5 Questions
Your church might be able to ship out pastors and missionaries solely when it will possibly reply every of the next 5 questions with a loud and hearty, “Sure, and amen!”
1. Is Your Church Ruled by Scripture?
We’re underneath the authority of the Bible, whose truths transcend time, geography, and tradition. The Bible is of the utmost significance not merely as a result of it’s clever, useful, fascinating, and comforting, however as a result of it’s, at its root, God’s Phrase. We affirm the conclusion reached by J. I. Packer, who taught that Scripture doesn’t simply form our considering; it directs all of our affairs:
The ‘Phrase of the Lord’ conveyed by the prophets of their oracles, and the ‘Phrase of God’ set forth by the apostles of their sermons, was all the time a phrase making use of on to its hearers, summoning them to acknowledge that God Himself was thereby addressing them, calling on them to reply to His instruction and course, and dealing in them via God’s personal Spirit to evoke the response which is required.1
Our lives as people and our lives as church buildings needs to be instructed and directed by God’s Phrase as his Spirit works inside us.
After all, the Bible doesn’t converse to each side of our life collectively as a church. There may be a lot room for variations of opinion. How lengthy ought to a sermon be? Ought to extra of our cash go to native outreach or worldwide missions? Ought to we plant a church domestically or enlarge our auditorium? These are issues of prudence over which biblically minded Christians will disagree.
On this temporary, insightful information, pastors Aaron Menikoff from Atlanta, Georgia, and Harshit Singh from Lucknow, India, share their journeys main their church buildings to be extra missions-centered by taking the gospel throughout geographic, cultural, and linguistic limitations.
Nevertheless, we should be lockstep in our settlement that the whole lot we do is ruled by God’s Phrase. Every native church should be underneath the Bible, which is why devoted, strange church buildings embrace the weekly exposition of God’s Phrase, unpack Scripture, one passage at a time, and belief God’s Phrase to offer life. In itemizing out 9 marks of a wholesome church, Pastor Mark Dever prioritized the significance of expositional preaching as a result of he understood that when a church is dedicated to biblical preaching, good order in each different space ought to comply with.2
Native church buildings usually are not prepared to boost up and ship out missionaries till they agree that their church should be ruled by Scripture.
2. Does Your Church Know Why It Exists?
What’s the final objective of the church? What’s the ultimate finish or objective of the church?
John W. Alexander, the president of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, opened up the Urbana missionary conference in 1976 by declaring “the conviction that God’s overriding objective in his work is the pre-eminence of Jesus Christ.”3 Practically twenty years later, John Piper threw down a similar-sounding gauntlet: “Missions is just not the final word objective of the church. Worship is. Missions exist as a result of worship doesn’t. Worship is final, not missions as a result of God is final, not man.”4
Alexander and Piper, two males who devoted their lives to selling missions, learn their Bibles and precisely concluded that God’s glory is the objective of all of life. Via the prophet Isaiah, the Lord mentioned he fashioned a individuals so “that they may declare my reward” (Isa. 43:21). A number of chapters later, God promised to sooner or later showcase his grace by conserving his promise to construct a nation for his glory:
For my very own sake, for my very own sake, I do it,
for a way ought to my identify be profaned?
My glory I cannot give to a different.—Isa. 48:11
The e book of Psalms ends with the aim of creation:
Let the whole lot that has breath reward the Lord!
Reward the Lord! —Ps. 150:6
Jesus rightly acquired the reward which is his due. He by no means turned away a follower who fell at his toes in worship. After Jesus walked on water, Matthew tells us the disciples within the boat “worshiped” him, crying out, “Actually you’re the Son of God!” (Matt. 14:33). Jesus acquired their worship. When Thomas touched the risen Jesus, he known as out to him, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). Once more, Jesus acquired his worship. Paul declared that sooner or later each individual will “confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:11). On that day, all creation—the sheep and the goats—will acknowledge Jesus is Lord, and he’ll lastly and absolutely obtain all of the glory that’s his due.
The church exists to offer God glory.
God is glorified each time and wherever his identify is preached. Whether or not sinners acknowledge “Christ is Lord” is as much as God. That missionaries proclaim “Christ is Lord” is as much as the church. Due to this fact, the church preaches the gospel, recognizing God is glorified within the merciful salvation of the undeserving and within the simply condemnation of the unrepentant.
Native church buildings usually are not prepared to boost up and ship out missionaries till they know they exist for the glory of God.
The Crossway International Ministry Fund helps e book and Bible distributions to help pastors and believers in want of theological sources. Would you be a part of us in equipping fellow Christians around the globe? Learn More.
3. Do Your Pastors Mannequin Trustworthy Shepherding?
One of the crucial highly effective metaphors for the church is that of the flock. “Shepherd the flock of God that’s amongst you,” Peter wrote to the elders (1 Pet. 5:2). “Pay cautious consideration to yourselves and to all of the flock, by which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers,” Paul wrote to the elders in Ephesus (Acts 20:28). “Have a tendency my sheep,” Jesus commanded Peter (John 21:16).
It isn’t flattering to be known as a sheep—they’re cautious, simply startled, and susceptible. God selected such a picture for his individuals to assist us perceive that all of us want a shepherd. And it doesn’t matter how outdated or mature a sheep is; the youngest and the oldest in a flock want a shepherd.
Shepherding is on the coronary heart of pastoral ministry. Shepherds love and feed and look after and pray over and luxury and information and rebuke and serve the sheep. We don’t presume each pastor can know each member of his congregation—some church buildings are bigger than others. However we do know that each pastor should attempt to know the state of the individuals over whom God has given him oversight.
Put merely, a pastor who shepherds properly will labor to have significant membership. He’ll attempt to make sure that the members of his church do greater than merely profess religion in Christ; he’ll need to discern whether or not they truly know the Lord. Such a church will apply church self-discipline by excluding from official membership those that say they’re Christians however who persistently refuse to dwell as Christians.
What does any of this must do with missions? Missionaries are likely to replicate the pastors who discipled them. So if their pastors at house are aloof—if their curiosity in preaching or evangelism far outweighs their concern for shepherding the flock underneath their care—then the missionaries they raised will possible have the identical priorities. Missionaries with a low view of the pastoral workplace might be content material with planting church buildings with out guaranteeing that pastors are in place to shepherd the brand new disciples.
Native church buildings usually are not prepared to boost up and ship out missionaries till they’re led by pastors who mannequin devoted shepherding.
Native church buildings usually are not prepared to boost up and ship out missionaries till the price of discipleship is obvious.
4. Is Depth as Necessary to Your Church as Breadth?
Conversations about missions might be contentious. Battle erupts once we pit two good issues in opposition to each other, like breadth and depth. For instance, the missionary job is pressing—we have to get as many church buildings planted as potential (breadth). On the identical time, these new church buildings should be wholesome—we have to guarantee church buildings are robust sufficient to face the assessments and trials of this world (depth).
No church will turn into a sending church until it’s first a mature church, rising in its understanding of Scripture, deepening in its prayer life, sharing the gospel with its neighbors, and caring for these in want. Briefly, we would like church buildings which can be devoted the place they’re.
We’re desperate to see church buildings ship hard-working, energetic, and prayerful missionaries abroad—women and men whose lives are dedicated to sowing gospel seeds. Sure, we care about breadth. However we care equally about depth as a result of missionaries should perceive that solely robust, mature church buildings survive and multiply.
Because of this, after preaching the gospel all through Asia, Paul didn’t instantly transfer on to new territories. As a substitute, he circled again to verify on new converts who had been rising in grace and godliness. He wished to ensure they understood his educating. He devoted himself to “strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to proceed within the religion, and saying that via many tribulations we should enter the dominion of God” (Acts 14:22). Paul knew trials and struggling would come, and he wished to ensure these younger church buildings would endure.
In spite of everything, not solely did Paul intention to see the gospel preached the place nobody had ever heard the identify of Christ (Rom. 15:20), he strove to “current everybody mature in Christ” (Col. 1:28).
Native church buildings usually are not prepared to boost up and ship out missionaries till they take each depth and breadth significantly.
5. Is the Price of Discipleship Clear in Your Church?
Let’s face it, a Christian’s story is commonly marked by struggling. We see it in Joseph who frolicked in a pit and a jail. We see it in Moses who endured the complaints of the individuals he liked. We see it in David who fled from Saul. We see it in John the Baptist who misplaced his head—actually—to the sword of Herod. And we see it in Paul—maybe probably the most well-known Christian of all time—whose legacy options profound persecution and ache (see 2 Cor. 11:23–29).
Somebody may ask, “If Christianity is stuffed with struggling, then why hassle?” As a result of it’s price it! Struggling by no means will get the final phrase within the Christian life. Our future is superb. In The Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian is on his method to heaven, the Celestial Metropolis. However his life is stuffed with a lot struggling that he wonders whether or not God has deserted him. He expects to knock on the gates of heaven, solely to listen to God say, “Get away, you don’t belong right here.” Accompanying Christian is his good pal, Hopeful, who reminds him that the crosses we bear are proof that we belong to a loving God who disciplines us for our good:
My brother . . . these troubles and distresses that you just undergo . . . aren’t any signal that God has forsaken you; however are despatched to attempt you, whether or not you’ll bring to mind that which [until now] you might have acquired of His goodness, and dwell upon Him in your distresses. . . . Be of excellent cheer, Jesus Christ makes you complete.5
Trustworthy church buildings don’t shrink back from the sharp edges of Christianity. They preach that “all who need to dwell a godly life in Christ Jesus might be persecuted” (2 Tim. 3:12). That is merely strange Christianity. Church buildings who be a part of Paul in his need to “know nothing amongst you besides Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2) will export missionaries who preach the true gospel. Nevertheless, church buildings that fail to maintain the cross central will export missionaries who don’t preach the cross. They’ll water down the gospel message and create a technology who declare the identify of Jesus Christ however don’t actually know him.
Native church buildings usually are not prepared to boost up and ship out missionaries till the price of discipleship is obvious.
Conclusion
Media scholar Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase, “The medium is the message.”6
Amazingly, within the Bible, the message truly creates the medium—the gospel makes the church! Now it’s the job of the church to guard and to advertise the gospel. Get the church unsuitable, and you’ll quickly get the gospel unsuitable. In case you attempt to do missions with out the “pillar and buttress of the reality”—the native church—finally your work can have been in useless. It received’t final. In actual fact, it will possibly’t final as a result of God designed the church to guard and to advertise the gospel.
All this to say, your view of missions must be church formed. Because the medium is the message, devoted missions demand a gospel preached by and for native church buildings that ship out certified women and men all around the globe to plant extra church buildings. Bear in mind, they solely plant what they know. Church buildings on the sector will look loads just like the church buildings at house.
Notes:
- J. I. Packer, God Has Spoken: Revelation and the Bible (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1965), 66–67.
- Mark E. Dever, 9 Marks of a Wholesome Church, 4th ed. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2021), 44.
- John. W. Alexander, “Introduction,” in Declare His Glory among the many Nations, ed. David M. Howard (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1977), 15.
- John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad: The Supremacy of God in Missions, third ed. (1993; Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Educational, 2010), 15.
- John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress (Westwood, NJ: Spire Books, 1965), 142.
- Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1994), 7.
This text is customized from Prioritizing Missions in the Church by Aaron Menikoff and Harshit Singh.
