3. Doing one thing.
Another response for a church is to simply do one thing. A church decides that their mission is defined by the Great Commission.
They recognize that Jesus died for the church, Jesus is the Head of the church, and Jesus has left His church with clear directions on what He wants the church to be about. Everything is assessed and examined through the Great Commission.
Churches who do this one thing are stubborn and devoted to the cause of making, maturing and multiplying disciples of Jesus. By saying “yes” to the Great Commission, they recognize they are saying “no” to a host of a lot of other good things that don’t comport with the work and mission of the church.
It is not a matter of being rude or insensitive, but rather simple, clear and direct.
Someone once said that it does not matter the superior quality of the bow or the amazing strength of the archer or the incredible distance the arrow flies if it does not hit the target. Jesus gave us the target in the Great Commission. We can open up a supermarket of bows and arrows, and we can offer exercise training to increase strength and stamina to shoot with the bow, but at the end of the day, if we are not hitting the target as a church, then it really doesn’t matter what else we do.
Steward the Struggle.
This is where we need to be brutally honest with ourselves. As a church, are we hitting the target? Are we making disciples of Jesus?
More pointedly, are we making disciples who make disciples of Jesus? The sobering fact is that I don’t know of a single church who does not struggle with this. The difference is there are those who want to grow through their struggles while there are others who, unfortunately, are happy to substitute some target other than the Great Commission that is easier to hit.
A proper handling, or stewardship, of the struggle means that we deal honestly with our challenges that recognize our dependence on Christ and our determination to keep the main thing the main thing, even when we are not that great at it.
In other words, it is far worse to succeed in what Jesus doesn’t care about than to struggle with what He has commissioned us to do.
If we are a church who loves Jesus, then we will not allow inconsequential successes to tempt us to stray away from the mission He has entrusted us to accomplish. We ought to be a people who know the target, aim for it and, when we miss, don’t look for an easier target but resolve to learn from Jesus and lean on Jesus to be the people He has called us to be.
[Note: This article is the introduction to my sermon on the Great Commission preached at Grace 08.25.2013]
