The Church & the Mission of God

How Ecclesiology Can Stir and Sustain Engagement
In Global Missions

SULLY CURTIN
Interim Director of Global Operations

Believe it or not, what you believe about your local church matters not just for your unbelieving neighbor, but for the person who has never heard the good news of Jesus on the other side of the world.

Ecclesiology, the study of the church, can answer questions like: how should our worship services be organized, who should lead the church, and how do we shepherd the people of God? I want to argue that our ecclesiology should also stir and sustain engagement in global missions. Something has gone terribly wrong if our teaching about the church leads to monuments and not movements. Even the briefest study of the church in the New Testament will reveal a church concerned with the expansion of Christianity to the ends of the earth.

We need to recover a catalytic ecclesiology. When Jesus taught about the church and the kingdom of God, he spoke in dynamic terms like a small seed transforming into a great tree. Jesus told Peter in Matthew 16, “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” The defenses of hell will not stand as the church marches forward. Our ecclesiology is not a manual we turn to when things go wrong or a constitution we look to for policy. Our ecclesiology should invigorate our sense of mission.

The following are three ways the Bible speaks of the church. Instilling this language in our churches will stir and sustain our engagement in global missions.

The Church As The Chosen People Of God

“The identity of being the chosen people of God should not elicit pictures of a holy huddle but of a lighthouse displaying the character of God and beckoning people to return to him. ”

When the Apostle Peter went looking for words to describe the church, he did not borrow from cultural institutions nor did he come up with new metaphors. He reached back into the Old Testament. In his letter to the early church, Peter says, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

Peter uses the same language that God used after rescuing the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. At Mount Sinai, the Israelites heard the Lord speak to them, declaring that they were a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession. There they not only received a new identity, but they received the Law. The Law was given for the chosen people of God to learn who God is and how to display his character to the world.

The missiologist Leslie Newbigin wrote, “Israel was the Lord’s garden, a small oasis of cleanness and beauty in the midst of a … desert of idolatry and the chaos of wickedness. And the hedge which protected this garden was the Law.” The identity of being the chosen people of God should not elicit pictures of a holy huddle but of a lighthouse displaying the character of God and beckoning people to return to him.

The church is elected and chosen not for our own benefit but for the benefit of the world. As we encourage the church to be holy we are calling them to display the holiness of God to the world—to contrast the way of the world with the way of Jesus. The church has not just been chosen and saved from something, we have been saved for something. We have been called to join the mission of God.

The Church As The Bride Of Christ

The best way to fan into flame a passion for global missions is to teach about God’s love for his church. One of the themes in the Bible that communicates God’s love for his church is the theme of marriage. Marriage forms bookends to the scriptures. God opens by instituting marriage in Genesis and concludes in Revelation with a depiction of the wedding feast of the Lamb. And filling the space between these two bookends is a love story of God’s affection for his people.

My favorite moment at a wedding is the procession when the music changes, the congregation stands, and the back doors of the church fling open to reveal the bride. The next time you are at a wedding I encourage you to look at the groom as he sees his bride for the first time. The joy and love almost become contagious. Even before you see the bride you can tell that what he is looking at is something beautiful and lovely. In the same way, Christ sees us.

Sadly, for many people today their experience in the church has left them disenchanted with the church. There seems to be a dissonance between the language of the Bible that speaks of the church as the beautiful bride of Christ and their own experience of a flawed church. The best way to rekindle a love for the church is to refocus on the groom, Jesus. We have to see the church through his eyes if we are going to maintain a passion and love for global missions. It was not the church’s loveliness that drew the eye of the Lord. It was Christ’s sacrifice on the cross that now makes the church lovely and worth serving.

How do we encourage people to care for unreached people on the other side of the world whom they may never meet? Guilting people into doing something is never a good motivation. Instead, we can look to the love that God has for the church as a reason to engage. God’s love compels us.

The Church as The Foretaste of the Kingdom

The church I pastor is located in center-city Chicago. Our church resides on one floor in a building occupied by a university, law offices, and designers. Our space is a small outpost in the middle of an urban jungle, surrounded by hundreds of buildings just like ours, filled with people and businesses of every kind. Edmund Clowney in his book on the church refers to the church as a colony of heaven. This language is rooted in the diplomatic language Paul uses when he refers to the church as ambassadors for Christ. We are citizens of a new kingdom and yet we live in this world.

As an outpost of heaven on earth, we are called to be a foretaste of the kingdom of God. In an office environment, your worth is measured in the dollar amount you are paid. As a member of the body of Christ, your worth is determined by the Lord. In universities, your identity is formed through your academic performance. In the church, your identity has been secured by Christ. In the city, sex, power, prestige, and leisure are of the highest value. In the church, Jesus is the greatest treasure. In a sin-sick world, the church is an island of truth and grace—a taste of the new heaven and new earth to come.

How can weary people have their affections stirred and strengthed to engage in global missions? Entering our church should be like entering into the fresh air. It should refresh and revive us. Experiencing a foretaste of the kingdom only grows our appetite and hunger for more of it.

Conclusion

Good ecclesiology can stir and sustain engagement in global missions. Some of us may need to return to the use of biblical terms to define and shape our churches. However, for those who have already employed these biblical concepts to describe the church, it is essential to recognize and embrace the missional aspect inherent in referring to the church as the chosen people, beloved bride, and commissioned ambassadors.

At the center of the intersection between the church and the mission of God is the glory of Christ. Fixing our eyes on the glory of Christ will lead us forward. May it be our North Star as we join with God’s work in his world.