On Not Being Content with ‘Going to Church’

When he returned from a “mission trip” to Brazil, one church member said this: “The church in Brazil behaved as if it were a mission church, which made sense to me while I was there, because they are in a foreign field. It was only later, and I admit this to my embarrassment, it was only later that it dawned on me that Brazil isn’t a foreign field to them! All they were being was what they are called to be.”

That the church has a God-given mission is clear to most of us. What is not always so clear is this: the church doesn’t just have a mission; the church IS a mission. No matter where an authentic Christian community is located, be it Beverly Hills, downtown Atlanta, or Port-au-Prince, it is a mission: sent, empowered, and directed by Christ Jesus himself.

Poverty is clearly greater in some places than in others, but the need for the gospel of Jesus Christ is great everywhere. Thus it is no exaggeration to say that Brazil is no more of a mission field than Atlanta. Haiti is no more of a mission field than Buckhead (there’s a head-scratcher for you). You can go on a mission trip without ever leaving town – because God has set you and this church in a mission field.

I visited a church once that had a large sign at the parking lot entrance which said “Welcome.” Nothing remarkable about that. The thing about this sign was it had another message on the back, turned in toward the church so that you could read it only when leaving the property. It said simply, “You are now entering the mission field.”

It’s possible we’ve contented ourselves with just “going to church” when our number one priority is to “be” the church, i.e., God’s mission to the last, the least, the lost. Faithfulness begins when we discover that, while we have a mission, it is just as important to see that we are a mission.