Church is on Mission
It has been said that church shouldn’t be a country club for saints but a hospital for sinners. I think that is a false, unhelpful dichotomy.
Church shouldn’t be a country club, catering to the wishes of it’s members. Neither should it be a hospital, simply concerned with healing hurting people. Church should be more like a triage unit on the field of battle. That is, the point of a triage unit is to get soldiers patched up and back out on mission.
Mission should mark every church that truly believes the gospel. Why? Because God is on a mission.
I can hear some objections. ”But Adam, shouldn’t church be about helping hurting people? Sometimes people need to take a break to be healed and helped.” And I would say, “Yes, yes, yes.” Absolutely. Church should be about helping hurting people, but helping them do what? Feel better? Have a healthy self-image? Health for health’s sake isn’t health at all, it’s idolatry. Similarly, church for church’s sake isn’t church, it’s something else… something indeed worse.
If church is a mission-focused entity, then the logical next question is, “What is our mission.” After all, soldiers don’t usually go out to fight without orders. Builders don’t start building without a reason. The mission of the church? That’s a great topic for our next post.
