The Mission of the Church

The Book of Exodus is so critical to understanding the mission of the church. There is a split about what we are called to do and what the gospel is. Are we merely called to preach a message of personal salvation? Are we merely to attend to the needs of others?

Exodus 5-12 fleshes this out for us—it is both. It is what the Bible teaches in Exodus when God frees His people from real slavery and when He proclaims His covenant to the people in chapters 19-24. It is what the Bible teaches in the gospels when Jesus proclaims the kingdom and heals people of oppressive maladies (and commissions His disciples to do the same. It is what the Bible teaches in James when we are to proclaim God’s grace and show it through acts of care and compassion, for faith without works is dead! It is what we see in the Book of Acts as the church goes about proclaiming Jesus and seeing people surrender their lives to Christ (Acts 2:36-41) and taking care of the weak (Acts 6:1-6; 20:35).

When Stalin took over Russia, he did not outlaw Christianity. He simply took away their ability to meet people’s needs. That duty now belonged solely to the State. And the church in Russia almost died.

View the six-minute video at http://youtu.be/RohCIHXBZxY and see some of the work of the International Justice Mission in the life of a Ugandan woman named Grace. The cross was already a part of Grace’s life. And now the kingdom is having a tangible effect on her plight too! Such is the mission of the church!