The trouble is that when Westerners read biblical commands—like the one above—we tend to read them as instructions for individual fulfillment rather than commands given to communities. Remarkably, this assumption persists despite the fact that the majority of New Testament authors addressed their writings to churches, not individuals.
When we remove the communal facet of the Great Commission, we often pursue evangelism (and related apologetic work) primarily as a rational discussion between individuals. This individualistic conception of evangelism severs the gospel from the power of the church’s life together. Yet this is a feature the Scriptures show to be central in the conversion of most people after Pentecost (Acts 2:42–47).
All this is why missionary Lesslie Newbigin said, “[T]he only hermeneutic of the gospel is a congregation of men and women who believe it and live by it.” Or as someone greater than Newbigin said, “In the same way, let your [plural] light shine before others, so that they may see your [plural] good works and give glory to your [plural] Father in heaven” (Matt. 5:16 CSB). Evangelism—even pioneering work among the unreached—ought not be a solo effort.
2. Individualism Makes (Planting) Churches Optional
Church planting is not an optional add-on to the Great Commission. Jesus’ words implicitly require a church for their fulfillment. For as disciples are being made, they are to be baptized (Matt. 28:18), and they can only be baptized into an identifiable community of Jesus’ followers who are self-consciously organized for the purpose of carrying out the church’s mission—in other words, into a church.
“Jesus did not die to rescue isolated individuals; he died to create the church.”
Individualistic approaches to mission, however, are prone to lose sight of the centrality of the church (Eph. 3:7–10). Instead of seeing church planting as the necessary end of faithful evangelism (cf. Acts 14:21–23), such pursuits reduce the church to an optional facet of the life of Jesus’s people. This also tragically reduces salvation to an individual “ticket” to heaven. In contrast, Paul explicitly says of Jesus, “He gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for himself a people for his own possession, eager to do good works” (Titus 2:14 CSB, emphasis added).
