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 The
Mission of the Church
by David King
Every organization has a mission, a work that defines its reason for
being. In the corporate world, most companies have a mission
statement that helps the employees stay focused on their objectives.
What is the mission of the Lord’s church?
To answer that question, we must first recognize a critical
distinction that is lost among those who claim to follow Christ.
Even those of us who claim to follow more perfectly the New
Testament model often struggle to grasp this difference. It is the
difference between the Lord’s body — the sum total of all God’s
people throughout the world — and the local congregation — a group
of believers in a given location who have banded together for mutual
encouragement and action. For brevity, we refer to the former as the
universal church, and the latter as the local church.
While both of these entities are comprised of believers (in theory,
anyway), they have different functions. The universal church has no
organizational or institutional identity, other than Christ
directing His people through His word. The work of this church is
the aggregate behavior of all genuine believers throughout the world
serving Christ in their daily lives. As these individuals perform
their good works in their families, their workplaces, their
neighborhoods, and their civic relations, they glorify God (1 Pet.
2:12; Eph. 3:21). This distributed activity is the mission of the
universal church.
The local church, however, has a more restricted objective. Local
congregations are given explicit instructions to provide edification
for their members, through teaching and worship (Heb. 1:24-25; 1 Cor.
14), to support the preaching of the gospel (Phil. 4:14-18), and to
take care of the physical needs of their own (1 Cor. 16:1; Ac.
4:34-35).
The distinction between these two entities is taught often in the
New Testament, but one example will suffice: Note Paul’s instruction
regarding the care of believing widows: “If any believing man or
woman has widows, let them relieve them, and do not let the church
be burdened, that it may relieve those who are really widows” (1
Tim. 5:16). The universal church, acting through individual
believers, has the broad responsibility to care for their own
widows, while the local church is restricted to the care of those
who are truly destitute.
So what is the mission of the church? It depends on which church you
are speaking of, universal or local. Each has a unique function, and
that difference must be respected.
Unfortunately, most people fail to respect that difference, and end
up confusing the two missions. This error is usually manifested in
attempts to bring local churches under some kind of worldwide
harness — a hierarchy, a conference, a synod, a missionary society,
a sponsoring church, a “brotherhood” monitor, etc. The intention is
noble, but the end result is almost always the same: political power
struggles that hurt the image of local churches and the Lord’s body
in general.
The common element in both entities, of course, is individual
believers, whose actions make both successful. ~
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The Purpose of the Church
What is the purpose of the Lord’s church? Is it to eradicate
poverty, disease, social injustice, illiteracy from among men? Is it
to bring about a cessation of war and conflict? Is it to campaign
for a temptation-free society for Christians to live in?
If the church had as one of its great goals the eradication of
disease, the Lord could have easily equipped it to accomplish that
goal. Could not the same power that enabled one blind man to see
have enabled all blind men to see; that enabled one lame man to walk
have enabled all lame people to walk; that cured many people of
varied diseases have cured all people of all diseases? And could not
this same power have been given to the church in all generations?
If the church has as one of its great goals the eradication of
poverty, the Lord could have easily equipped it to accomplish this
purpose. After all, He fed the five thousand with five loaves and
two fishes. He similarly fed four thousand on another occasion.
Could not He who did these marvelous works have enabled His church
in all generations to feed, clothe, and shelter the impoverished
masses of the world through miraculous powers?
If the Lord had wanted His church to become a lobbyist group to
apply political pressure toward a temptation and persecution-free
society in which to live, He would have given instructions in that
direction. He did not even lead His church into a direct effort to
destroy slavery, but taught the Christian slave to be a better slave
and the Christian master to treat his slaves as he would have his
heavenly Master treat him (Colossians 3:22-4:1).
The church’s purpose is to save souls and prepare people for
eternity––It holds out to the impoverished the hope of some day
walking a street of gold; to the suffering a time when there will be
no pain; to the sorrowing a moment when “God shall wipe away all
tears from their eyes.” It tells the tempted and persecuted that
there is value in these afflictions, that the testing of their faith
is “more precious than of gold,” and to rejoice -- It tells all to
live godly lives in whatever environment they find themselves. It
seeks to change people through the power of the gospel, not society
through the coercion of legislators – Its weapons “are not carnal,
but are mighty through God.
Its motivating theme: “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall
gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” When churches become
involved in hospital and health clinic work, or when they build
schools for the education of their children, or when they see as one
of their great missions to provide for the world’s poverty, or when
they feel obligated to create social upheaval and campaign for human
rights, or when they feel called upon to express their views on the
government’s use of nuclear armaments or whatever, they have a
distorted view of the purpose of the church.
Bill Hall ~ Reprinted
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