Mere Missions

120 • M ere M issions : M oving F orward to M ultiply

It is all about the message and not the messenger. The message alone, through the working of the Holy Spirit, “convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment” (John 16.8). Messengers are just a vessel in which the message of the Gospel is spoken. The early Church was not persecuted because of demonstrations of compassion and justice but because of their confession and proclamation that Jesus is the risen Lord and is to be worshipped and glorified alone. All of humanity can and must do acts of kindness, compassion, justice, and mercy but only the Church, the priesthood of all believers, can and must proclaim the Gospel. For the one who is authorized and sent to plant churches, this becomes their first task. It is their priority and responsibility. No church will be planted apart from the conversion of the lost and the lost cannot be converted unless they hear the Good News of Jesus Christ. More than 100 times Jesus’s ministry is described in terms of teaching, preaching, and evangelizing. More than 140 times the New Testament uses such words as “to announce”, “to tell thoroughly”, to “spread good news”; to herald or proclaim. Evangelism is critical to our Apostolic Missions Platform (Acts 4.4; 13.47-48; 16.25-34; 17.10-12; 17.32-34; 28.24; Eph. 1.13; Rom. 10.14). Paul the Apostle, the church planter to the Gentiles, ordered his missions calling and priority in the preaching of the Gospel (1 Cor. 15.1-5). G.W. Peters said, “Evangelization refers to the initial phase of Christian Ministry. It is the authoritative proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ as revealed in the Bible in relevant and intelligible terms, in a persuasive manner with the definite purpose of making Christian converts. It is preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ for a verdict.” He goes on to state, “We are sent not to preach sociology but salvation; not economics but evangelism; not reform but redemption; not culture but conversion; not progress but pardon; not a new social order but a new birth; not revolution but regeneration; not renovation but revival; not resuscitation but resurrection; not a new