How Is the Body of Christ on a Mission?
Church on mission is definitely a buzz-phrase that is anywhere you look these days. the concept that we have to title churches, missional, has forever been a tiny bit odd to me. I ask you, shouldnt all places of worship be missional in their very core? Shouldnt a church, at its very base, want to meet their culture and area with the gospel as a missionary would in a foreign country? Isnt what the church buildings is commanded to do in the final charge of Christ in Matthew 28:19? Our own hometown needs this style of church. Missional church in Austin is slowly going to what Christ instructed in Holy Word.
The messiah gives the direction in Acts 1:8 saying, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:8 personifies this topic as, right before Jesus Christ ascends to Heaven, He sends the disciples on a mission that would start right in their local community. He begins with their hometown of Jerusalem, and then broadens the call to the far parts of the earth.
As believers, we are not motivated to isolation, but to be missional believers who are actively going out and finding communities right where they are with the good news. We have seen this throughout history: God sends Abraham on a mission to exit his place of origin and his people and go to the place that God would show him (Gen. 12:1), God motivated Moses on a story to renew an enslaved people and lead them to independence (Exodus 3:8-10), God moved Jesus on a mission to earth to reconcile all things to Himself through the crucifixion (Colossians 1:20). And now God is sending us on a mission to engage communities, cities, peoples, and even nations with the story of Christ(Matt. 28:19 Mark 6:7 Luke 10:1 John 20:21 Acts 1:8). If we abandon this urge and continue to perceive the places of worship like a closed off country club ” demanding that people resolve their act, pay their money, and come to our sanctuary God will continue His journey without us.
