Our Mission: Be an Embassy
We shouldn’t have a missions department!
God created all things good and perfect in the garden. That perfect peace without sin was called shalom. But with the fall of Adam and Eve into sin, the shalom of the world was broken. The good news, though, is that God is at work to reverse the fall.
Christopher Wright, a Christian Missiologist, sums it up perfectly when he says, “it is not so much the case that God has a mission for his church in the world, as that God has a church for his mission in the world. Mission was not made for the church; the church was made for mission – God’s mission.”
We were created to be on this mission with God. It’s not just one department, the missions department, or one of many… No, “missions” is the point of God’s creation of his church!
Our job is to reveal both the King and his Kingdom
When people think about being missional, they often associate it with evangelism. However, the Bible calls us to use both word (sharing the gospel through evangelism) and deed (showing the gospel at work through our actions in the world) (1 John 3:18, Col 3:17).
Churches can error by excluding one of these. One side believes that it's all about saving souls for some future deliverance. But salvation isn’t just something meant for then; it's also something that happens and benefits us now. Jesus says that the present benefits of the gospel on display is what draws people to him. In John 13:35, he says, “all people will know that you are my followers if you love each other.” We aren’t just telling people God is King; we are also showing them how beautiful his Kingdom looks. We are showing them what restored shalom looks like.
The other error is just focusing on bringing in the Kingdom without the King. It is working to bring shalom to the world without telling people the reason and power behind the change. God’s work in the world is meant to reveal himself to the world. If we only work to bring his Kingdom without ever pointing to him, we miss the purpose of our work.
God intends for us to do both, for us to reveal to people their King and savior so they may follow him too. And he uses his followers to be at work in the world.
Gathered & scattered
That is the cycle of your life as a Christian. You come into the church to be renewed by God so that you can go out into the world and be an agent of restoration on God’s mission to restore shalom.
The church gathered exists to share the message of the King and his Kingdom so that others may come in. It is a place that renews individuals so they can go out and be scattered into the world to impact the places God has placed them. The organization of the church (programs and structures related to the ministry) renews individuals, while the organism of the church (followers of Jesus spread all over the world) works alongside God to accomplish his mission to restore all things.
The Church should be an embassy
In Mark 1:15, over 2,000 years ago, Jesus declared, “the Kingdom of God is at hand.” The Kingdom is here. And Paul, in 2 Cor 5:20, describes our role in this new Kingdom as “ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.” We are ambassadors representing this new Kingdom to others.
If we are ambassadors, the church is the embassy. And what do you think of when you think of embassies?
They are safe, secure grounds to retreat to for people in foreign territory. They are places where people return to to be refreshed, rest, and prepare to go back out and represent their nation.
They are places where you can apply for citizenship and learn what it means to be a citizen of that kingdom.
They are places that physically represent the kingdom and the authority of the king, proclaiming messages from the king.
They provide a place to plan for their mission and serve to mobilize others to be on that mission of spreading the word and showing others their kingdom.
So that is our mission
Almost every church with a healthy mission statement is trying to capture all that I described above, but how do you do that in a few words?! That's the challenge.
This is what the church gathered, the embassy, is trying to do. It is trying to declare a message to say you can come into the kingdom (by word, evangelism, proclaiming the gospel that you can be made right with God). They work to renew individuals and help them to live more like Christ, organizing and spurring on the church body to work out their faith in the world as a partner with God to restore all things.
That is why our mission statement is:
Waypoint Church exists to help people find rest in God’s love, restore wholeness to our lives through Christ, and work toward the flourishing of our neighborhoods, our city, and the nations.
Missions isn’t part of what we do; God’s mission is why we exist.
