Mere Missions

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

that it builds itself up in love” (Eph. 4.11-16). If saints are not equipped, “through and for” the Church, then the spread of the Gospel and the multiplication efforts of the Church’s mission will falter and may altogether come to a halt, leading to the body of Christ not being built up. The equipping task of the Church is critical in our Apostolic Missions Platform . Equipping the saints is not an option nor just for some. All those who claim Christ Jesus as Lord enter His service in this cosmic spiritual battle between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Darkness. Allegiance to the Lord, through confession of obedient faith by grace, automatically enlists them to make disciples and to fan into flame the gift which God has given them, in order to, “make the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” (Eph. 4.16). This is not a service of violence as the world knows violence but an aggression of unrelenting love that seeks the salvation of all for the glory of God. It is a love that is, “patient and kind; it does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. It is a love that never ends” (1 Cor. 4-8a). It is “ The Mark of a Christian ” (Title to Francis Shaeffer’s spiritual classic). With this mark, this identification, spiritual leadership within the Church, equip the saints in disciple making and gift development. Let’s look at these two areas of leadership equipping: disciple making and gift development. Disciple Making We all know the Great Commission, especially the one quoted in Matthew 28.19-20, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” The command to Go , in the Greek as used here,