The sending of the church

The Church,

that is the congregation, is gathered together and built up in order to be sent into the world. There is no exception to this rule. A congregation without an objective beyond its own members has lost its reason for existing, like a dead tree.

Mission the Business of the Church

No fact about the Church is more basic, more clearly stated in the New Testament, and more universally applicable than this, that it is chosen in order to be God's servant to the world, like Israel in the Old Testament. Jesus chose twelve "to be with Him and to be sent." When the Spirit was given it was so that the Church would have power to witness for Jesus. "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will bear witness" (Acts 1: 8). Paul was chosen and converted to carry Christ's name to the Gentiles (Acts 26: 17). According to Peter, Christian people are "a holy nation . . . to show the praises of Him who called them out of darkness. Every time the Church meets for worship, it is sent out again on its main business. In the Roman Catholic Church the final ward after the Mass is "Ite missa est," which might be translated "Go, the mass is ended." The bene-diction in Protestant Churches also is more than a blessing on the gathered people. It is a charge-"Go forth into the world." Indeed one of the basic reasons for coming to worship is the need to be refuelled for the task of witness. There is a direct connection between the presence of missionary zeal in members and their regular presence in worship.

Mission the Business of the Whole Church

William Temple said "there can be no widespread evangelisation of England, unless the work is undertaken by the lay people of the Church." Jesus' gift of the Spirit, and his command "as the Father sent me, so I send you" were given to all His followers, although, of course, the part each individual members takes, and the spiritual gift he receives so that he can fulfil his part, vary greatly. In St. Paul's earlier letters, incidentally, there is no mention of "elders." So he was able to lay the responsibility for witness to Jesus Christ, by word and act, on the whole congregation without distinction. They were all living letters about Christ (2 Corinthians 3: 3). It may be that the organisation of the local Churches as it appears in the Pastoral Epistles has the inevitable danger of shifting the responsibility for the Church's mission on to the leaders. At any rate, the more a church is organised, the more it must be careful, that the specialisation of duties does not remove from ordinary members their calling to be witnesses, but rather enables them for it.

Training the Whole Church for Mission

The Churches have given lip service in recent decades to the charge of all its people to be missionaries. Yet the vast majority of lay people have not taken it to heart. One reason may be that they have not been trained for their vocation. A person is confirmed as a member of the Church so that he can be a witness in the world to Jesus as the Lord. It is for this reason that we pray for the Holy Spirit in Baptism and Confirmation. Yet there seems to be remarkably little awareness of this call in the mind of the average member of the Church. This is true at least of the National Churches. Confirmation ought to be the start of a process of teaching, training and encouragement in confessing the faith. More often it is the end of the process of education. If we are to translate our brave words about every member a missionary" into reality, the congregations must provide the training for it. Lay people, on the whole, are more ready to undertake this training than the Church is to help them in it.

Missionary Motives

Such teaching must begin with the main motives of mission. God loved the world, so He sent His Son. Jesus loved His own, so He died for them. We too must love the world, in the same sense as God does, if we are to carry out our mission in it, as the love of God floods our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5: 5). There is, indeed, an ambiguity of meaning in the text "the love of God has flooded in our heart." Does it mean God's love for His people flowing through is, or does it mean our love flowing strongly towards God Himself? Undoubtedly both are needed, and both are made possible by the same Spirit of Jesus. We find it easier to call men to have pity and concern for other men, than to give devotion to God. But in the New Testament the supreme motive for mission is love and gratitude to God Himself. It is in the Name of Jesus, and for Glory of God, not merely in the name of Humanity, that we are moved to offer ourselves in mission.

Missionary Objectives

The objectives in Christian mission have been debated long and earnestly in modern times. "Are we trying to save men's souls, or also their bodies?" "Has the Church a right to meddle in politics?" "Must we stick to evangelism as the special duty of the Church, or have we a social responsi-bility?" The practical answer the Church has given is loud and clear, for there has been a vast proliferation in the Church of organised activity in social and political fields. Christian Aid leads the field in claiming the support of ordinary Church members.

But the debate is not finished. Hopefully it will appear that many of the questions have been wrongly put. A man who loves his wife does not discriminate, in his affections, between her material and spiritual needs. The World Council of Churches' Conference in Bangkok, in 1972, on "Salvation Today" has emphasised the Biblical meaning of salvation in terms of freedom-economic, racial, social and spiritual. The Bible powerfully supports the Bangkok view, that we' cannot confine our prayers and service of others to their "spiritual" needs. The salvation of Israel from Egypt meant for them freedom as a nation, as well as liberty to worship. The prophets made no distinction between material and spiritual in declaring the Will of God. Jesus healed bodies as well as minds.

It is clear, however, from the calling and sending of the Church, that the special task given to it, for which it is equipped with spiritual gifts, is to preach the Good News of God's forgiveness and His coming Kingdom. This is the proper goal of the Church's mission, and it must never be deflected from it by pursuing earthly kingdoms, however desirable in themselves. Faith in Christ compels us to the view that man's full freedom, dignity and status are found only in Sonship of God. Man for his wholeness needs God in all His grace. For man's sake it is not possible for us who know the freedom of Christ to withhold it from others. If we truly give ourselves to our neighbour we share our faith and hope with him. Further, the Church is equipped for the work of evangelism as she is not for anything else. The history of Christian mission gives instance after instance of the Church embarking on fields in medicine, education, agriculture and even basic trades, only to hand them over after the pioneering stage was passed.

The Church is in the field of technological

aid only partially and temporarily. Its business there is to indicate a need, create a conscience and then pass on. The present interest in World Development is an example of the essentially limited contribution the Church can give. On the other hand the Church, and only the Church, can preach the Gospel. This is a work she can never abandon. It is her special calling. Jesus in his Galilean ministry, is on record as turning His back on the demands of the sick and pressing on with preaching the Kingdom . . . "for that is what I came to do." The Apostles in the early Jerusalem Church deliberately opted out of Special Service for Prayer and the Ministry of the Word. When Paul said to the Corinthians "I resolved thai "hile I was with you I would think of. nothing but Jesus Christ-Christ nailed to the Cross" he was underling the aim that must dominate all the varied work of the Church, and determine the priorities of that work everywhere and in every time. In the congregation, mission must proceed at three different levels.

Personal Witness the Basic Form of Mission

The basic form of mission appears when a Christian man or woman, in the common round of work and leisure, confesses his faith in Christ. From the beginning, when we read of Andrew telling his brother about Jesus, this has been the simple and natural channel of evangelism. In this witness both speech and action are always present. The action in which service is given to others, and no reward asked, bears out the spoken word in which a Christian confesses Jesus as Lord. In some Christian lives the gifts are more for service, and in others particularly for speech. Today however there is special need for Christians openly to confess their faith. If this is to happen however, Christian people must be pre-pared for it. Such training requires Christ's call to be "fishers of men" be clearly understood. It requires instruction in the faith and above all training in prayer, so that the gifts necessary for humble service and faithful witness be received by all. A main part of the minister's duty is to train and encourage members to be witnesses to Christ.

Organising Evangelism

Beyond personal witness, however, there are special needs in almost every community which call for a more planned approach by the congregation as a whole. Every community has its own features. In a seaport it may be concern for seamen on shore. In a city centre some special social problem. In some Japanese cities coffee shops are set up as a form of Christian mission. At any rate the poor, in the widest meaning of the word, are always with us. A con-gregation that is alert to the call of Christ will be sensitive to the human needs in its area, and within its resources act responsibly. The upsurge in sociological studies recently has meant that expert advice is available on the make-up of com-munities and the nature and extent of social problems.

A great deal of attention has been given both on the continent and in Britain to religion as a social phenomenon. Such surveys have helped the Church, in a number of areas, to pick out certain social needs for concentrated care. Even without such scientific analysis of the neighbourhood, however, a congregation that is moved by the spirit of Christ will be aware of those who most need attention. When Jesus began his mission, he said he had been sent "to announce good news for the poor, to proclaim release for prisoners, and recovery of sight for the blind: to let the broken victims go free" (Luke 4: 18).

It is the poor, the prisoners, the blind and the broken victims,

in the full Christian meaning of these words, that must be on the mind and heart of every Christian congregation. This does not call for a rush of congregational activity by which Churches busy themselves in social matters which are not properly their business. The guiding principle for the Church in its mission is that it is concerned especially with people for their own sakes and for Christ's sake. The work of mission is more deep and more difficult than concern about people's material needs.

The special task on which the Church is sent is to convey a faith and hope that depend on a surer base than material security. Social activity can actually be a substitute for this. Granted the need to keep in mind the fundamental task of spreading the good news, and granted too the need constantly to resist the temptation to over-organise, it still is true that most congregations must give specific thought to the special areas of mission, and train their members to play their full part in it. The minister and office-bearers' are called to lead the members in the activity of mission.

For an office-bearers' group this must be constantly on the agenda. The absence of it from the agendas of our office-bearers' meetings is a condemnation of the Church today. To be effective in its local mission a congregation needs first to have an awareness of it that is accepted by at least a solid core of its members. This can only happen by the process of teaching, Bible Study, discussion and partici-pation. Once the objectives are clear, the means can be worked out. Often what appears is a demand for more money and more staff. Such a demand should be examined with extreme scepticism. The Church has weapons that are not the world's weapons.

The gifts given by the Spirit of Christ,

to those who are prepared to use them, are the first essentials. We cannot dispense with organisation in the Church, and Christian organisation ought to be efficient. Simplicity, however, is essential in any work that leaves free room for the Spirit. In the local congregation, then, members know that they are sent by Christ to those in their community in special need, and will organise themselves for this. They will undertake regular visiting of. the homes in the community, if possible in co-operation with other denominations. They will consider, again ecumenically, the question of special evangelistic missions. And always, the worship in Church will have in mind that the building, the congregation and the service exist not only for those who are already members but particularly for those who are not.

The World Wide Mission

In addition to the basic form of mission, i.e. individual members confessing their faith in lives of service: and the congregational forms in which special organised efforts are made, there is still a third level. It is the part played by the congregation in the wider work of the Church. The danger of a congregation being absorbed in self-contemplation is always present. Deliberate effort must be made to ensure that members are aware of the great issues on a national or world scale which the Church has to face. It should know itself to be part of a network that spreads over all continents, and that a congregation it is in partnership with Christ's servants in widely different places. The mission is one. Members who are involved in some special field of service: Missionaries; Deaconesses; all make their contribution to the involvement of the local congregation. In most Churches congregations are asked to make financial contribution to central Church purposes such as mission overseas, Church Extension, Social Service. Such financial gifts are more than the payment of a Church tax. They are a form of mission.

They involve an act of com-munion between a local congregation and the specialist agents of the Church. In many cases they are the most direct way in which local Christians can be involved with the struggle of their brothers in other lands for a full and free life. In every congregation there are formidable difficulties preventing vigorous missionary outreach. Human nature is basically selfish. Men and women forget what they do not want to remember. Local loyalties are strong. So vigilance is needed to prevent congregations slipping into apathy. Above all it is by the gifts of the Spirit, to which the congregation is open through prayer, that the good news is spread. The Church is always more than a well disciplined human group. It depends for its day-to-day work on the power that comes as "dayspring from above." So prayer is as basic to the Church as breathing is to the body.