Eternal Perspectives

Part One

(Following is the second part of a proposed paper for elder and leadership development and orientation at my friend Butch’s fellowship, Hole-in-the-Wall Church. Feedback is desired.)

3. What is the Gospel of the Mission Church?

The gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Rom 1.16). This is a familiar definition, but what does is actually mean? For many years evangelicals have focused almost exclusively on that part of the gospel that is simply a way to avoid eternal separation from God: the eternal was emphasized to the neglect of the temporal.

Certainly an eternal perspective is important but it does not reflect a full and complete understanding of the Gospel in the New Testament. When Peter refused to eat with Gentile Christians in Antioch, Paul told him that he was not walking in line with the truth of the Gospel (Gal 2.14). That helps us see that the Gospel has immediate, temporal implication and is less than the true gospel if it is nothing more than a “turn or burn” message.

(1) The good news of God’s grace. In our place, as our substitute, Jesus lived the life we should live and died the death we deserve to die (2 Cor 5.21a). When he died in our place, he took the punishment that we deserve. By trusting in what Christ has done for us, sinful people are credited with God’s righteousness (2 Cor 5.21b). This happens freely, apart from any meritorious work on our part (Rom 3.24). We are far more flawed and sinful than we can conceive or comprehend – and yet we are more loved and accepted than we presently experience or imagine. By believing in what God has done for us in Christ, our sins are removed, we are declared righteous, and we are fully accepted by a holy and righteous God.

(2) The good news of changed lives. Satanic or man-made religions operate on the principle, “If I obey, I will be accepted.” But the gospel of grace operates by a completely different principle, one diametrically opposed to the former and offensive to human pride. God’s salvation through Jesus Christ says, “I’m totally accepted through Christ, therefore I can obey.” Religion calls humans to live by their own power to gain favor with God, but the true gospel is the power of God for salvation, resulting in a supernatural empowerment by the indwelling Holy Spirit. The gospel moves us to obey and serve others irrespective of their merits or behavior, just as Christ served us; further, it gives us the power to love others even as Christ loved us and them:

“Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
– Rom 5.7-8

(3) The good news of a coming new world. Christ wins our salvation through losing, achieves power and victory through weakness and service, and comes ineffably rich by giving his life away. Those who receive his salvation are not strong and accomplished but, to the contrary, are those who admit that they are weak and lost. This gospel creates an alternate kingdom of God, a “called-out community” in which there is a reversal of values of the world with regard to power, recognition, status, and wealth. In this new community sex, money, and power are used in new, life-giving ways. All of this one day will be perfectly realized in a world where Christ will reign supreme in his kingdom.

Looking back on the preceding truths of the gospel, there are nevertheless inherent dangers due to our inclination to emphasize one to the detriment of the other two:

Exclusive stress on the gospel of grace will produce people who are concerned about “preaching a gospel message”, but often do not produce a radical, humble community. Churches that primarily stress the first aspect of the gospel produce people who are concerned for world missions but do not know their next door neighbors, elected officials, and rarely serve the poor in their local community.

Exclusive stress on the power of the gospel to change lives will (perhaps) result in satisfied, disciplined, but complacent church-goers: it often fails to get people to deny self-gratification, which the culture says is the greatest good. Churches like this often become places where people are living dutiful lives but are out of touch with the needs of the suffering, lost, and (at least in our city) predominantly postmodern culture surrounding them.

Exclusive stress on the gospel of a coming kingdom and new day will produce social programs, but will fail to convert people or give them the power for a changed lives that they need to persevere in humbly serving the needs of the poor and lost. Temporal needs will be met – which is a good and vital responsibility – but eternal needs will be neglected.

At Hole-in-the-Wall we are striving to balance all three dimensions of the gospel of the kingdom of God. This balance would manifest itself in Hole-in-the-Wall becoming a mission church that is committed to being internally focused as a means to becoming an effective, externally serving force.

4. What is a Mission Church?

In 1998 a book was published by Eerdmans entitled, Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America, edited by Darrell L. Guder. In this book Guder and others wrote about the distinction between seeing “mission” as the center of the church and “mission” as a program of the church.

They wrote:

We have come to see that mission is not merely an activity of the church. Rather, mission is the result of God’s initiative, rooted in God’s purpose to restore and heal creation. ‘Mission’ means ’sending,’ and it is the central biblical theme describing the purpose of God’s action in human history.” – p 4

The author’s call is important and timely; combined with the truth of a mission church also consisting of a community of “called out” believers, he is correct in locating “mission-as-being-sent” as a core component of the church and not merely an ancillary function. God is a communal God. He calls out a people; he sends out a people. Jesus chooses his own; Jesus sends out his own.

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last.” – Jn 15.16a

Mission is understood as being derived from the very nature of God. It is thus put in the context of the doctrine of the Trinity, not of ecclesiology or soteriology. The classical doctrine of the missio Dei as God the Father sending the Son, and God the Father and the Son sending the Spirit is expanded to include yet another “mission”: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit sending the church into the world.

In the ecclesiocentric approach of Christendom, mission became only one of the many programs of the church. Mission boards emerged in Western churches to do the work of foreign missions, but it has taken the church decades to realize that mission is not just a program of the church. Rather, it is one-half of the dual purpose of the Church: it expands the “called out” nature of the Church to include the church as a people “sent out” by God.

Either we are defined as a twice-chosen community, i.e., in being called out and sent out, or we reduce the scope of the gospel and the mandate of the church. Thus our challenge today is to move from church with an internally focused emphasis to a mission church that is characterized by its twofold purpose: being called and sent.

A mission church, therefore, sees itself as called and sent by God into the surrounding culture to be a gracious and active influence in the external community for the sake of the gospel and the Kingdom of God, to have a two-pronged influence that is temporal as well as eternal.

Next: Belonging to a Mission Church and Reaching the Community