Being Missional

“Give me souls or I die!”
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I’ve been reading everything that I could get to on Post-Modernism, The Emerging Church, and the idea of being missional. I think all of each of these ideas have merit, and they each have some places where people have aligned themselves with the idea and gotten into some heritical belief system. I especially like the idea of being a missional church. From the little I know of the concept, I think it’s a great idea and will bring us closer to being the church that Jesus intends us to be. However, I don’t think any of these ideas by themselves (or even in concert) will bring about the revival we need in America.

I firmly believe that America will continue to spiritually decline as long as we Christians allow it to.

Okay, I’m going to say it again so that we hear it – People will continue to dishonor God and go to hell as long as we allow it. We need to remember that the Saviors name is not Obama, not Hillary, and not McCain – the Saviors name is JESUS, and we are the ones that he commissioned to bring the gospel of Christ to a lost and dying world.

People don’t usually come to Christ without some Christian praying fervently for them, and sharing the good news. Rarely do people come to Christ by themselves.

When someone comes to Christ there are usually 3 agents, (although there can be only 2), and 1 tool. The 3 agents are: The Holy Spirit, A Christian who shares the good news, and an unbeliever. The tool by which we are brought to God is the Truth, or the word of God. We know that God desires to see everybody come to Christ, and doesn’t wish that any be lost – so we KNOW the Holy Spirit is doing everything he can to reconcile men to Christ. And it seems the Unbelievers are doing a fine job of unbelieving. We also know that the Word of God is effective in the salvation of men. So that only leaves Christians that are doing a poor job.

Two things will happen if the Church of America continues the way they’re going:

1.) People will continue to dishonor God by ignoring him and pretending there are more important things in this life than serving God with all your heart.

2.) Unbelievers will continue to fill Hell.

As long as we’re content letting our parents, our children, our family, our friends, our co-workers, our neighbors, our community, and our nation rush headlong into an eternity of divine punishment, then that’s exactly what will continue to happen at alarming rate. As long as our hearts are cold, and we’re so disinterested in our neighbor’s eternal soul, then things won’t change, no matter how many new measures we come up with.

It’s high time the American church wakes up and repents. We need to examine our actions to see what we’re doing for souls. Does our heart beat and bleed for souls like Jesus’ does? Are we doing everything we possibly can to save as many as possible?

If the answer is no, then we need to beg forgiveness from God for not having his heart and his best interest in mind; and then we need to change. It does no good to ask forgiveness without changing. This is not the Biblical idea of repentance. We need to have a change of heart, and a change of actions.

We need to be about the Father’s business. We need to be fervent and passionate about bringing the lost to Christ.

John Wheeler