missio

There’s a lot of thought going around concerning the function of the church in today’s world (and indeed in any world across time). I’ve put some thought into it myself (for obvious reasons), and have come to this conclusion: the Church is meant to create a Christ-centered counter-culture. Wow! What a great revelation, Derek! You’re the first ever to think that up!

We have all been hearing this for a while. But only a handful of leaders are really talking about how to go about creating a theocentric culture. The answer, of course, lies in Scripture. God tells Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply, and then again He gives this command to Noah. Jesus teaches His disciples to be in the world, but not of it. He tells them to be as salt and as light. He instructs us that He who is in is is greater than He who is in the world. The answer to the question of how we create a Christ-centered culture is simple: the Church is to create Christ-centered people. This is the Great Commission (go and make disciples). We, the church specifically as an institution of the Church at large, are to be fruitful and multiply among people, who are then acting as the Church at large and creating a counter-culture which is Christ-centered. When we, the church as an institution, focus away from people (the real Church), we lose our mission. We lose our focus, and in the end, we will lose the culture war of our time.

Lesson? Focus on the mission: focus on people.