Mission is More than Missions

Not everything we do is missions but everything we do is part of the sovereign mission of God.  God has given us, individuals who make up the universal church, He has entrusted us as a whole with a variety of missions.  But when we narrowly define “missions” as just cross-cultural evangelism and/or church planting, we get a superiority complex which leads to guilt and fear concerning all other missions. Our missions should reflect the mission of God and they should reflect Him in the context in which He has sovereignly placed us. Yes, we should share the Gospel at every opportunity, but that looks like a lot more than just cross-cultural evangelism. For a person to say, “it isn’t God’s mission to feed the hungry, care for the sick, promote reconciliation, educate, and equip” is incredibly misinformed when it comes to the Bible. The social gospel is not the biblical gospel but our overreactions to the social gospel are not any better.  Obviously giving a person a meal will not save them from their sin, but cross-cultural evangelistic missions are not everything the church is to do in regards to missions. And this is where the word missional comes back.  Not everything is missions, but everything a Christian and Christian church is, says, and does should be missional- conscious of the mission of God, aware, participating in the mission of God in God’s world.