Conversion growth in Presbyterian and Reformed churches is virtually nonexistent. In the opinion of this writer that should, can, and must change. Hence, this call for reformation in the mission of the church.
In the last issue I defined the terms “maintenance” and “missional,” and that mission, not missions, is the identity of the church.1 Hence, we cannot and should not relegate evangelism and outreach to a subordinate or obscure place in the life of the local church.
Does God have a mission for His church in the world, or does God have the church for His mission in the world? I favor the latter. Why? Because God is on a mission. Mission and evangelism do not begin in Matthew 28 with the Great Commission. Rather, they begin with the character of God and His heart for lost sinners in a sin-soaked world. God is a missionary God, and this truth is clear from Genesis to Revelation.
The original intention for creation was to dwell on the earth together with man. God’s first command was to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.”2 Adam and Eve, created in the image and likeness of God, to glorify and to enjoy Him, were to fill the earth with similar glory bearers so that the whole earth would be filled with God’s glory. This was never intended to be static as if the garden was the end goal. Adam was to be productive in the work of tending and cultivating the garden, but that was not all. Four rivers flow out from the garden into the earth (Gen. 2:10–14) implying an outward, expansive orientation.
The trauma of sin cursed the perfect creation and all of mankind. No sooner did Adam fall than God intervened to rescue and to redeem. The promise of a Savior was given in Genesis 3:15 and the future is assured by the name of the woman, Eve, the mother of all living.3
In Genesis 3–11, the “curse” is repeatedly mentioned within the stories of the flood and the tower of Babel. Will judgment for sin be the final word? No. In Genesis 12, when God calls Abraham, the word “bless” is repeated and the promise given: “all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”4 This promise is repeated six times in Genesis alone declaring God’s mission.
Israel’s mission was to be something, not to go somewhere. They were to be an attractional people centripetally,5 drawing the nations to their light (Deut. 4:5–8). However, Israel failed in their missionary calling as they repeatedly sinned in becoming more like the nations around them than different from them. This dramatically changed with the coming of Jesus, the true Israel, who in His life does what Adam and Israel failed to do. He was obedient and faithful, even unto death on a cross (Phil. 2:8).
As a missionary God, He sent His Son to save: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son” (John 3:16). The Son is a missionary Son who came to seek and save that which was lost.
Jesus enlists and instructs His church as a new Israel, filled with the Spirit to be the “light of the world” (Matt. 5:14),6 by whose “good works” the Father will be glorified.
Then, upon Jesus’ ascension, the Father and the Son sent the Holy Spirit. “Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing” (Acts 2:33, the day of Pentecost).
Jesus commissions His church to be the means by which the promise to Abraham of Psalm 2 will be fulfilled.7 All this was done in order to equip, enable, and empower the church in its mission. The orientation is now universalized or centrifugal.8
The Lord completes His mission in Revelation. Revelation 7:9 reads, “Behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.” Additionally, these who are saved dwell with the Lord on the earth in a new creation wherein righteousness dwells. “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God” (Rev. 21:3). The sovereign king of the universe will in the fullness of time be successful.
Our churches exist for God’s mission in the world. Will you be part of it where you live, work, study, and play? Every church is to flourish and grow as a missionary church. Is that the identity of your congregation, or is the atmosphere to maintain the status quo? Let us all begin to dispense with the concept of maintenance churches. Ecclesia Reformata, semper reformanda.
Rev. Paul T. Murphy is the emeritus pastor of Messiah’s Reformed Fellowship in New York City. He has been asked to stay on as a full-time evangelist for the congregation.
1 The mission of the church is to make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28). Missions, by contrast, are various ministries that carry out that mission.
2 Genesis 1:28, English Standard Version. Significantly it is also the first blessing.
3 Eve sounds like the Hebrew for “life giver” and resembles the word for “living.” Matthew Henry comments, “God had not reversed that blessing wherewith he had blessed them: Be fruitful and multiply. It was likewise a confirmation of the promise now made, that the seed of the woman, of this woman, should break the serpent’s head.”
4 Paul declares this “the gospel in advance” in Galatians 3:8. The promise of Genesis 12:3 is thus basic to God’s mission agenda.
5 Centripetal means proceeding in a direction toward a center.
6 The “you” in the text is plural (i.e., the church).
7 In Psalm 2:8 God the Father promises the Son to “make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession” (New International Version).
8 Centrifugal means proceeding in a direction away from a center.