World Evangelism and the
Purpose of the Church
David Mays We commonly think of the purpose of the church as
threefold, consisting of three dimensions, relationships or responsibilities:
But are these complete in themselves or do they
individually and together focus on something larger? Something more comprehensive? The church has
historically seen its ultimate purpose as God’s glory. Many today seem to say that the primary
purpose of the church is worship.
However, when we speak of worship we tend to get fuzzy-minded. Worship
is more than what we do when we gather at church and sing praises. It is
possible to worship God with our lips while our hearts are far from him. I like to think of
worship as honoring God. Then we can compare it to a child honoring his
parents. He honors his parents not just when he says good things to them or
about them. He honors them when he incorporates into his life his parents'
ideals, and values, and purposes, and goals. That is truly honoring them. We
worship God when we live for what He lives for, his glory - in all the earth.
We worship God when we align our lives with His desire to be worshipped - by
all peoples. Therefore, when I think of the purpose of the church as
God's glory, it gives me perspective if I think of it as His glory in all the
earth. When I think of the purpose of the church as worship, it gives me
perspective if I think of it as the worship of God among all peoples. If the
purpose of the church (the why question) is God's glory, then the mission of
the church (what the church is to do) is to see to it that he is worshiped
among all peoples. Therefore, I conclude, as do many writers, that the Great
Commission is the marching orders for the local church. Our problem is that the
"mission" has slipped down to become one of the programs. And that
has been so prevalent that it is very difficult to imagine what it would like
if it were restored to the level of a purpose. Programs come and go. Programs are optional. They are meant to
fulfill purpose. Purpose is permanent. There are two important conclusions
here. 1.
Purpose belongs to
every department and every person in the organization. Therefore world
evangelism is a proper component, part of the plan and operation, of every
department and ministry. Missions
education (input) and/or missions involvement (output) is part of every
department. 2.
The purpose of the
whole is the purpose of the parts.
Thus the unifying theme or overarching purpose of each ministry or
department is world evangelism. It is
not just an add-on, but the direction-giving focus, the guiding principle of
every department. Might it be possible to make world evangelism
the purpose of the whole church and every part of the church? How might it be done?
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