The Mission of the Church
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Mission is the heart of God's redemption for his creation that is inherited in the heart of every genuine Christ follower. Mission is a lifestyle that is expressed in all God's people through their transformed lives by the power of His Holy Spirit.
The Mission of the Church must be seen as being holistic, embracing the three strategic dimensions of:
- Reaching unreached peoples
- Evangelizing unsaved people in reached people groups
- Expressing Christ's kingdom (new creation) through the transformed lives of God's people within their people group
The Mission of the Church is the Mission of God entrusted to his people, the church of Christ.
It reflects God’s strategic plan to redeem the lost humanity through his chosen people, and it also speaks for God’s intention of how he sees the composition of his chosen people.
God blesses all nations, showing his impartiality to the peoples of diverse cultures he creates, but he also wants to partner with those he redeems to continue his mission. This mission is fully manifested in the powerful witness of the body of Christ with mutual acceptance and love among Christians regardless of their cultures, languages, values, and habits. It makes no sense to tell the churches all over the world to reach all nations without demonstrating that the church of Christ is a community that vividly illustrates this intention.
Mission Is…
When Jesus said that the end will come when the gospel of the kingdom is preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations (Matt 24:14), he is expecting his church to pursue the goal of reaching all nations with his gospel.
He is expecting to have all people groups change from unreached to reached status - that is, that all people groups would have enough Christ followers to build indigenous churches among themselves. For that to happen, there are uncomfortable and risky attempts for some Christ followers (we call them missionaries) to reach unreached people groups cross-culturally.
However, God knows that it is more effective to communicate the message of the gospel to people with similar cultures and values, and that is what most local ethnic churches are laboring for - to bring more people of their own cultures to enter the kingdom of God and become disciples of Jesus.
The problem is, mission seems to be understood as either for professional missionaries or local church leaders with most of the church congregation not directly involved. But if we understand that the mission of God is for the church, for every redeemed individual, then mission is not only a task or an obligation for a certain title. It is not only an organized program or ministry.
Mission is the heart of God's redemption for his creation that is inherited in the heart of every genuine Christ follower.
Mission is a lifestyle that is expressed in all God's people through their transformed lives by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Today, God has tossed up the world and brought in the nations everywhere, bringing people groups that used to be inaccessible in their own countries for the gospel to countries where there is an abundant number of gospel-preaching churches. Local churches in Canada are in a position to embrace the mission of God cross-culturally or within the same culture.
And more importantly, all God’s people must realize that we can all be on mission with God through how we live and witness to our neighbors. As Jesus brings out the intriguing question of who our neighbors are (in Luke 10), you may be the best person to answer that question in responding to God’s call of who you are going to witness with the gospel of Christ for the kingdom of God.
The mission of the Church is not just programs or activities organized by the leadership to be administered to the target individuals or communities - professionally designed events to attract people to our church (or building).
The mission of the Church is also the expression of the presence of the Church through individual Christ followers, whenever and wherever they are.
Mission is accomplished when brokenness is mended, when darkness is brightened up by the presence of the true light, that is, Christ, being manifested through the transformed lives of the numerous Christ followers scattered in different corners of the world.
Alfred Chui practiced physical therapy for over 25 years before he joined North Edmonton Alliance Church in 2009, first as the English Pastor & then in 2013 as the Senior Pastor. In 2019, Alfred & his wife Charis relocated to Richmond, B.C. and Alfred joined Outreach Canada as the Simply Mobilizing (SM) Canada Chinese Language Coordinator - implementing, maintaining and expanding the Kairos and other SM courses to mobilize Canadian Chinese diaspora Christians and their next generations to reach and disciple all nations.