Our senior adult pastor, David George, demonstrates spiritual maturity when it comes to fulfilling the mission that God gave the Church. In a recent article, David approaches the subject of change and being focused on the mission in a clear and precise way.  It was too good not to pass on…

Change can be a scary thing for some if not most people.  It is easy to get comfortable in the routine we have, even if it is not the best for us. In the midst of a bad situation, we can still be fearful that changing that situation could make things worse!  Admittedly, some of the changes over the past years have not necessarily been for the better.  I can say that because they did not allow us to reach more people for Jesus.

One of the main reasons for the turnaround is that we have begun to place emphasis on accomplishing the mission that Jesus gave the world-wide Church: making disciples (Matt. 28:18-20).  Paul stated it in a different way in 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 when he said that we are God’s ambassadors charged with the mission of reconciling people to God through their relationship with Jesus.  It all starts with evangelism, but it doesn’t stop there.  A disciple is a follower, a learner, one who seeks to emulate the One of whom he is a disciple.  That is a life-long process which the Bible calls “sanctification.”  It means that God is conforming us to look more like Jesus from the inside out (Rom. 8:29).  It’s the mission of the Church to help people come to Christ and then help them to grow as better followers of Jesus.  All that we are doing as a local church must be pointed toward accomplishing the mission of the Church.  If we fail in that, we fail as a church.  The degree to which we are successful in accomplishing the mission God gave us is the degree to which we will be successful as a church.

The mission we have been given has to take precedence over everything.  That means that we sometimes have to sacrifice our personal desires, our preferences, our comfort, even our safety, in an effort to move the mission forward.

Ask God to help you get a vision of the mission we are all called to as the world-wide Church and how that is to play out in the context of the local church.  It will change your life and move you along the path of your spiritual journey with Jesus.  It is, and must remain, all about the mission!