Missions or Churches?

 I went to the Missionary Baptist Association of Texas Meeting last week, and I’ve got to be honest, I walked away more confused as ever. Not only confused but some discouraged and torn. While I was there you could defiantly feel a division among the brethren over the use of the word missions or churches? We claim to be biblical in our beliefs and practices but I’m wondering if what the percentage of our practices in Associational work are Biblical or traditional?

For instance, since I have been taught to study things out for myself and not take someone else’s word for it, I looked up the word “mission” in my concordance. Want to know how many times it appeared? ZERO!

I typed in the word church. Well it appeared 79 times! I went ahead and made it plural and it appeared… 36 times. So I’m wondering if there is no Bible example of the use of the word “Mission” then why do we call works where we send missionaries “missions”? i.e. Such and Such Baptist Mission. Maybe we really are just traditional? But what’s God say about tradition?

Mar 7:9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.

In other words tradition hinders God’s work because were focused on letting tradition become the leader instead of the Holy Spirit! What is the commandment of God? Well there are a bunch of them, but what about in the commandment from the Great Commission? Did Jesus say go start “Missions” or “Churches”? Well since the Bible is infallible and our standard of direction let’s again go see what it says shall we?

Mat 16:18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (see anything in there about building a mission? )

Eph 3:21 Unto him [be] glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Again how much of tradition must we practice before we leave and reject the commandment of God? No doubt we all want to see souls saved – but are we rejecting those blessing because we are hindering God’s Work through tradition? Maybe, maybe not – I don’t really know. What I do know is I am thankful to be a part of a church and the pastor of a church that wants to see souls saved – new churches getting started and planted all over the world! I am thankful to be apart of a church that will not let tradition hold up the reaching of lost people in our world and come up with ways to share Jesus! I’m thankful to be apart of a church that loves God and His Word!  Prayer – Father, we thank-you for loving us when we don’t deserve it! I pray that your Spirit will move in my heart and to the members of our church that will lead us to someone to share Jesus with today. Help us not to cling to tradition but to cling to you, your cross, your work with passion and excitement. I ask this in the name above all names, the name of Jesus – Amen….

Associational Letter

This is the letter that I presented at the Salem Baptist Association two weeks ago on the subject of missions.

Missions – What is our mission? To see Souls Saved! To See Souls discipled! To See Souls follow Jesus in Baptism! To See Souls leading others to Christ all over the world through the institution called Church! Growing in Small Group settings, learning more about Jesus as they worship Him through individual and cooperate worship! We are reminded of this mission in the Great Commission that was given to us by our LORD – Jesus Christ in Matt. 28. But as we are reminded what the mission is we need also to be reminded how important this mission of going, reaching, teaching, and baptizing in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is to God. How important is it? Very Important for God to see people saved, discipled and sharing and winning people to Jesus! He gave us this example through His precious son Jesus! Jesus said – I have come to seek and to save that which was LOST! Luke 19:10. This mission is not something that churches should just support and walk away feeling they have done their part; it’s something each church member should be involved with. Not just in giving their money to a missionary – but each member should endeavor in becoming a Great Commissioned Christian; sharing their faith to every person they come into contact with! Jesus said it best in Acts 1:8 – But YOU shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon YOU; and YOU SHALL BE MY WITNESSES both in Jerusalem, and in ALL Judea and Samaria, and ever to the outermost parts of the world. Who’s the “you”?  In this context the “you” are the members of His church. Who is the “you” today? Missionaries and each member of a local church! Steve Sjogern analyzed 3 ways in which a church typically relates to fulfilling this mission of winning people to Jesus:

Evasion - churches just separate themselves from the world like the monasteries of the Middle Ages and are neither relevant nor related to the world in any form or fashion. No concern for the world going to hell.

Pervasion - those who seek to battle culture by seeking to overpower the culture by might – political, social, or economic

Invasion - this is what Jesus did in His incarnation. He invaded the world – we are to penetrate the culture with the Gospel!

(Taken from Radically Unchurched by Dr. Alvin Reid pp. 38-40)

• Fact: In 1900 only 21 persons were needed to reach and baptize one lost person. In 2003, 43 church members were needed to reach and baptize one lost person.
• We need to remind our people that while doing this mission we are not a bunch of snobby righteous people who only want to win righteous people – Jesus said in Luke 5:32 I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. We need to have the mind and love Christ has as He saw souls hurting and needing a shepherd.
• It is the heart felt desire of HSMBC to see the Lord’s churches be a part of mission work – Seeing to it that we support our missionaries in the outermost parts of the world as well as providing resources for each member of a local church to become Great Commission Disciples.

Respectfully summitted – HSMBC