In the last few articles, I’ve been riffing on an encounter I had at a workshop. The question “What about our seniors?” was asked by a well-meaning person during a conversation on reaching new people and guest integration. In both emails, we covered plenty of ground on the idea.

​What about our Seniors? ​
I shared a question I received from a workshop participant nervous that reaching new, younger people would hurt their church.

​Is the Mission of your church fellowship?​
We looked at the ideas of several writers on the inward shift of churches over the last few decades.

I wrote on the role of mission, the purpose of the local church, and why fellowship might sometimes be our unstated mission. You can read the archives if you want to get caught up.

Today, I’m going to QUICKLY go through a few verses from Jesus' final words to his disciples in Matthew 28. I say quickly because I named this around a month ago, started the research, and am now in the difficult place of having around 20 notecards on the subject already.

That isn’t an email/article…that’s a small book!

So let’s call this less a full-formed article and more a peek into the notes I am taking on a bigger idea I’m going to have to spend more time with.

Back to it.

Here are the words of Jesus.

When Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ***and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. Matthew 28:18-20

What I want to give you is a short overview is how the Great Commission is a relational, missional mandate.

Understanding this as a primary call to not just the Christian, but the local church, is a helpful shift away from the internal-care model I’ve described in the previous articles.

Therefore

The power and authority of Jesus are in direct relation to the power given to the church. It is a mandate to be part of continuing exactly what Jesus taught during his ministry on earth. Yes, there are the typical broader ideas of love and care. This is the time to be specific. Modern Christianity doesn't do that enough.

The specific message of Jesus was about freedom from a broken system. One that wasn’t strong enough to fix the relationship between the Father and a people. This gives whole-scale reconciliation. Between our physical lives, but also how we experience the eternal Kingdom of God.

Everything changes.

Disciples

First, Jesus calls us to MAKE disciples. Disciples are a unique identifier. The idea signals the relationship that individual humans have inside reconciliation. Jesus is treating this as a present state…we sometimes believe it is an ideal.

This is a fluid community based on learning, following, and obeying. It is ongoing, not a one-time identification. Reproduction is part of discipleship, and it’s a responsibility not given to leadership, but to the whole church.

Anyone called Christian is in a constant renewal. Always moving.

Relational Expansion

In the text, we see this is to be carried to the nations. In the original language, the broadest word (ethnos) describes that this is about a body of people who are united by many things. All people.

Relational expansion doesn’t talk about assimilation into a new culture. The diversity of all the people gathered, made up of different origin stories, matters. Yes, those around your church might be different from you…but where a person comes from (in all facets) doesn’t negate their belonging to the call Jesus gave us to make disciples.

If this feels a little loose to you, we have to think about the next part.

Baptism

Baptism is the transition point. It’s about the repentance of sins, especially in the Gospels. This beginning point, the belief we can be free from our sins, often differs from the way we view holiness and obedience in the modern church.

This ideal we often think is only present after a long Christian life, the full surrender to Jesus, is actually the beginning point. It doesn’t mean we won’t still be sorting things out, but a belief that we CAN sort these things out.

It isn’t a casual covenant. It’s a community of total re-identification. The Disciple is being called into the Kingdom with the full authority of Jesus to actually change things.

The Kingdom of God is the true alternative

As Christians, it means living in this alternative way of being.

In past articles, I referenced Lesslie Newbigin several times. I’ll do it here again.

We don’t exist inside of this broken order, but the church stands as an alternative order. Barry Harvey, in his book Another Kingdom, develops many of the themes from St. Augustine’s City of God regarding the role of the church.

A.W. Tozer (one of my biggest theological influences) also talks about this idea.

Tozer brings up the power of the therefore from the beginning of 28:19.

The main task ahead is to understand Jesus' power and authority. This understanding shapes how we approach mission and evangelism in our communities through the local church.

This also makes us lean into the obedience. If the church isn’t any different from the world, what do we have to offer? This expression of the Kingdom is the only way to live once we’ve made the transition. To have the knowledge but neglect the power keeps us malformed. We call ourselves Christians but still rely on the self-power we’re freed from.

Christianity is Relational

If you remember, in the first article, I shared this statement from a well-meaning church member had some validity to it. The person felt a lack of care in the church. I pointed out that this is a marker of an unstable church inside my vitality matrix.

For the church to be the church, it has to have stable relationships inside the walls before we can expect to have and create fruitful, gospel focused relationships outside the church. Just because a church is making the necessary shift to be outward-focused doesn’t mean we disregard the care of those inside the church.

I love the story of the first deacons from Acts 6. There was an internal care issue! And the apostles did a bit of reorganization to fix the issue.

So, to wrap all this up.

What is the answer for a church struggling to face outward?

I think it is a deeper look at the Great Commission. Depending on your tradition, you might not have ever given deep thought to the passage. It isn’t about street preaching or door-to-door soul winning.

It’s about the church’s mission. It’s a group that is always changing and looking outward. These people choose to live by a different idea of how the world works. This sounds wild, and doing it on our power isn’t the answer. We do this through the power and authority of Jesus Christ.

Chad

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