churchUNIQUE – Our Mission Mandate
Encouraging everyone to know Jesus and follow him everyday and in every way!
This is week two of churchUNIQUE. Last week we laid the foundation with The Great Commission. This week we begin to discussing how we live out The Great Commission in our unique setting as a church. We call this our mission mandate.
A mission mandate is a clear, concise way of describing what we are supposed to be doing. This mandate is like our North Star. Its purpose is to provide direction and to point everyone in that direction. It is anchored in the sending of Jesus into the world and in turn Jesus sending us, which we call “The Great Commission.” Our mission mandate always lives within the boundaries of making disciples, teaching obedience to Jesus Christ as Lord, and taking the gospel message to the whole world.
We aren’t inventing our mission from scratch. Instead we are articulating it from scripture. Our mission mandate is a way of reminding each other that we have been sent by Jesus into the world to be witnesses. This sentness is reflecting in John 20:19-21 which says, 19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. 21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”
Note the word peace in this passage. You can find it in verse 19 and 21. Image the disciples hiding in fear, huddled in personal anxiety. And then Jesus says “peace.” On first look it might seem like Jesus is pronouncing peace for comfort’s sake. Verse 21 gives further insight though. It tells us that peace is for the sake of mission. “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” This passage shows us the heart of Jesus and his deepest desire: that his disciples would unlock the doors and begin reaching out to a lost and dying world.
This is what our mission mandate is all about. It’s our description of what we are going to do to live out The Great Commission. Our mission mandate ensures that we will never slip into seeing The Great Commission as a Great Suggestion. We don’t have forever to make disciples and we have to remind ourselves that time as we know it is limited. Our mission mandate reminds us of these things. It counteracts our tendency to only “focus inward” – lock our doors in fear! World War II pastor and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said that the church is only the church when it exists for others. This is the reason why he was willing to stand against Nazism. It was because of a deep inward belief that the church doesn’t exist only for itself, but for the world and to the world.
Our mission mandate guides our hands and feet as we seek to make disciples. It is a clear concise way of describing how we will fulfill the great commission. Encouraging Everyone to know and follow Jesus every day and in every way.
It is the first component of what we call our vision frame. More on that later…!