identity, knowing their own position in Christ, and engaging in His purpose for them, then will they arrive in His presence empty-handed?*
Is it the recognition of God’s grandeur, His glorious worth, His magnificent goodness, that leads men and women to give their lives completely and without reservation to make His name known among the untold millions?
Is it the realization that God is the author of life, the giver of each breath, the resurrection and the life, that gives us confidence to give back what He has given us; even unto death?
If the creator of life, the conquerer of death, and the hope of resurrection, who has already promised to us eternal life, has told us to die to ourselves, to give our lives even unto death in His service, what do we have to lose?
It is the identity, person, work of, and relationship with Jesus that people need to know. He is the foundation of ministry and mission.
If the ambassadors we send into the world are not rooted in these truths of Christ’s identity, power, purpose, and promise, what are they offering to the world? Should we look more carefully at what we are teaching people to know, be, do, and proclaim?
“That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;” Philippians 3:10
In Christ
https://www.gracegems.org/30/looking_unto_jesus.htm
“…And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father …” – Revelation 1:6
“And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;” – 2 Corinthians 5:18
“…and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.” – 2 Corinthians 5:19
“But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:” – 1 Peter 2:9
“As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.” – Acts 13:2
To have people who can be sent as career missionaries to establish thriving churches, they must be prepared for that work in their local church.
Below are some resources to help lay that foundation of the light of the knowledge of God’s glory.
The Purpose of the Church...
“According to Scripture, the church has a three-fold purpose:
the exaltation of God,
the edification of the saints, and
the evangelization of the world.”
– harvest.org
The Purpose of the Local Church (audio, Part 1 & 2) – Greg Sanford
The Healthy Church...
Healthy Churches, not Disciples as the Goal – Mark Dever, Capitol Hill Baptist Church
Resources
To Carefully Lay the Foundation for Mission
Equipping the Church
- Firm Foundations: Creation to Christ – Chapter One
- Ethnos360 Bible Institute – e360bible.org
- Lessons From The Field
- Training for Mission – accesstruth.com
- The WILD Framework
- A framework for understanding how Truth produces life, growth and fruit.
- WorldView – Volume One BFF
- Books – Animism, Worldview..
- Missions & Discipleship
The State of the World
“And they sung a new song, saying,
Thou art worthy to take the book,
and to open the seals thereof:
for thou wast slain,
and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood
out of every kindred, and tongue,
and people, and nation;”
Unreached
“And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:”
– Hebrews 9:27
“And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.”
– 1 John 5:11-12
Who are the Unreached?
“Unreached People Groups? Yeah, we’ve got a bunch of those right down here at our local high school. The government brought them in as refugees from [country].”
“Unreached People Groups? Yes, our church has ministry with unreached people groups in the middle of New York City. The nations are coming to us.”
I hear this sort of thing all too frequently as I seek to advocate for groups of people who have no opportunity at all to hear the Good News about Jesus.
These groups of people are NOT at your local high school or inner city.
For the sake of clarity, I will call them unreached language groups of people.
These unreached language groups of people have no way at all to hear about Jesus. They will be born, live, and die without ever hearing about the God who created them to know Him, who loves them enough to pay their penalty for sin and to draw them into a good, personal, eternal relationship with Him. They will never meet a Christian who speaks their language, or hear a Christian radio broadcast, or work with a Christian co-worker, or read a Gospel tract left in the bathroom, or attend a church, or see a Bible written in a language they understand.
They are unreached with the Gospel for a reason. Some are geographically, politically, and ideologically isolated from the the Gospel. Most have unwritten languages in which God’s written Word does not exist for someone to speak to them.
The main reason they are still unreached with the Gospel is that no Christian has been sent to learn their language, translate the Scriptures, and teach the about the Christ who died for them. No one told them.
People are dying. Eternally.
When my family realized there were entire language groups of people who had no Bibles and no messengers to tell them about Jesus, we felt that we should do something about that.
People in one third of the world have no access to a Bible or a Christian who could tell them of Christ’s identity, justice, love, and grace in a language they understand. The have no access to the message of eternal life through faith in Christ. They live without hope.
Only someone who knows the message of eternal life through faith in Christ could tell them. Only someone who is living now can tell the people who are living now before they die and are eternally separated.
Like we were, they are justly condemned due to their own sin. Like we did, they need someone who has received God’s grace to love them enough to extend the message of God’s grace to them.
The love of God compels us to act; God’s love for us, God’s love for them, our love for God, and God’s love through us to them.
God’s plan has not been thwarted.
From the beginning God has provided people, ambassadors, to represent Himself to the world, calling people to change their minds about their wicked ways.
“The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.” – Numbers 14:18
The Bible makes it clear that, even in judging wickedness in natural and supernatural events, God is continually calling people to believe Him and repent; to acknowledge His goodness and provision for their unrighteousness. His primary means is through those who have believed Him telling those who have not.
Resources about the unreached
Faith comes by hearing the word of God which is spoken by messengers who are sent.*
Perspective
“But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:”
– 1 Peter 2:9
“For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God,
it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” – 1 Corinthians 1:21
You may have heard the story of the blind men touching an elephant for the first time. “It’s like a wall!” said the man touching the side. “It’s like a tree!” said the man embracing a leg. “It’s like a snake!” said the man feeling the elephant’s trunk. “It’s like a banana leaf!” said the man feeling the ears. “No, it’s like a whip!” said the man feeling the tail.
While each person could truthfully describe his experience with the elephant, none of them had the perspective of those who could see the whole elephant from a short distance away.
In a similar manner, each of us has a perspective of God’s mission in the world that may be full of truth but may be lacking the Big Picture perspective.
Many of the activities called “missions” in western churches today may not be effectively accomplishing the things that Jesus specifically told His disciples to do. (See “When Everything Is Missions“.)(pdf)
The mission of the church and the ministry of the church are inseparable in that the Church must demonstrate the love of Christ in the way that we live to be able to have an audience and accomplish the mission. If people are dying from starvation, thirst, or an epidemic, then the ministry of saving their lives necessarily precedes the mission of saving their eternal souls by delivering the Good News. At the same time, if we are too busy applying bandaids or delivering the same message to people who have already heard it, are we accomplishing God’s mission for us?
Every person is important to reach with the Gospel. The same God who told us, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” also told us, “Go ye therefore and teach all nations (ethnos)”.
Worldview and culture.
What people need most is a reset of the way that we think – to replace false ideas with God’s thoughts about God, themselves, and the world around us. We all need to have our thoughts and ways compared to God’s thoughts and ways, that we might be transformed by the renewing of our minds and change the way we act.
It might be in the best interest of all of us to examine whether our “missions” activities match God’s objectives and purpose for us.
The light of the glorious gospel of Christ, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, must shine into the dark areas of our thinking about salvation, sanctification, and our eternal purpose on earth.
How do we give people this light?
It is done through the foolishness of preaching.
When everything is missions then much of our energy and resources are directed toward things that will not result in “well done” in the day of accounting. We need to see that what we do is invested in Christ’s mission, and learn to delegate or pull back from those things that do not move the needle forward on accomplishing the Great Commission.
My objective with the Perspective section is to show that people need enough information about the identity of Jesus and what He is doing in the world to change the way that they think, feel, and act in relation to God’s message and the world around them. A thriving church is rooted in Christ’s identity and their identity in Him.
If they do not see Jesus as their all-in-all, could it be because we have not taken the time to reveal Him to them through His words about Himself?
We are often in such a hurry to draw people into our programs, that we do not show them God’s character.
By taking the time to be intentional about how we teach, through the incarnational relationship of the messenger with the audience, through the example of holy living, and by speaking the Word of God under the power of the Holy Spirit, people with whom we minister will have the opportunity to learn of Christ in such a way as to reshape their values and change their viewpoint from citizens the world to that of sojourners with citizenship in heaven who are distributing the Master’s invitations.
If the objective of our mission is to establish people in Christ-centered faith and community that leads to establishing maturing church communities of believers who are glorifying Christ in the way that they live, in the things that they teach, and the people they reach, then we may need to plan a course of action and equipping that leads to the outcome of a thriving church. *****[rephrase and break up this sentence.][what are the core ideas? Say it simpler?][Tell a story that communicates the concept?]
Worldview Resources:
- Reachtheisles.com
- Wet Paper Bag – What is Real? What is true? What is good? How can you know those things?
- Sand In Your Pockets –
Handoff
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
– Ephesians 2:10
“And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.” – 2 Timothy 2:2
The objective, the work of our mission, is to pass on to faithful men who will be able to teach others also what we have learned of Christ.
We are working to present every person complete in Christ.
We are working so that believers will come to realize that everything they need for life and godliness is theirs in Christ and so that by adding to their faith they will not be barren and unfruitful. 2 Peter 1:3-11
Praise God that the believers who came before us cared enough about God and His work to equip people who were able to teach us.
In our culture, this is a pattern that has often been delegated to seminaries, and seminaries are a great blessing to the western churches, but what did Christians do before there were seminaries? Should also we intentionally cultivate a culture, an expectation, that each willing believer will be equipped within the local church?
Would Jesus tell His disciples to do something without giving them all that they needed to complete the task?
“Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you…” – Matthew 28:20
In the links below are videos and testimonies of believers handing off responsibility to disciples as patterns of behavior even they are able to clearly communicate the Gospel in the language of their disciples. Such patterns do not come about without intention, hard work and planning, but the results can be truly glorifying to God as listeners respond in faith and obedience to the teaching of God’s word and the example of their teachers.
“The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master.” – Luke 6:40
Equipping Handoff
Patterns of handing off responsibility can be established long before the Gospel message is finally delivered.
“For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:” – Ephesians 4:12
Planning Handoff
- reachWantakia: 5 Things
- Hard Work & Urgency
- Literacy
- Reading Together
- Bible translation
- Lesson prep
Relating
“And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.” – 2 Timothy 2:2
The end game of missions is to bring people into fellowship with God; to have thriving churches of Christians who are engaging and maturing with us in God’s objectives.
In other words, we are working to establish faithful gathering of believers (in places where there were none) who believe God, who are relating well to Him in obedience, who are actively applying His written word to their daily lives, who are relating well to other believers and the world around them, who are equipping each other for ministry, who are actively preaching to the world around them, and who are engaging as partners with the global church to proclaim Christ where He is yet unknown. It’s about intentionally relating well to God and people according to God’s design.
By teaching the “all things” that Christ commanded His disciples, relationships that please God are multiplied. The goal is to have thriving churches of people who are relating well to God, to His word, to each other, to other people, and actively engaging in the world as partners in ministry to establish thriving churches. We are looking to establish disciples who through personal sacrifice and hard work engage the lost and equip equippers to train faithful men who will teach others also.
Life on life ministry. Interdependent personal relationships. Close walk with God. Intentional discipleship. Purposeful equipping. Gentle but urgent outreach. Love.
Add videos showing partnership relationships. Kaiko at Ata. Faimpat. Ee-Taow, the Next Chapter, His Gift to Gie, Bisorioland.
Teaching people to relate (making disciples of Jesus), requires a lot of time – relating.
There are no shortcuts.
However, a gardener may tell you that growth is likely to be fruitful in a shorter period of time if you put some work into gardening by preparing the soil, cultivating weeds, removing pests, adding fertilizer, removing dead leaves, and watering.
Growth is a function of time and experience. Several of the pieces involved in spiritual growth include, knowledge, study, experience, practice, and relationships. Study helps us to realize where our experience and practice do not match our knowledge of what should exist in our relationships.
After telling the believers that we have everything we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of Christ, Peter tells them to add to their faith virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. (2 Peter 1:2-12) Then at the end of the book Peter tells them again, “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.” – 2 Peter 3:18
The ultimate objective of discipleship is to teach people to teach people to relate well: to God, to His written word, to the Holy Spirit, to application of truth in personal holiness, to family, to the Church, and to the world.
Word. Identity, Life. Discipleship.
“For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:” – Ephesians 4:12-13
Resources
To Carefully Lay the Foundation for Mission
Equipping the Church
- Firm Foundations: Creation to Christ – Chapter One
- Ethnos360 Bible Institute – e360bible.org
- Lessons From The Field
- Training for Mission – accesstruth.com
- Training – Historic Missions in Today’s World, Preparation, Patience and Persistence #RMC2020 – Brooks Buser
- The WILD Framework
- A framework for understanding how Truth produces life, growth and fruit.
- WorldView – Volume One BFF
- Books – Animism, Worldview..
- Missions & Discipleship
The State of the World
The Mission
When Everything Is Missions
by Denny Spitters & Matthew Ellison
Conversations on When Everything is Missions
by Denny Spitters & Matthew Ellison
Missions: How the Local Church Goes Global
Mission Vision in the Old Testament
- God’s Missionary Heart in the O. T.
- God’s Heart for Mission in Old Testament
- The Biblical Basis of Missions
- The Bible as a Missions Story
- Genesis to Revelation: God’s Heart for the World
- Top Line Bottom Line – Bob Sjogren
10 Things You Should Know about Missions and the Local Church by Andy Johnson
Visions of Success
We tend to have visions of grand success that more resemble a victorious conquerer than a suffering servant.
Paul’s statements about “the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death” have little place in our thinking. Yet Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” (John 12:24) Jesus also said, “And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:27
The greatest commandments are “…Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.” Luke 10:27
Jesus said, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13 This is exactly what Jesus did for us. He laid down His life. Then He told His disciples, “as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.” John 20:21
The pattern set for success in His mission is through valuing God and other people more than our own lives; abiding in Christ. (John 15)
Values for Completion of the Mission
Revelation 5:9
- Word of God – values – video 3 min. – bit.ly/2OwZY52
- Sacrifice – values – video 3 min. – bit.ly/2RRwEnz
- Dependence on God – prayer – video 3 min. – https://vimeo.com/237456614
- God’s Word – 38 sec’s – vimeo.com/259943050
- Urgency – 47 sec’s – vimeo.com/259944673
- Relationship – 1:37 sec’s – vimeo.com/259904048
Stories of Mission Completed
Prep the Big Picture
(Stages of establishing thriving churches of Christians among the untold language groups.)
- Pre-Training Stage – I can have a part / Lean into your local church – Dan Falls – 2 min. video – https://vimeo.com/363641147
- Awareness of the Untold – 29 sec’s – Joel Potter – https://vimeo.com/363614649
- Preparing to Serve Cross-culturally – 39 sec’s – Kristi Mize – https://vimeo.com/363614698
- National Culture and Language Acquisition – 58 sec’s – Dalton Deck – https://vimeo.com/363614756
- Pre-Teaching – Tribal Culture and Language Acquisition – 62 sec’s – Cindy Whylings – https://vimeo.com/363614826
- Evangelism – Formal teaching – 75 sec’s – Tom Brendle – https://vimeo.com/363614882
- Developing Church – Becoming Grounded – 35 sec’s – Bethany Potter – https://vimeo.com/363614969
- The Developing Church – Casie Falls – 60 sec’s – https://vimeo.com/363615010
- Continuing Thriving Churches – 39 sec’s – Larry Brown – https://vimeo.com/363615074
Under Construction - This is a work in progress. Some things ARE going to change on this page.
In conclusion, the vision is to go to people of every ethnolinguistic people group and teach them to observe all that Christ commanded.