God’s Sent People: Dr. Hena and WPHCC Staff
The Mission of God is to make Him known and to be a blessing. So, how does the Christian make Him known while being “God’s sent people”? 1
God’s mission incorporates missional aspects of the church. Very simply, Christians are “God’s sent people.”1 “The challenge today is to move from church with mission to missional church; that mission should be more than a program, but at the very core of the church’s reason and purpose for being and should shape all that the church is and does.”2
Who is the church?
What does it mean for a Christian to be called the church? The Apostle Peter’s confession of faith in Matt 16:16 (KJV), “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” is the rock upon which Jesus built His church; consequently, everyone who confesses Jesus Christ as Lord, as Peter did, is the church.3
As the church, believers have the opportunity to minister in their sphere of influence beyond the walls of a place of worship. Being the church is living out one’s faith by following Christ and allowing God to work His perfect will through your life.
Ernest Southcott, an eminent Anglican priest in the 20th century, initiated the House Church movement in England.4 He said, “The holiest moment of the church service is the moment when God’s people—strengthened by preaching and sacrament—go out of the church door into the world to be the church. We don’t go to church; we are the church.”3
Many times Christians perceive the church as only a denomination, a place or a structure, and even a location. “God’s people who are in Christ Jesus are the church … and the primary vehicle through which God carries out his purposes on earth.”3
God’s mission field might be foreign missions for you, or being the church where you live. You may have to redefine how you will be the church with your God-given talents and skills in different seasons of your life.
God reveals His mission by dropping people into your life and reveals opportunities to serve that you never thought of before – colleagues to mentor as they try to survive office politics; a neighbor who has just lost her husband; being a sounding board for a young mother – we do not find God, God finds us to be the church. In those circumstances, you may have the opportunity to share the Gospel.
The Church and a Call to Mission
Think about God in a serious way. Engage in Bible study* to figure out how God comes to you and how he wants you to fulfill His Mission. Understand the culture in which you live; 2) understand the dynamics of spiritual warfare; 3) stay current with the news that impacts your church and community; and 4) understand the work place and family dynamics to determine how to teach people to think about God and His plan for their life.
Seek Biblical knowledge and learn how to survive in an alien world (Christians are in the world, but not of the world [John 15:19]) – whether it be in one’s workplace, school, or community. Prepare to know how to live in a multi-diverse culture to become more effective as the church.
The Challenge
“Love your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, love your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10: 27 (NIV)
The Holy Spirit allows the Christian to think creatively, so a spiritual leader must be attentive to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit in Scripture and impart that component to people when teaching them how to think about God and how He wants to work through each Christian to make Himself known.
In trying to understand the culture in which you live, rethink why God sent you and how He is growing you for future missional tasks? He will show you how to be the church and endure spiritual warfare in the work place or in your home or community.
In serving, where you are planted, God is also refining you for future tasks in His Kingdom. Missionaries are encouraged to study the culture where they serve; hence, the layman can also learn about the culture in which he or she lives or works.
God wants us engaged in all ways and to intentionally challenge ourselves to go forward as God’s sent people as the church into all of the world to make disciples of all men.
Offering a “cup of cold water and a worm pill” is being the church. Providing wells for clean water is being the church; educating people on good sanitation is being the church; wiping the brow of a feverish patient is being the church; and providing money to fulfill one’s spiritual gift of giving is being the church. Be a blessing!
The Great Commission
In conclusion, here are your marching orders: Matthew 28:16-18 (NIV) 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” LAS
*Definition of Theology: “The word ‘theology’ comes from two Greek words, theos meaning ‘God’ and logos meaning ‘the word about (or the study of) God’ as He is revealed in the Scriptures. Theology is reading the Bible to discover what God has said about Himself. Without theology, our relationship with God would be limited.” Retrieved from compellingTruth. https://www.compellingtruth.org/definition-theology.html
References:
1 Franke, John. The Character of Theology (2005). Baker Academic: Grand Rapids, Michigan, 70
2 Franke, 70
3 What Is the Church? New Testament Church Definition. Retrieved on 17April 2019 from https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-the-church-700486
4 Ernest Southcott, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Southcott
5 Franke, 71
