Compassion the World Can See

I have been troubled of late that that the mainline church seems to be failing all around me, and the conservative evangelical church seems to be polarizing the public and rejected by most people with ethnic, socio-economic and sexual diversity. The issues that the fundamental church has chosen to stand on polarizes the community and the political rhetoric. The mainline church finds its tolerance ridiculed by their "brother and sisters in Christ" for moral decline and the rest of the world for lack of courage to stand for anything.

Why is the Church failing? Could it be that we have missed or changed God's plan for the church? First we must understand the mission of the Christian and then the extended mission of the church.

Matthew 28:16-20 (New International Version)

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Verse 19 is the only mission of the disciples. A better rendering would be "as you go". We as Christians are supposed to make disciples, which requires witnessing as we go about our daily lives to what Jesus has done in and for us. The modern church in the 20th Century changed this to read "bring them to church, baptizing them..." and as a result, abandoned the very core of disciple mission.

These disciples, that we are supposed to resemble as Christians, let Jesus (with all authority) work through them, lead them, send them, and guide them through prayer, study, and experience with Jesus. Their credibility we lodged in their devotion and ability to let the world see the compassion and love of Jesus Christ through them.

The modern day problem is that today's Christians work for Jesus instead of letting Jesus work through them. They either do not resemble Christ by demonstrating their lack of compassion in the political arena, or they "do" for Christ and claim the credit for it with the community and with God without the credibility of Christ's authority gained by Jesus' authority and guidance.

The true Christian is then faced with the choice of being a part of a community outspoken, negative, guilt-ridden people who make enemies for Christ and the Church by their community and political agenda, or a community of do-gooders who don't seek God's leading for their compassion or allow Jesus to work through them. Some churches achieve the incorporation of both these traits.

Ask yourself; if you were faced with a person on the street reading the Bible and wondering about the stories he was reading, could you communicate and witness with validity to your own experience to lead him to Christ as Philip did the Ethiopian? If you were faced with an issue that required your compassion, would you be able to extend Christian help and then articulate your faith with the guidance of the Holy Spirit without being self-righteous and condescending? Do you really care what your neighbor's, friend's, or even family's eternal and present faith condition is?

If you cannot easily and quickly affirm these questions in your mind, you have been deluded by the modern church into thinking that the Christian has some other mission than to propagate the Gospel of Christ through complete submission to His will. I challenge you to consider how different the Church would be if all Christians prayerfully sought God's will for their lives and were willing to accept their mission as stated in Matthew 28. The Church's only hope is that individual Christians become Disciples once again.