Emerging from the missional fog
For years I've been saying that the church in the West is lost in a missional fog. Ask eighteen missional experts what they think is mission is and you'll probably get nineteen different answers. One will have two views.
Only half of them will identify the Great Commission and the making of disciples as the essence or heart of the mission of Jesus.
Perhaps it's time to get back to basics and look again at the words of the Risen Lord and ask afresh how we can obey them today.
The Commission itself is amazingly compact. No words are wasted in a powerfully clear statement. No fog here.
Let's look at the structure. There is one main verb, 'make disciples' supported by three participles, 'going', 'baptizing' and 'teaching'. [ed. My high school English teacher would be proud]. Jesus' one command is to be carried out in three ways.
The goal of our mission is to make disciples, we do that by going, teaching and baptizing.
So far so good. Jesus has told us what to do and how to do it. So let's step out of the fog created by experts and take Jesus at his word. Let's assume these are the words of our Risen Lord. Every one of them is true and binding on us, his disciples. We are to obey what he says.
If you want to emerge from the fog it's a good place to start.
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