I stated in the past that the greatest problem especially for church leaders today is missionless congregations. By this I mean that too many churches do not have a clear and compelling sense of what God expects them to accomplish.

Poll any group of church members by asking them what is the God-given purpose of the church, and you will discover a wide range of responses. Some responses will be incomplete and others very vague.

The most common responses are "to glorify God" and "to save the lost." Both are right, but each lacks compelling and motivating clarity. A clear and comprehensive understanding will allow all congregational ministries a single biblical anchoring. And a clear purpose for the church can ignite a compassion for action. What is logically prior to "how-to" information is a rekindled flame for doing God's will. Church leaders and members can become weary in well doing without divine direction. The antidote to weariness is first and foremost, a renewed sense of God's purpose for us. Then, ample energy for action will flow from a desire to please God.

Congregations need to rethink the church's purpose on a regular basis. Preaching, teaching, and group discussions form some key avenues to help a church rediscover their purpose and rekindle their passion for accomplishing for God's glory.

The following material is offered as information to consider in clarifying the church's mission. As you read this and other writings you'll discover several terms used interchangeably. For example, a purpose statement and mission statement for a church refer to the same thing -- an understanding of what God wills for the church to accomplish through its many ministries. We want to further consider our God-given purpose or mission.

Clarifying Mission

The term "mission" is not a biblical word. It comes from a Latin term that refers to sending. The dictionary gives gives this definition: "The act or instance of sending." This helps some, but it does not fully define the ways that Christendom has used the term.

In trying to understand the church's mission, it cannot be separated from the mission and ministry of Christ. Any definition of mission must be grounded in his mission. Jesus stated his mission in several ways: "For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me" (Jn. 6:38); "Even as the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mt. 20:38); and, "For the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost" (Lk. 19:10).

hen the church was given birth, as recorded in Acts 2, it began to express Christ's mission in specific ways. From ft activities on the Day of Pentecost and shortly following, five functions have been observed that represent the church's concrete efforts to accomplish Christ's mission. After the Spirit descended, they became a worshiping, preaching, teaching, fellowshipping, and serving community. The five functions are derived from key biblical terms: (1) didache (teaching), (2) koinonia (fellowship), (3) liturgia (worship), (4) diakonia (service), and (5) kergma (proclamation).

These five functions were the Jerusalem church's response, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to accomplish a single God-given mission. Paul has presented a comprehensive description of that mission; "All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself..." (2 Cor. 5:18-19). The church has been given Christ's mission -- the ministry of reconciliation. Each of the five functions could be understood as broad strategies that are given to accomplish the one mission.

Every function or strategy should be faithful to mission. Each strategy that the church employs should make a contribution to the ministry of reconciliation. Difficulties arise when strategies and methods lose sight of their goal and become an end in themselves. From my observations, the most frequent problem in congregations today is the loss of mission, which leads to institutionalism. When churches lose sight of their mission, then each function is carried out as an end in itself. And with no outside purpose to direct and energize the activities, they become lifeless rituals.

In this next section, my purpose will be to develop one example where Scripture ties function to mission. God's desire and efforts for the reconciling of all nations unto himself is a theme that can be traced from cover to cover in Scripture. The correlative theme of worship (one of the five functions) as mission can also be traced from Genesis to Revelation. It is my conviction that all five functions are to contribute to mission; worship is presented as an illustration of this point.

Worship As Mission

From the beginning of creation up to the time of Abraham, God appears to be focused on the whole human race. Scripture clearly implies that the acceptable pattern for worship was given to everyone. Evidence is seen in Genesis 4 where God accepts Abel's worship and was not pleased with Cain's worship.

After the flood, Noah and his family represent the whole human race. As they leave the ark and enter the new world, the first expressions of gratitude to God were acts of worship (Gen. 8:18-20). The whole of humanity is worshiping God, and God is pleased (Gen. 8:21).

Also, from the beginning men have sought their own way. Cain, after he murders his brother Abel, goes his own way. It appears that he and his descendants lack a worshiping relationship with God. The consequences of being out of relationship with God can be seen in the depth of sin in the lives of Cain's descendants. Scripture gives Lamech as an example. Lamech committed murder like his father, Cain, but he had digressed to the point of even bragging about it (Gen. 4:23-24). This type of rebellion and rejection of God and his will continued among the human race after the flood. The key biblical example is Nimrod and the building project that was in violation of God's will (Gen. 11:1-9).

In Genesis 12 is recorded a watershed event in God's dealing with humanity. God calls Abraham and focuses his redemptive work on behalf of the whole human race through this one man and his descendants. He promises Abraham to make of his descendants a great nation, to give them a specified land, and that the whole world would be blessed through him (Gen.12:1-3, 7). At this point God has not forgotten the nations; his every action has the nations in mind. His developing of the nation Israel, providing the promised land, and bringing forth the Messiah are all designed to bless the nations. While Israel often forgot this, it was consistently made clear by the revelation of God.

In the formation of Israel as a nation, they received the Law to guide their daily lives. Even the Sabbath was-to benefit the sojourners among them (Ex. 20:8-11). When Moses gave his final instructions to the Israelites before they entered the promised land, he reminded them to include the sojourners in worship. Together, everyone could learn to fear and obey God (Deut 31:12).

In spite of God's clear instruction, Israel developed a malevolent spirit toward the Gentile nations. The requirement to include the sojourners in their worship was in keeping with God's command for Israel to love their neighbor:

When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. The stranger who sojourns with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God (Lev. 19:33-34).

God never gave Israel an overt charge to go out and proselyte the nations, but they were never released from a responsibility toward the nations. Isaiah, in recording God's revelation, tells Israel that they are God's witnesses (Is. 43:10). Who are they witnessing to? It is obviously the Gentile nations. Israel is taught that their covenant relationship with God required them to be a light to the nations (Is. 42:6; 49:6; 60:3). God's love and concern for the nations is crystal clear in so many of his dealings, even with Israel. Perhaps the book of Jonah is the most vivid picture of God's concern for the Gentiles.

The dominant characteristic of Israel that separated them from the nations was the worship of the one true and living God. For the most part they were monotheistic while the nations around them were polytheistic. Not only were the nations not acknowledging the true God, polytheism was a source of evil and hurt to the people. Israel had been fully warned about the physical and mental consequences of turning from God and the truth (Ex. 15:26; Jer. 7:5-7). Jehovah was revealed to them as a God of healing.

Israel's worship was never to be an exclusionary event, because the nations needed the same healing God. When the magnificent temple in Jerusalem was first built, Solomon lifted his heart in prayer and praise to God saying:

Likewise when a foreigner, who is not of thy people Israel, comes from afar country for thy name's sake (for they shall hear of thy great name, and thy mighty hand, and of thy outstretched arm), when he comes and prays toward this house, hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to thee; in order that all the peoples of the earth may know thy name and fear thee as do thy people Israel, and that they mayknow that this house which I have built is called by thy name (I Kings 8.41-43).

The Psalms represent a collection of sacred writings used by Israel in worship. They are considered as inspired revelation along with the Law and the Prophets. And they carry the same mission message for the nations. The Psalmist pro- cwms, "All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord; and all the families of the nations shall worship before him" (Ps. 22:27).

Alan Tippett, former professor of World Mission at Fuller Seminary, sees the relationship expressed in the Psalms between the two themes: salvation for the nations and worship by the nations. "This idea of the worship of the nations appears about fifteen times in the Psalms, and it is to the nations that this salvation is to be dispensed." The two themes are inseparable, because there can be no salvation without the right relationship between Creator and creature.

The same vision in the Psalms is affirmed in the Prophets. The house of the Lord shall be established and the nations will flow into it (Is. 2:2-4; 56:6-8; Jer. 3:17). The nations will eagerly seek the opportunity to go and worship (Mic. 4:2).

The two themes of salvation and worship continue into the New Testament. These golden threads of God's worldngs not ordy continue, they also are brought to a fuller realization.

God loves all the world, and by Jesus' own disclosure God is seeking true worshippers (Jn. 3:16; 4:23). Jesus is God incarnate upon the earth with a specific ministry to accomplish. He states his own mission succinctly, "For the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost" (Lk. 19: 10). Salvation and worship are never far apart; they are woven together into a tapestry of God's great redemptive work.

Jesus has a very strategic plan to transfer his ministry to his disciples so that his mission could continue after his departure. He started by teaching his followers little by little through oral instruction and personal example (In. 13:12- 17). He gave them on-the-job training (Lk.9:12; 10:1). And after his death and resurrection, he makes the transfer clear. He tells his small band of faithful followers, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you" (Jn. 20:21). Later, on a mountain in Galilee, Jesus tells his disciples, "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Mt. 28:19).

In the transfer of his ministry Jesus had in mind the role of the church. Earlier, he had told his disciples that he would build his church and nothing could overcome it (Mt. 26:18). In fact, the ministry of Jesus was transferred to the disciples and to the church.

Before the Lord's ascension, he tells his disciples that they will be his witnesses to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). Shortly after, on the Day of Pentecost, the promised Spirit is given in order to empower the new body of Christ on the earth--the church. It was an exciting time dominated by two things: worship to God and the evangelizing of lost souls. Luke writes:

And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they partook offood with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved (Acts 2:46-47). They had a wonderful atmosphere of Christian community and worship to God, and the result was spiritual and numerical growth.

The two themes continue through the Epistles and some- times meet in the same passage. Peter beautifully describes the church as a community of worshippers: "And like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (I Pet. 2:5). He continues, and a few verses away he says, "...that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" (I Pet. 2:9).

The last picture where the two golden strands of worship and the salvation of souls met in final triumph is recorded by the Apostle John (Rev. 7:9-12).

From the beginning God has desired and sought true wor- shippers. He has given the means for humankind to approach him in acceptable worship. He has made his will plain in Scripture. It was never an exclusionary privilege for only a few, but by design it was to be inclusive. Worship has a vertical and a horizontal dimensions and it has a missionary function.

Conclusion

God through Christ has given the church the ministry of reconciliation. None of the five functions of the church should be isolated from this mission. Every strategy and specific activity of the church should make some identifiable contribution to mission.

Some church growth strategies have received more than their share of criticism. This is partially because the relationship between strategy and mission was left too vague or altogether missing.

Criticism aimed at the local church can be silenced by responsible action in three areas. First, each new generation of Christians should spend time rediscovering and restating a clear understanding of the church's mission. It is too easy to avoid the hard work of theology, and to simply repeat the same strategies and specific ministries of the previous generation. On the other hand, a renewed awareness of mission based on Scripture can save a church from dead institutionalism, and provide a sense of purpose, direction, and energy to advance the cause of Christ again.

Second, congregations would benefit from studying growing churches to understand what strategies are working. This requires close observation of several churches, and also studying the field of church growth in order to recognize effective strategies and the conditions under which they work.

Third, congregations should select strategies that are faithful to mission. NEssion belongs to the entire congregation and all of its church functions-worship, preaching, teach- ing, service, and fellowship. Based on a clear mission state- ment, strategic plans can be made where each area of work makes a meaningful contribution to the overall mission of the church.

(Adapted from my book Church Growth Through Groups)