Many times we endeavor to get people "saved." We share the gospel with them and then baptize them and then tell them to continue to come to church and then get involved in a small group/Sunday school class. There is absolutely nothing wrong with any of those things. In fact they are extremely important to our walks with God. I quickly realized that in Halverson's mind, Church (and all that this word has come to entail: e.g. buildings, corporate worship, Small groups/Sunday School, youth groups, men's/women's ministries, etc...) is not bad. The problem arises when we stop there and more specifically when Church becomes something that we do or a place that we go instead of something that we are.
The Church is, simply speaking, an assembly of people who associate with Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Each Sunday morning, the Church comes together for corporate worship and Sunday School. But this is only 1/7th of the work of the Church. That 1 day (or better 2 hours) of your week is a time to fellowship with other believers. The true work of the church begins at the last Sunday morning "Amen" when the Church goes home to live out its Mission; not just the pastors or elders or deacons, but everyone. So what is the mission of the Church?
There are 4 verses that are crucial to answering this questions: Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-16; Luke 24:46-48 and John 24:31. Now Matthew, Mark, and Luke give us a variation of what is commonly referred to as the "Great Commission" in which the disciples are commanded by Jesus to tell the whole world about Jesus. We hear this all the time. John on the other hand tells us that this is the exact purpose of his gospel, he writes, "these things are written so that you may believe Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and by believing you may have life in His name." This is crucial to our understanding of the Church's mission. As Halverson so poignantly points out, we are truly "surrounded by an ocean of need." Yes people are living in poverty. Yes people are suffering from illnesses and people are suffering at the hands of evil people. But the primary plight of humanity is death (physical and spiritual death). Because of sin, death entered into the world. Jesus came and died on the cross that we might have life, not just here on earth but eternal life even after this life comes to an end. The mission of the Church is to meet the greatest need of everyday people by telling them about Jesus so that they may believe that Jesus in their Messiah and by believing they may have life!" Sunday morning is not necessarily the place for people to come to hear the Gospel. Many people who desperately need to hear the message of Jesus Christ will never darken the doorway a church. We must go find them.
All Christians make up the Church, and when we gather together, let us make a concerted effort to not just do Church because our worship is "irrelevant piety" if it does not carry over into the rest of our week. Also, let us not just tell people about Jesus so that they can come to our church on Sunday morning but even more let us send one another out into the world to live out the mission of the Church.
To shamelessly paraphrase from Star Trek. "This is the story of the Church of Jesus Christ. Its continuing mission: to preach the gospel to strange new cultures, to seek out the lost and downtrodden and give them hope, to boldly go wherever Christ may call us."
A Christian's greatest act of worship is to live this mission as their lifestyle.
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