The Church on Mission (Rev. Dr. Charley Reeb)
We put a lot of stock into people’s last words before they leave the Earth, before they pass away. I recall the last time I saw my father. I’ll never forget his last words to me. He said, “Charley, I love you and I’m so proud of you. Be sure to take care of your mom and your sisters.” I have never forgotten that. Those were his last words to me.
I’m sure you can remember the last words that you heard from loved ones. Throughout history, there are very significant and sometimes comical last words from people. It is reported that that just before John Wesley died, he sang a final hymn “I ‘II Praise My Maker While I’ve Breath” and his final words were: “Best of all is, God is with us.”
Have you ever given any thought to Jesus’ last words before he left the Earth? Well, we have them recorded in scripture.
At the end of Matthew before Jesus ascends to the Father, Jesus’ last words to his followers were not, “Go and find a comfortable church and attend worship once a month.” His last words were not, “Go and sing the songs you like in worship and complain if you can’t.” His last words were not even “Go out and judge those who sin differently than you do.”
In Matthew, these were Jesus’ last words:
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” -Matthew 28:18-20
In the gospel of Mark, the longer version, Jesus’ last command was “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel.”
In Luke, Jesus’ last command was: “Repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed to all the nations.”
We call that the Great Commission, not the great suggestion or the great option. It is the Great commission from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It’s a mandate. Jesus makes no distinction between his followers and his witnesses. You can’t separate discipleship from evangelism. A faith worth having is a faith worth sharing. The church is the only institution in the world that exists for those outside of it.
Jesus said, “Go and make disciples!”
This is the purpose of the church. This is the mission of the church. Occasionally, people will ask me, “Charley, what is your vision of the church? Where is our church going?” My response is always the same. Well, the good news is that I don’t have to figure that out. Jesus already told us the vision and mission of the church – to make disciples for the transformation of the world! By the way, this mission is printed in front of your bulletin each week!
This is the main thing. The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. And the main thing is to make disciples of Jesus Christ. The church is not a non-profit. The church is not a community center. The church is not a concert hall. The church is the hands and feet of Christ living and spreading the gospel for the transformation of the world.
As Christians, we only have three things required of us: love Jesus, love others and love others to Jesus. We are to be witnesses of Christ in order to bring others into a relationship with Christ. This is the main thing. When churches do this, lives are changed, people get off drugs, marriages are saved, the broken are made whole and communities are transformed. When churches don’t do this, we become just another nice charity that does nice things from time to time.
Now, why do Christians and churches have such a problem remembering this? Why do Christians struggle to do the one thing that Jesus asked his followers to do before he left the earth? One word: distraction
C.S. Lewis’ masterpiece The Screwtape Letters is a fantastic book that gets to the truth better than most theological books. The book is a series of letters written from Screwtape, a senior-level demon, to his nephew Wormwood, a younger demon just starting out in the temptation business. In these letters, Screwtape gives advice to Wormwood on how to keep his “patient” (the Christian he has been assigned to tempt) distracted from his relationship with God. Screwtape’s advice is diabolically timeless:
…You will find that anything or nothing is sufficient to attract his wandering attention. You no longer need a good book, which he really likes, to keep him from his prayers or his work or his sleep; a column of advertisements in yesterday’s paper will do.
…You can make him do nothing at all for long periods.
If Lewis were alive today, he might rewrite the last sentence this way: “You can make him do nothing at all for long periods by making sure he scrolls through his Facebook newsfeed every day.”
It’s not that the church doesn’t know what to do. It does. It’s not that the church does not know how to do it. It does. It’s not that the church does not have the strength to do it. It does! We have the strength of Christ!
No, the sad fact is the church in general simply gets distracted from its mission of making disciples. It’s evil’s most effective tool.
I love the story found in the first chapter of Acts. Jesus is ascending into heaven and his followers are looking up in awe. As Jesus is ascending, he is telling his followers to “go and be witnesses.” And his followers just keep looking up. When Jesus disappears, two men appear and say, “Stop looking up into heaven. Look out in the world and be witnesses for Christ. Stop looking up! Look out!”
Right now too many Christians in our denomination have lost focus and are looking up instead of looking out. They are looking up saying, “Oh my Lord, I am so offended by this…I can’t believe this is happening. This upsets me. I don’t like what’s happening…” All the while Jesus is saying, “Stop looking up; look out! I’m out there in the world, waiting on you to help me change people with my love. Be my witnesses.”
So, how do we get back to that? How do we get back to our mission? How do we get back to being guided by our purpose of making disciples?
We must get back to our first love. Remember how excited you were when you first heard about and experienced Jesus’s love. You couldn’t wait to share it.
Brandy and I were once having dinner at a new restaurant with some friends of ours. It was a new restaurant. The food was excellent, and so was the service. After dinner, our friends said, “We have to tell people about this place!”
How quick we are to share the things we love – a good book, movie or restaurant. Yet, when it comes to sharing the greatest news in the world, mum is the word for many Christians.
I like the way Tony Campolo put it: “If you had the cure to cancer, would you keep it to yourself?” You would be considered the most evil person in the world. But you know what? We have the cure to spiritual death….We have…Are we really going to keep it to ourselves?
Now I know what some of you are thinking: “Charley, I am not comfortable sharing my faith. It is awkward. And I don’t want to turn people off.” Well, that’s because the models we have for sharing faith are just awful. I am not talking about passing out tracks and grabbing people by the shirt and screaming at them. That’s not reflective of the love of Jesus Christ, nor is it effective.
When you really get down to how we are supposed to share our faith and how the Spirit leads us to do it, it’s very simple. Just love people, develop relationships with people…and believe me you will have plenty opportunities to share why Jesus means so much to you because the people you love and care about will ask! They will be curious!
I love what 1st Peter 3:15 says: “Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence.”
You see, they key to sharing your faith in a loving and respectful way is to live a questionable life. Christians ought to be living a questionable life. As Christ followers we should be living a life that people question. In other words, we should turn heads! “Why is that person….Why is that person forgiving…Why is that person…I’ve got to know!” And then sharing our faith becomes easy.
Why do you think the early church was so successful? The early church did not grow through coercion. They grew through fascination! Why do you think they were adding people to the faith daily? They were not sophisticated people. They hadn’t been to seminary. They hadn’t read books on church growth and marketing the church. They simply made themselves available to the Holy Spirit. They were on fire with the love of the Lord and people were drawn to it. They had to hear more about it.
This is what attracts people to Jesus. Believe me, when you forgive when everyone else wants revenge, that makes an impact. When you are loving when everyone else is hateful, that makes an impact. When you don’t give up on people when everyone else wants to, that makes an impact.
Remember, the gospel spreads through fascination, not coercion. Madalene L’Engle said that our job is to reflect a light so lovely that other people will do anything to find the source of it.
Several years ago, I heard a speaker at a conference tell a powerful story. He was golfing one day with some friends when the cart girl came around and asked if they wanted refreshments. The speaker said he had a golf shirt on with the church’s name and logo on it. She said, “I see the name of the church on your shirt. You go to that church?” He said, “Well yes I sure do.” They struck up a little conversation while she was getting their Gatorade. He asked, “Do you enjoy your job?” She said, “Not really. Old men flirt with me all day and they get drunk and say nasty things to me, but I can’t find another job, and it pays the bills.” It seemed she wanted to talk more but golfers were waiting behind them.
After the round, he saw the cart girl next to the club house replenishing her cart. She approached him and said, “Well, I don’t why I am telling you this but you’re a pastor and you seem nice. I’ve been married twice. I’m a recovering alcoholic and drug addict. I have been arrested twice for drug possession. I drank so much I lost custody of my kids. I’m better now, but I am miserable without my kids. I’m involved with a guy who is into drugs, and I don’t want that life anymore. I want something better, something more for my life.
“It’s funny that I met you because I have been thinking about going to church. I think it would be good for me. I’m wondering. Do you think I would be welcome in your church? You know, even knowing the things I have done?” He said, “Of course you are welcome at our church! In fact, you have my personal invitation to join us this Sunday. Why don’t you sit with my wife?” And you know what? She was in church the next Sunday. He gave her a Bible. And to this day she is active in the church and leads one of the AA groups in the community.
Now, all that guy did was wear a shirt with the church’s logo on it and told her she was welcome at his church.
Is First UMC a church that would welcome a cart girl who is a recovering alcoholic and has been in jail twice for drug possession? I already know the answer. You are. You have proven it. Let’s keep being that church because if we don’t, we will not be a church. We will be a lot of things – an event center, a concert hall, a social club, or a recreational center. But we will not be a church.
Deep down you know there are people all around you who need the love, forgiveness, grace, power, strength and comfort of God in Jesus Christ. Give me one good reason why you wouldn’t want to share it?
So you have homework to do. Pick two people in your life, family, friend…who you have reason to believe are not followers of Christ. Pray for them and then ask God to guide you in your conversations with them. Pray for the opportunity to share your faith. Pray that the Spirit would enable you to reflect the love of Jesus in such a way that they will say, “There’s something different about you and I want to know why.”
The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing: “Go and make disciples…”