A New Kind of Church 3

BY REV DR FOREST KOH

Traditionally, we tend to think that mission is just a ministry or a committee that decides on how to use the mission fund and send missionaries.

Lesslie Newbigin, the British missionary and theologian who spent most of his life in India to spread the Gospel, had a lot of very insightful reflections about church and mission, especially when he was back in England after spending 38 years in India.

He said, “In the thinking of the vast majority of Christians, the words ‘church’ and ‘mission’ connote two different kinds of society. The one is conceived to be a society devoted to worship and the spiritual care and nurture of its members. The other is conceived to be a society devoted to the propagation of the gospel, passing on its converts to the safe keeping of ‘the church.’”

Sadly, most “churches” function in such a manner that the missionary obligation is only undertaken AFTER the needs of the home have been fully met. These “churches” often end up suffering from Koinonitis. The heart for lost souls was overwhelmed by unending unresolved relationship issues to the point that they failed to reach out to the lost souls at their doorstep, not to mention those who were afar. A church that is not missional is not a church. A church which has lost the motivation for the lost is lost, it is not a church!

I have not clearly articulated what is mission. Perhaps, some might think that mission is to go overseas and do mission work, like building orphanages, hospitals, schools and sharing the Gospel. These are all good. But perhaps we still have this idea that mission must involve going overseas. If such activities don’t exist, the church has no mission. If this is what you are thinking, mission might still just be activities.

As mentioned last week, mission is the essence of God, it is the DNA of every Christian. Mission is actually a matter of the heart for the lost. So even if we have lots of mission activities, we might miss the heart for the lost.

John Stott states: “Mission arises from the heart of God himself, who is a missionary God, and flows from the heart of the church, which is a missionary church."

Hence, everything we do can be missional, so long as we do it with the love and passion of Christ to reach out to non-believers. Mission can be at our doorstep but that should not obstruct us from reaching out to those unreached at the frontier, where there are no churches and no Christians among them.

The unfinished task is urgent. May we be the missional people God calls us to be and has already exemplified through our Lord Jesus.

The closest place to be with Christ is not just the church, but the missional church.

POSTSCRIPT

June is a month filled with active missions. We have been praying for the mission teams in Cambodia, Thailand, and Mongolia. By tonight (Sunday), all the teams will have returned home. However, it seems that we have overlooked the SAFE mission retreat that took place from 31 May to 3 June in Batam. During the retreat, our seniors served in an orphanage and visited the slums. God opened their eyes, and many of them were deeply inspired and have made plans to continue reaching out to those in need.  

The three concise articles titled "The New Kind of Church" contain the fundamental concepts I shared with the seniors. My prayer is that our church, comprising individuals of all ages, will experience a profound transformation from within, and be God’s missional people everywhere, anytime.