Why “Making Missions History?”
Very simply, the mission of every “new creation” is to join God in His mission of reconciling men and women from every nation to Himself… until the gospel is proclaimed in every nation and Jesus returns to get His church… making missions no longer necessary.
That is, Making Missions History.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
2 Corinthians 5:17-20
God’s mission is summarized beautifully in this passage:
You and I becoming a new creation, being reconciled, is a gift from God!
God reconciles us to Himself and with that, gives us the ministry of reconciliation!
God is always at work, reconciling the world to Himself and is entrusting to us the message of reconciliation!
We are all God’s ambassadors; citizens of, and authorized spokespeople for His kingdom – sent into the domain of darkness with His appeal, be reconciled to God through Jesus!
Join us in Making Missions History
More specifically, my mission, the mission of the Making Missions History community, the mission of the organization of which I am part is to energize, equip and mobilize the next generation toward Making Missions History.
My goal is to build a team who is a part of an informed, passionate and engaged community who is inspired to be a part of finishing the task of taking the gospel to every nation.
Would you consider joining me toward that end?
A personal note…
There are three clarifications that are important for me to make regarding this concept of Making Missions History.
We do not control when Christ will return. This teaching and approach does not, explicitly or implicitly, view people as being in control of when Christ will return. Although Jesus directly connects his return to the proclamation of the gospel in every nation (“ethne”) in Matthew 24:14, and he commands us throughout all of scripture to be the messengers toward that end, it is important that we understand that God can do this in any way he decides - with or without people being the avenue through which the gospel is proclaimed among these “nations.”
Missions is for everyone. Being entrusted with the message of reconciliation as God is reconciling the world to Himself through us (II Corinthians 5:17-19) is not for a select group of Christians. This is the mission for which every person who was made to be a new creation (v. 17) was created (v. 20). All of us participate by actively engaging in one or more of the following ways: going, giving, mobilizing, welcoming (the nations to your community) and praying.
The whole of the Bible is missional at its core. God’s mission of reconciling the world to Himself is not found in a few “cherry picked” verses in the Bible, but is THE theme of the Bible. The more we understand this as the overarching narrative of the Bible, the more we see our Creator first choosing to disclose Himself to us, then showing us and telling us what he is like, and from Genesis 1, calling us to participate in His story of gathering worshipers from every nation (Genesis 1:28). Just read through any book of the Bible and you’ll see this theme! One of the leading missiologists of our day, Dr. Christopher Wright shares how for years, he taught classes and seminars titled, “The Biblical Basis of Missions.” As he came to see more clearly the overarching narrative of the scriptures, he said, he knew he needed to change the title of his class to “The Missional Basis of the Bible.” He says, “the Bible is a missional phenomenon.”
“Nations” in the Bible, “ethne,” is not defined as a country, but as a “people group.” There are over 17,000 people groups in the world. Approximately 7,400 are considered “unreached.”
* Representing over 3.2 billion people
Will you join me on this mission? Schedule a 40-minute information meeting to learn how!