Don't Lose Sight of the Mission
Editorial by Justin Nash
The mission of the church is not to redeem the culture. The mission of the church is to proclaim the gospel. The church can feed the hungry, clothe the naked, heal the sick, care for the poor, educate the less fortunate and any other number of acts of service that demonstrate love for our neighbors. These are all good and admirable things. The presence of a church should make any community demonstrably better. But none of these is the mission Christ gave to his church. The church’s mission is to make disciples (Matthew 28:18-20).
The mission of the church is not to redeem the culture. The mission of the church is to proclaim the gospel.
The church alone has been commissioned to proclaim the gospel
There are myriad non-profit organizations and government agencies that tend to the physical needs of our neighbors. Many serve with excellence and efficiency. But the church of Jesus Christ is the only institution in the history of the world that has been commissioned by the Son and empowered by the Holy Spirit to proclaim the forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus Christ on the basis of his life, death and resurrection. The church alone has been given the keys to the kingdom of God (Matthew 16:18-19). Only the church has been authorized by God to pronounce the terms of eternal life. It does so with the full authority of Jesus to authenticate the truthfulness and reliability of the only message of salvation.
When local churches lose sight of this, they have failed in the primary task they have been given. Our pulpits should not be filled with words of political commentary, analysis of current events or therapeutic self-help strategies. The world provides plenty of that, but the pulpit of the local church should be substantively different. The announcement of Christ crucified, risen and coming again should be an ever flowing river from our preachers and pastors. If this good news is not pronounced in the local church, where else will people hear it?
Christians are citizens of another kingdom
The local church is an embassy or outpost of another kingdom. No matter what temporal and earthly nation we are citizens of, all believers in Jesus are first and foremost citizens of an eternal and heavenly country. This heavenly nation has fundamentally different values than any earthly kingdom. Christians should care about earthly suffering and love their neighbors by trying to ease that suffering as best they can. But we should care more about our neighbors suffering the destructive wrath of God.
The church alone has the message of salvation. She must not lose sight of that and allow the gospel to fade into the background as she tends to the earthly needs of her members and neighbors. No matter how hard we work, we can never redeem our culture so that it becomes heaven on earth. Only Christ can do that. The mission of the church is to prepare as many people as possible for Christ’s new kingdom through the announcement of salvation and eternal life only through the Lord Jesus Christ. We and our churches would do well to remember that.
Justin Nash, “Don’t Lose Sight of the Mission,‘” The Advent Christian Witness, Spring 2021