THE MISSION IS EVANGELISM!
In the simplicity of this Mission Statement stands the purpose of the Church. How easy it is in the modern Church to lose focus on the primary and to spend an inordinate amount of time in the periphery. With the many programs, activities, social functions, ministries prevalent in the modern Church, too often there is not a passion for the lost. We, in the Church, expend a tremendous amount of energy doing “things”. We are a busy people because that’s what we should be. However, we must focus on the Mission. Please understand dear ones, programs, ministries are important and needful, but the Mission is most important.
The Mission of Christ is stated in Luke 19:10: For the Son of Man is come to seek and save that which was lost. What a significant statement the compassionate Savior made about Himself. Jesus uses for Himself the title “Son of Man,” which in His own thought stood for divine Messiahship and human solidarity. As divine Messiah, He was able to be a Savior, because He had the ability to save; and as Son of Mankind, He could be a sympathetic Savior who Himself was tempted in all points like as we, but without Sin. He “came” with a mission to this world. That Mission was to search for the lost until He found him; and to save him when he is found. With what is called “The Great Commission,” Jesus has now assigned to His disciples of all time the great task of the Kingdom, that of world evangelization.
The great commission, the Magna Charta of Christianity, has been entrusted to us, His larger body of disciples. The commission or MISSION to which He sends us is very plain: “Go ye therefore and make disciples of all the 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.”
Christ has commissioned us, (you and me), to evangelize the whole world. We are to make “disciples” or “learners” of all the nations. Evangelism is not limited to conversion only. The whole life individually and socially of the people must be changed by the power of the gospel. We need the programs, the ministries, the activities, but keep the focus.
The MISSION is EVANGELISM!
Pastor J. Amos Jones
