For the Church to Fulfill the Great Commission?

Let me paraphrase what Jesus said to His disciples in this Great Commission: "Since I am the ultimate authority, I want you to take over the world and bring all its nations under My rightful rule. You are not to do this by force of arms or political machinations. You are to conquer the world by converting and discipling the nations. You must also transform their pagan/humanistic cultures by teaching them to observe everything I've taught you. You won't be in this alone and in your own power, for I will be with you."

Any way you look at it, that's a pretty tall order. It goes way beyond what we normally think of as evangelism, or even world missions. It requires that we think strategically and tactically about our mission. It requires that our churches recognize and organize themselves in terms of that mission. It also requires that we teach our converts a new, Biblical worldview, and that we teach them to think self-consciously and to act in terms of that worldview.

In other words, if we understand the Great Commission correctly and purpose to obey it, it will require enormous changes in the way we view and conduct ourselves, our families and our churches.

Most churches are so bogged down in the details of daily existence that no one in positions of leadership or in the pew ever thinks about the bigger picture. Who are we? What are we doing here? How does First Church of Cannery Row fit into Christ's blueprint for His Church?

This shortsightedness results in most churches becoming religious associations dedicated to preserving the status quo. They do not think of their church's mission in terms of bringing their greater community under the reign of their Savior through evangelizing and discipling. If they think of evangelism at all, it's in terms of increasing their own little association in terms of numbers, income and/or status in relation to other churches in the area. Or, for some evangelism means rescuing a few souls from hell, with no larger goal or context to which they can relate their efforts.

I have shown in other studies that synagogue was a name for the national Assembly of Israel. I have also demonstrated that local synagogues or assemblies were the smallest administrative unit of the Nation of Israel. Also that one Hebrew term for assembly in the Old Testament is rendered as synagogue in some places and church in other places in the Greek Old Testament.

This means that when Jesus said, "I will build My Church...." in Matthew 16:18, He was not introducing a new or strange concept to His disciples. He was, in effect, saying that He would build a rival national Assembly to that of apostate Israel. You can see that in the parable of the wicked vinedressers, Jesus states the issue in just such national terms:

The Church of Jesus Christ is a New Covenant nation constituted on the day of Pentecost, with Jesus as its King (compare Matthew 21:42-43 to I Peter 2:7-10).

This means that a local assembly (church) of the Messiah, Jesus, is the smallest administrative unit of the national New Covenant Assembly in Heaven (see Hebrews 12: 18-24). In short, our local churches are outposts of Christ's kingdom. These outposts are scattered more or less deeply in enemy territory. As New Covenant Kingdom communities, they should be following the strategic and tactical plans for conquest as laid down by Jesus and His apostles.

Jesus proclaimed His coming kingdom in terms of a new nation. This new nation did not have one specific region or land mass to which it laid claim. Rather, this nation's boundaries are as broad as the authority of its King. The world belongs to Him and His kingdom. It is our assignment to occupy all that territory in His name. For that we need to know something about strategic planning and tactical operations (ops).

Let's begin with strategy. Jesus' life, ministry and teaching reveals to us His strategy. He came to the covenant people with a purpose: to call out a remnant that would form the core of His new nation. For example, He called and sent out twelve to take the kingdom vision to the people of the Covenant. He told them not to tarry long, trying to convince everyone, but to deliver the message to those willing to receive it (Matthew 10:11-14). In today's world, when there are so many people of the covenant who have lesser visions for the church, we might take the same strategy -- getting the Great Commission Vision out to anyone who is willing to receive it, and letting God call them to become the core of His re-formed New Covenant Kingdom.

The Kingdom Parables can also serve as sources of information about the King's strategy, if we see them as such. They talk about spreading the kingdom through dissemination of the Word, about policy toward counterfeit sons of the kingdom, about the gradual growth and victory of the kingdom, etc.

Another strategic aim includes acting as salt and light through personal ethics (Matthew 5-7). This includes, but is not limited to one's personal life and witness. As we live in community with each other in terms of Biblical ethics, our personal lifestyles merge into a community culture. This culture in itself becomes an influence on the surrounding community and a drawing card for the Christian way of life.

By way of contrast, the majority of churches today do not have this strategic program at their disposal because their members do not live in community with one another. Therefore, they have no distinctly Christian culture. They copy their music, art, entertainment and lifestyles from the prevailing culture, which in America has collapsed on itself to become the abyss known as "pop culture". The alternative requires time, effort and commitment on the part of those who would gain the strategic advantage for Christ and His kingdom.

A lifestyle grows out of one's worldview and ethics. Most Christians today have a worldview partly Christian, but heavily leavened with the humanism that pervades our greater culture, and an ethic tainted by humanist views of law. So, in order to build a truly Christian lifestyle, you must begin by self-consciously adopting a Biblical worldview and purposefully building your ethical life around God's Law. Out of these two things will sprout a Christian lifestyle.

As Christians come to live together in true covenant community, on the basis of the Biblical worldview and ethics, a Christian folk culture will emerge. (I do not envision our beginning with a high culture, the equivalent of Bach in music, Rembrandt in painting, or Milton in poetry.) This culture will produce its own folk music, folk art, and folklore pertaining to many different fields. These things will become the raw materials for a new Christian high culture, as we develop the resources and the talent for such achievements.

Through each stage of its development, Christian culture becomes a tool for evangelizing and discipling the pagans and humanists around us. Many people who live in the prevailing culture are miserable. They live with poverty, broken homes, crime, etc. etc. The only escape offered by the prevailing culture is for them to make enough money to leave the misery of their surroundings (hence, the popularity of the lottery among the poorest classes). Suppose these people could see a showcase community that offered them a total change of lifestyle without their having to become affluent to achieve it? Not everyone would jump at the opportunity, but some -- perhaps many -- would.

In the history of the world, higher cultures have pushed out lower cultures. American Indians either adopted Western Christian Culture (e.g., the Delawares) or were pushed to the periphery of relevance (the betrayal of the Christian Cherokees by the pagan leadership in Washington is a sad story, but nonetheless, the principle stands). When Cyril and Methodius brought Christianity to Russia, they constructed an alphabet so the Russians could read Scripture, and thus transformed the culture. Many primitive peoples have listened to the Gospel because they looked up to the technological superiority of Western culture. But Christians continue on oblivious to the power that lies dormant in an undeveloped Christian culture.

We can find another strategy for the growth of the kingdom in Matthew chapters 18 and 19 where Jesus addresses the issue of covenant children. Do Christians really believe that their children have eternal souls that will live either in eternal torment or bliss with God? It seems that if they really believed it, they would take to heart Jesus' warning about not making one of the little covenant children to stumble. They would seek out information on how to rear their children to be faithful to their Savior. More than that, they would seek out their pastors and teachers and DEMAND that they teach these truths.

I believe the primary means for the growth of the Messianic Kingdom is by rearing many faithful children. Instead, Christians have few children (treating children as a curse, rather than as a blessing), and approach their child-training with the attitude that maybe the little ones will grow up to be Christians, and maybe they won't. This is an insult to Jesus, who said,

I have addressed this topic at length in my book, Rearing Faithful Children. Rather than cover the same ground here, let's move from strategy to tactics.

Tactical ops include anything that will allow you to carry out your mission with minimal interference by powers in the hands of the enemy. Paying your taxes and obeying human ordinances that do not contradict God's commands fall into this category of tactics. Meeting the needs of others is another tactic that Jesus gave us (Matthew 20:20-28, also known as the Samaritan approach).

When we serve other people by meeting their needs, we gain a hearing with them. The better we meet their needs, and the more needs we meet, the more dependent they become on us. Therefore, service to others is the tactic by which the Christian community can press its cultural advantages on those in the surrounding culture. The tactic of service is so powerful, that it could make Christian culture (if we had one) rather than humanism the prevailing culture. Let's look at one way we might apply this.

One of the problems plaguing politicians today is the decline in education in our nation. It plagues the politicians because their constituent voters place a high priority on solving this problem. Now, suppose a church community decided to specialize in serving the unsaved people around them by specializing in solving their educational problems.

They would recruit and train the retirees, housewives without children as yet, older teens and career-age singles to become tutors. Then they would offer a free tutoring service to any family living within a given distance from the church. These volunteer tutors would work with individual students, teaching math, history, science and language skills -- all from the perspective of a Biblical worldview.

As their children's skills improved, the parents would be pleased, and might think about sending their children to a free "educational summer day camp" held at the church. Here the volunteers would evangelize the children and indoctrinate them more deeply into the Biblical Worldview, while teaching them to love and honor their parents. The next step would be to evaluate the most dedicated among these youngsters (not necessarily the brightest) and offer them scholarships to a Christian day school operated by the church. Then cap off this exercise in servanthood by teaching them a trade which will allow them to support themselves and their families and to support the serving work of the church.

That is just one idea for service. Some churches meet the needs of their community by offering day care. Indeed, some Christian individuals have found it both a good way to serve and to make a good living at the same time.

You can pick any problem in our society today -- unemployment, drug and alcohol addiction, crime, domestic and other violence, personal and family problems -- and you can construct a web of churchwide tactical responses to the problem that will place your church in a strategic position within your community.

I want to answer the question in the title of this piece, "What will it take for the Church to fulfill the Great Commission?" Answer: It will take a core group of Christians who:

1) Will have a vision for the all-encompassing demands placed upon them by the Great Commission;

2) Will actively pursue a Biblical worldview and ethics to produce a Christian lifestyle for themselves and their families;

3) Will commit themselves to expanding the Kingdom of Heaven through bringing forth and rearing faithful covenant children;

4) Will come together with other like-hearted Christians to form churches that are self-conscious outposts of the New Covenant nation;

5) Will live in community with the other members of their assembly, so as to merge their lifestyles into a single, Christian folk culture;

6) Will, through individual and collective service (meeting people's needs), position themselves and their church to influence the life of the larger community.

To such a group or groups belongs the future of Christianity. . . and the world.