The mission of the church is to carry the Good News of the Kingdom to the entire world. This happens in two distinct stages. Both are important, but they are different from each other and we believe it is important to draw a clear distinction between them.
The first is proclaiming the Gospel to the people who have never heard it before. The second is advancing the Kingdom in places where the Gospel is known, but not in full effect. We’ll call the first, Missions, and the second, Outreach. Let’s take a look at each to help us understand the distinction.
Missions
This word (and related words like missionary) has had its meaning diluted in recent years. We talk about being missionaries to our workplace, or to our school. We say we’re entering the mission field when we leave the parking lot of our comfortable church. Don’t get me wrong, I understand what people are getting at when they say those things. But I also think it’s harmful because it equates missionary work with the life of every Christian.
So what is missionary work?
Missions is when someone goes to another culture where they are an outsider in order to share the Gospel with people who have never heard it before. It’s the work of a pioneer breaking ground in new frontiers and that is not an assignment for every Christian at all times. Every Christian should be involved in this task. Jesus commanded us in Matthew 28:19 to “make disciples of all nations” (emphasis added). “Nations” here is the Greek ethnos, meaning ethnic people group. So all of us need to be involved in this great mission in some capacity. But not all of us can leave our home country and spend our whole lives living in another culture.
This is where I find the concept of assignments to be helpful. We all share in that grand mission to make disciples of all nations. But we each have various assignments in different seasons that work together to fulfill our collective mission. For example, Paul recognized that his assignment was as a pioneer, carrying the Gospel to new places.
My ambition has always been to preach the Good News where the name of Christ has never been heard, rather than where a church has already been started by someone else. I have been following the plan spoken of in the Scriptures, where it says, “Those who have never been told about him will see, and those who have never heard of him will understand.”
Romans 15:20-21 NLT
This passage describes Paul’s ambition, his goal. It does not say that we all must share an identical ambition.
With that said, such an embarrassingly tiny percentage of Christians embrace this ambition of Paul’s that I feel confident in saying that there are many who have such an assignment on their lives that they are not living in obedience to. To take it a step further, we need to realize that such an assignment may not be meant to last your entire life. It may be for two years. Or ten years. My point in saying this is that if you haven’t asked the Spirit if you have an assignment of some type in the nations, you should ask Him now. But only when you’re ready to accept that His answer might cost you a few years of your life – or more.
Outreach
Simply carrying the Gospel to new places and seeing some people begin to follow Jesus is not enough. The Great Commission of Matthew 28 doesn’t end there. Once we make disciples of all nations and baptize “them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,” Jesus says we are to, “teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.“
This teaching is a vital part of the process of what we call outreach. After the message of the Gospel is proclaimed, the teachings of the Gospel must advance throughout the culture. Through such teaching, lives are changed and those changed lives are what changes entire nations.
Teaching Jesus’ commands goes far beyond mere words in a classroom. To teach the ways of Jesus is to live them out and teach others by example to live the way that He lived. This kind of outreach involves serving people in need, whether in our own cities or in other countries. It involves teaching the words of the Bible in places where the name of Jesus is known but His ways are not followed. It’s distinct from missions, as we’ve defined it, but is an equally important part of fulfilling the Great Commission. Outreach is absolutely something that every believer should be involved in as part of their daily lives and this is really what people mean when they talk about being missionaries wherever we are. Not that all of us have to go to a foreign culture, but that all of must participate in the Great Commission by teaching the ways of Jesus to those around us.
Both missions and outreach are vitally important to the church and to the life of every believer. Maintaining a distinction between the two is not intended to make one more important or glamorous than the other but rather to give us all a clear idea of what our assignment is in a given season. No matter where you are, you’re called to fulfill the Great Commission of Matthew 28:19-20. You may spend a season more focused on outreach. You may then have an assignment in the nations, focused more on missions. The important thing is to live a life submitted to Jesus so He can move you to new assignments in His perfect timing.
