A church that is pursuing God in his word and in prayer will naturally begin to discuss biblical missions. Missions is a part of the Bible’s DNA, and as we follow the Scriptures, I hope that missions will become a part of our DNA as a church as well. I’d like to give a few thoughts to consider as we approach the topic of missions and then explain the steps we will be taking to strengthen our commitment to missions as a local church.
First, we must base what we do and practice upon the Word of God. If we want to do God’s will as we practice biblical missions, we must recognize that it is God’s Word that contains the DNA for biblical missions, not us. It is very easy for us as individuals and as a church to assume that we know what biblical missions is and what it looks like practically; however, we must realize as a congregation that there may be some areas where we need to grow and conform our understanding and practice to the Word of God. Sometimes this can be a painful process.
Our pride can be damaged and we might encounter elements that make us uncomfortable, but we as a church must approach this topic humbly, recognizing that if there is tension between us and the Bible, it is we who must move, not God.
Second, biblical missions must be about sharing Christ. Satan loves to distract Christians who want to please God, and one of the primary ways he does this is by taking their focus off of Christ.
As we seek to do missions biblically, there will come a point where we will be tempted to
take our eyes off of Christ.
Satan will distract us by telling us that our goal is simply to meet the physical needs of hurting people. If we succumb to this temptation, then we will be satisfied when we see a person’s physical needs met. We as a church must guard ourselves against this temptation and remember that our goal as a church is to show people that the real need they have is to be healed of their sin by Christ. This does not mean that we will not seek to meet physical needs, but that we will never stop at physical needs because we know that Christ is the only one who can cure them of the true pain of sin.
So how will we as a church be approaching this task? Starting June 12th, we will be
offering a Sunday school class on biblical missions. This class will provide instruction on what the Bible says about missions, how the church can practice local missions, how the church can practice global missions, and how the church can come alongside missionaries and support them in their work. If you are interested in how we as a church can practice missions, then please be sure to come! The goal of this class is to equip us as a church to do missions biblically and help us as a church to unite together in how we think about and practice biblical missions. In addition to the class, we will also be forming a missions team. The missions team will seek to put into practice what will be taught in the missions class. This team will focus on prayer for God to work through His church, brainstorming ways we as a church can engage in missions, and practice
missions locally.
As we seek to glorify God in all that we do, both individually and as a church, let’s
commit to pray for our church and for each other that God would conform us to the image of His
Son.