by Ed Stetzer
The first observation is that we are sent, as found in John, chapter 20. Whenever Jesus gives us a commission, He gives some sort of promise to accompany it–a promise of His peace, His presence, or of the power of the Holy Spirit. And Jesus said to them, “Peace to you, just as the Father has sent me so also I send you.” And that’s number one in our outline–that we are sent. Jesus announced Himself as being sent more than 40 times in the Gospel of John. We are identifying with Jesus by living as sent ones, or by being missional.
We have come to an unfortunate conclusion that only certain people are sent, that the only ones who are really sent are those who are missionaries. As a matter of fact we have created in our churches an unbiblical and unhelpful three-tiered level of Christianity. In three-tiered Christianity, first there are the lay people–not on the staff of a church. There’s another level, we describe as “called to the ministry.” Many pastors give testimony and say, “I was called to the ministry when I was 17,” or “I was called to the ministry when I was 24.”
But there is yet another level above this. I talk to pastors who ask, “Have you prayed about Malaysia? Have you prayed about Zaire?” Consistently, the answer is, “I am not called to missions.” But where is that in the Bible? What I see in the New Testament are men and women who respond to the call of God to the place that God sends them. Sometimes that may be far away and sometimes it might be next door, but we are all called to the ministry. We are all sent on mission. The only question is where and among whom? 1 Peter 4:10, “As each one has received a special gift, use it to minister to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” So, everyone is to minister.
How does that relate to church planting? Instead of being engaged in church planting, we have created a system that disempowers the vast majority. There are not enough people to do the ministry in the church, so we can’t be involved in church planting. We can barely keep our own head above water. So the mission of God is hindered because we have believed the lie that not all Christians are called to the ministry.
If you take a yo-yo or a $300 microphone and spin it around, there are two equal and opposite forces at work. The one force is pushing it outward; we call that the centrifugal force. There is simultaneously a force pulling inward and that is called the centripetal force. Every church was birthed with a passion and an outward focus. That mission pushed them outward. They reached more people, they grew, they were engaged in mission and church planting and it got larger and larger. Centrifugal force drove them outward to a deeper engagement in mission and ministry.
But there is also a centripetal force in every church, which, unchecked, eventually takes over. Instead of going outward and sending more people on mission and being involved in church planting, it pulls inward. Why? Because there are so many things to do. There is more and more that has to be done.
The religious consumers are clamoring for more. They need more programs. They need more ministries and so the ministry is soon changed.
The larger and more complex a church gets, the more we have to service the tether, and eventually all that is left in so many American churches is a group of people spending full time trying to service the tether so their own needs are met. All they have left is the centripetal force pulling them in. They are not engaged in mission locally or globally.
Church planting is a messy business. Johnny Crist, pastor of the Atlanta Vineyard, gave me a great picture. He said, “Planting churches is like having babies. Everyone loves it, but they forget how bloody and messy and painful it was at the time.”
Commission one is we are sent. Number two is we are sent to all different kinds of people. Jesus says, “All authority has been given to me on heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” The central verb here is to make disciples.
When Jesus said to go to all nations, there were no nations the way we think of them today. The nation-state is an invention of the modern era. From the word ethne we get the word ethnic, referring to all different kinds of peoples. Most missiologists conclude that Jesus was referring to all different kinds of ethno-linguistic people groups. That’s why we must have all different kinds of churches.
Number three: we are sent with a message. The message isn’t to plant churches. The message is the gospel. Many have walked away from the gospel. The need for men and women to repent and trust Jesus as their savior, to turn from their own ways and follow Him is always going to be hard for people to hear.
So the church, invariably, when it begins to walk away from its doctrinal foundation, quits preaching repentance and starts preaching moralism. It doesn’t preach the gospel. Instead it preaches being good. This message says repentance and forgiveness of sins will be proclaimed in His name to all nations beginning in Jerusalem. If we miss this there is no future for Grace Brethren church planting.
Finally, commission four is we are empowered by the Spirit. Acts chapter 1. The Ed Stetzer paraphrase goes like this: “So when the disciples had come together with Jesus, they asked Him, ‘Lord, have you read the latest installment of the Left Behind series?'” They asked about the end times. Everybody loves to talk about the end times, but Jesus admonished them, even rebuked them for their inordinate interest. He says, “It is not for you to know the days or the times the Father has set by his own authority.”
It is fascinating to me that 2000 years later when the North American church is in decline, when churches are closing, and people aren’t engaged in evangelism and church planting, that what people want to do is read speculative fiction about the end times.
People love the end times. Jesus wants them to love His returning and to be about witnessing and church planting until He returns. He’s got the day and the hour taken care of. We don’t need to spend all of our time wondering when and figuring out who. Are you ready? Now, go proclaim the gospel and plant churches.
Ed Stetzer is president of LifeWay Research. He is the author or co-author of 12 books. This edited article is excerpted with permission from an address by Stetzer to the 2009 Grace Brethren national conference meeting in Columbus, Ohio.