What Is Our Mission?

The church is divine and has a divine mission. A clearly defined purpose prevents misunderstanding, promotes the work we are to do, and helps us not to get side-tracked. It seems clear that many have lost their way. They stay busy but still fail to do what is divinely appointed.

One who is hired for a job but never knows what he is to do will be frustrated and cannot please those who hired him. We must know where we are going. Some who have failed or neglected to fulfill the mission of the church have turned to sidelines which usually involve recreation or social programs.

The devil is not afraid of a busy church as long as it is not saving souls! As one reads the inspired history of the church in the book of Acts, one is impressed with the work of the apostles and early preachers. As they left one city to go to another city to preach the gospel, they had a burning desire to teach more people. They were never satisfied to stay. They had to go!

Their purpose, as they went, was to make disciples by teaching them and baptizing them (Matt. 28:19). It was this deep belief that people were lost and the gospel would save them that moved the great apostle Paul to go preaching to the entire world. When there was opposition, he did not give up. At Corinth the Lord told Paul not to be afraid but to speak the word, "for I have much people in this city" (Acts 18:10).

Why do we think our mission is any different? The gospel preaching that turned the world upside down, when softened and weakened, will be ineffective. Can you imagine Paul's going into a city like Athens where his spirit was stirred because they were given over to idolatry and announcing his first lecture as "How to Feel Good About Yourself', and for the next three nights lecture on the "Psychology of How to Get Along in a Pagan World"?

On the mission field, when souls are not being taught and won, it is easy to turn to social projects. These are not wrong and do have their place unless they are used to replace the direct preaching of the gospel. When the apostles preached and people obeyed, churches were started, and they were off to another city to repeat the process.

The mission of Christ is summed up in Luke 19:10: "For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." This is our purpose, too. Everything we do should contribute to this purpose. We must not get side-tracked into some lesser project or into thinking that being busy is the same as being approved.

Jesus told the apostles to go teach all nations, baptizing believers in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now comes the "punch line" when he said "teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." One thing he had just commanded was "to teach all nations." This is how the Great Commission becomes our duty. As long as there is even one person in any nation of the world who has not been taught the saving gospel, we have not finished our job.

Go on a campaign. Hand a tract to someone. The tract may stimulate his or her interest. Show the filmstrips to someone. Have a part somehow in the direct preaching of the gospel and know that you are doing what the Lord wants you to do.

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world (Matt. 28:19, 20). Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned (Mark 16:15-16).

We need to do more teaching on the Great Commission.