Cultural Icon to Missionary Outpost: The Shift We Must Make in How We View the Local Church

There was a time, not so long ago, when Christianity was the dominant religious force in our culture. As you may or may not know, I write from the context of the "Bible Belt" and I believe this shift away from cultural Christianity has happened slower here than in other places in our nation and world. However, even if it has happened almost imperceptibly, it has happened none the less. You see even back when I was a kid (1980's and 90's) there was an overall sense that going to church was what you did on Sunday morning, and it was good and right. Generally speaking the values and morals of the culture were Judeo-Christian values and morals. Society as a whole understood and used the language of the Church, and it could be said that in some, very real ways, America was a "Christian nation," if only in the same way that one could say the Roman Empire was after Constantine. Such is not the case anymore - and this isn't all bad.

Most any survey will tell you that the fastest growing segment of our population when it comes to religious affiliation is the "nones" - those who affiliate with no particular religious persuasion. Furthermore, the Judeo-Christian moral framework is no longer assumed by much of the culture. In fact, it is quite often openly mocked and rejected as backward, old-fashioned, and bigoted. Church attendance is secondary to a variety of other more appealing pursuits on Sunday morning and Wednesday evening. While I firmly believe that our great nation was founded on Christian principles, it can no longer be said that we are a "Christian nation" in anything other than a nostalgic, historical sense. Again, this isn't all bad.

I could go on and on about the loss of any kind of moral framework, and lament this shift away from Christianity, and many have. However, what I'd like to focus on is what this all means for the Church. Specifically, I believe we must change our understanding of what the Church of Jesus Christ is in the West today. It used to be that you threw up a building with a steeple on it, hung out a sign, opened the doors and people flowed into the church house. This simply isn't the case any more - even in the Bible Belt. Rather than seeing the Church as an integral part of the dominant culture, we need to begin seeing ourselves as missionary outposts in a foreign land.

Missionaries are those who take the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the very power of God for the salvation of Jews and Gentiles alike (Romans 1:16), to places where it has not been heard. We need to wake up to the reality that we live in a nation that needs the Gospel desperately. We are all missionaries and the local church, the gathered Body of Christ, is designed for the purpose of equipping and sending missionaries.

While there are numerous characteristics of a missionary outpost church I want to look two essential qualities: unity of purpose and prayer.

Unity of Purpose

In 1 Corinthians the Apostle Paul stresses the unity that should characterize the Body of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 1:10 he pleads with the church, "I urge you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree in what you say, that there be no divisions among you, and that you be united with the same understanding and the same conviction." Paul goes on to explain that unity comes from 1) the Gospel, and 2) their purpose as God's coworkers (3:8,9).

Christ, the Lord of the Church, has given us a purpose, to make disciples and be his witnesses to the ends of the earth. This is non-negotiable. Jesus didn't call a committee meeting to decide on the mission statement of the Church - he gave us a mission. If we claim to be a church and ignore, minimize, or lose sight of disciple-making we have no right to call ourselves a church. We can be a civic organization that seeks to make the world a better place, or a social club, or a youth organization, but we cannot be the church. Even with a diversity of gifts, callings, and activities the local church should find unity in its God-given purpose to make disciples.

In Ephesians 4:1-16 Paul paints a picture of what a healthy, missionary outpost church looks like and it begins with unity. Here is a simplified list of what we see in this passage.

1. Unity of purpose in the Spirit.
2. Christians fulfilling variety of roles, or functions, within the Body.
3. Those roles are designed to equip "the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ." In other words, the gifts serve the primary purpose.
4. Equipping and building the Body continues as we mature in Christ and grow into Christ's fullness.
5. Every part of the Body place an important role in the growth of the whole.

In order to carry the Gospel into the world the local church must be healthy and growing in Christ. There is a conflict raging around us in the spiritual realm (often times it bleeds over into our world) that has eternal consequences. For us to fight in this war we must be properly equipped and strengthened as the Church. The picture of the local church that we need to embrace is that we gather together for worship, prayer, and equipping through the proclamation and study of God's Word, and then go out into the world to be Christ's witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Prayer 

The second characteristic of a missionary outpost is prayer. That may seem elementary but I think we often lose sight of it. If you take a look at the early Church, especially in the book of Acts, they did a lot of things. They met together for meals, the preached the Gospel, they healed the sick, they shared things in common; but whatever else they may have been doing - they were praying together.

In Acts 4 after Peter and John are released from prison after testifying before the Sanhedrin.  When they returned to the gathered body of believers they immediately began praying and praising together. Not only that, but when they finished their prayer meeting the Bible tells us that, "the place where they were assembled was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God boldly." This is only one example out of countless instances when the Church prayed and God answered in a big way. I would submit that a large part of the success that the early church experienced was due to their commitment to being a "house of prayer."

If we are going to be an effective missionary outpost prayer must be one of our defining characteristics. It must go before, during, and after any activity. If the local church is together we should be praying.

Now what?

We have a choice to make; we can either wring our hands in dismay over the loss of Christian morals in our culture. We can bang our fists and demand that people submit to our belief that America is a Christian nation (it isn't), or we can get down to the business that God has designed His Church for - making disciples of all nations. If we embrace the image of the local church as a missionary outpost it will not only lead to a proper view of the Church, but also a more accurate view of the culture in which we live. This, in turn, will help us effectively reach the communities in which God has placed us, and isn't that our goal?

To be a missionary outpost we must share a unity of purpose that is found in the mission that Christ has given his Church - to make disciples and be his witness. We must also be a people of consistent prayer. There are certainly many other characteristics of a healthy church that should be considered, but first I believe we need to shift the way we view the local church. That shift will not be easy and sometimes it will not be pleasant because it involves admitting that the Church does not enjoy the same status as it once did in our culture. However, the reward will be seen in returning to our original purpose and building something for eternity.