The Mission of the Local Church

I spent some time preparing today for a message I'm giving during one of the church services in Tucuman. Pastor Jorge asked me to focus on the theme of "Commitment and Devotion to Christ." As I was thinking through what specific topics I might address, I couldn't help but think of the Great Commission passage of Matthew 28:18-20. The reason why this passage stood out was because the church is to be committed to the commission that Christ has bestowed on her to make disciples of all the nations.

Now this is a pertinent passage because much of the evangelism in the church today is merely focused on making decisions, not disciples. This is not to say that people making decisions for Christ is not important. It is just not the end. When so many work only to get people to make some profession of faith over a shallow understanding of the gospel, it is no wonder that many "believers'" lives have been absent of the life-changing power of the cross. David Doran, in his book For the Sake of His Name, writes, "The Great Commission produces disciples, not decisions. It is certainly true that becoming Christ's disciple occurs at a decisive point in time and through a decision to receive Christ, but one of the sad evidences of a defective and unbiblical missions strategy has been the tendency to be satisfied with evangelistic decisions that yield no lasting fruit or transformation in the lives of those who have supposedly received Jesus Christ." He continues, "While claiming to guard the gospel of grace, this actually denies the power of grace to convert the soul and make the person who is in Christ into a new creation (cf. 2 Cor. 5:17)." This is a very important element in understanding the importance of the church's role in missions. If people are only committed to making decisions, churches are essentially unnecessary. But if the task is disciple making, churches are the vehicles in getting that task accomplished.

I thought about this for the trips that LBC has been taking to the Czech Republic and Argentina. Suppose we went out in the summers and saw hundreds of people make decisions for the Lord. Would that be fulfilling the requirement of the Great Commission. David Doran argues that it would fall short. He writes, ". . . the central focus of this passage is the command to make disciples. This is the essential task of the Great Commission. . . . The task before us is not simply announcing the good news of Jesus Christ; it is making disciples for Jesus Christ. We cannot make disciples without announcing the good news (Romans 10:14-17), but that is where the Great Commission starts, not stops." One of the reasons we have committed ourselves to the ministries in Ostrava and Tucuman is because of the church planting efforts in those two areas. When someone comes to know the Lord, we have a church there that can continue to the work of disciple making. We do not come home with the same concerns as the Apostle Paul with the church in Thessalonica, whether the people who responded to the gospel later turned from it and our work had been in vain (cf. 1 Thess. 3:1-5). There are established churches that we have partnered with that will continue to nourish and nurture these young converts so that they grow in respect to their salvation (1 Pet. 2:2).

All this isn't to say that God cannot use missions and evangelism outside the local church. It is not even to say that going on missions outside the local church cannot be helpful. In some ways it is extremely helpful to gain practical insight into methods and strategies. It simply makes sense to me that if the work of missions and evangelism is disciple making, then that will be accomplished through the ministry of the local church. It is the church, then, that should be remained committed to this kind of missions work.