The Local Church and Missions

September 5, 2008 – 10:50 am

Over on the “About Us” page you will find these three items:

Our Vision: God-centered, local church-driven missions mobilization.

Our Mission: Missions Mandate exists to equip local churches for God-centered missions mobilization.

Our Core Values: Provide instructive missions material pertinent to the local church’s task of missions mobilization…

I’ve highlighted the emphasis on the local church in those statements because I’d like to highlight the very high view of the local church that we have here at Missions Mandate. There is a whole chapter on it in For the Sake of His Name, but here is one portion of that chapter (chap.8, p.165) that states a foundational truth and some of its implications for missions:

The primacy of the local church as the pillar and support of the truth in this dispensation means that it carries the burden of preserving and perpetuating biblical Christianity (1 Tim 3:15).

Therefore, we must remember that the local church has the primary responsibility for assisting the missionary and exercising loving accountability for the actions and ministry of its missionary. Too often the responsibility for accountability gets tossed back and forth between the local church and the mission board, or, in some more radical cases, the missionary claims to be accountable only to God. I am sure that all would agree that the missionary does not need to have his hands tied so that he cannot do the work, but at the same time, I hope all would agree that an unaccountable life and ministry is ripe for trouble and out of step with God’s Word (cf. 1 Tim 5:19-21; Heb 13:17).

Personally, I believe that this neglected truth needs to once again become a controlling principle for how local churches, missionaries, and mission agencies think and act. Biblically, missions starts from, is carried on by, and results in local churches!