Christian mission and the church

There are so many good things we might do. In fact, far too many for us to actually do them all or for us to do many of them well. 

So we ought to be really clear about the core and primary mission of the church. Scripture and tradition allow us this kind of clarity. But many are, or appear to be, confused on the subject. There is a real danger of drift and distraction - that we fail to keep the main thing the main thing. We may end up in a sad state if we major on the minors. Missional wisdom seems to be that churches should try to do a few things well. But what should those things be or seek to do?

Perhaps we know of churches where almost everything and anything is seen as "mission". What place for social action? Is carbon neutrality part of the mission of the church? 

What is the church for? What should she be about?

The church exists for the worship of Almighty God and to call all people (indeed the whole of creation) to that worship. She ministers word and sacrament. She gathers each week to receive God's Fatherly instruction and to be nourished by Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. This churchly special worship equips her members for the every day ordinary worship of life in the world. The church is about the great commission: making disciples of the nations, baptising them and teaching them to obey Christ's commands. She gives herself to the prayerful preaching and teaching of the good news of the Bible, baptism and Holy Communion.

But church is not all of life. There is also the family and the civil government. There are individuals and associations, businesses, clubs, societies. 

There are some things the church as church must do. There are some things it might do. There are other things that are perhaps best left to individuals and coalitions of the willing, rather than the institutional church and her officers.

A simpler, humbler bolder church would do well to know what the church should be about.

If everything is the mission of the church, maybe in the end nothing is. And, it seems in practice, evangelism (the verbal sharing of the good news of Jesus) is in danger of being neglected. We would do well to distinguish pre-evangelism, evangelism, discipleship, mission and other good and worthy stuff. 

Go and do good and many blessings upon you. May a thousand good flowers bloom. May the church be the church for the sake of God, church, world and cosmos. And may all things be done by grace, through faith, to the glory of God.