This past weekend was our annual Missions Conference. I’d like to underscore why this event is on our church’s annual calendar. We’ve all got plenty to do, so it isn’t just another event to fill our schedule.
We believe that the church’s primary task is found in Christ’s commission to His disciples to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. This command hasn’t been rescinded. Therefore, it’s the task of the church in every age to obey our Lord and bring the glorious news of His suffering and exaltation on our behalf to all nations, tribes, and tongues.
In some quarters foreign missions has either become simply an opportunity for adventurous Christians to see far off parts of the world, or it’s contaminated with the postmodern sludge of “all cultures are equal” and have abandoned, almost entirely, the task of proclaiming the Gospel of Christ’s Kingdom.
Nevertheless, the banner of Christ will be raised over every citadel of human society: church, state, and family. But keep in mind that when the Great Commission says, “Go” it literally translates to “as you are going.” Meaning, this task of evangelizing the nations isn’t to be done as if it’s a Hail Mary desperation pass at the end of a football game. Rather, we’re to courageously and diligently seek to know Christ and make Him known to all inhabitants of the earth.
All this will take awhile, but we must not twiddle our thumbs. Spurgeon gives a fantastic reminder on this front: “If from this day for the next 10,000 years not a single soul should be converted to God by foreign missions—it would [still] be [the Church’s] duty with increasing vigor to thrust her sons forward into the mission field because her duty is not measured by the result, but by the imperial authority of Christ!”
Prayer of Confession
Father God,
We would be numbered as Your friends, and we know that this can only be if we come through the righteousness of Jesus. Through Him you draw us near, in order that you might then send us out to be ambassadors of Your great mercy unto the sons of men. Forgive us where we have been cold and indifferent to the plight of the lost and the depraved. Renew a zeal for evangelism in the midst of your church, that we might see a reformation that is deep and wide in this dark age in which we live. Where we have not been faithful to live as obedient witnesses and testimonies unto Your Word and ways, pour out Your mercy upon us once more.
You have called Your church to truth in the inward parts, so we now confess our individual sins to You. Selah.
We do this in Jesus’ mighty name, and Amen.
