Missions

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The question in the 60's was, 'If a tree falls to the ground and no-one is around, does it make a sound?' Asking essentially whether the physical world is really real.
This is existentialism.
We know that if God has created a tree it has substance and that if it falls it must make noise, despite the lack of anyone nearby to hear it.
The Christian worldview says that there are absolutes and that nothing can change that, everything that God has created, He has purposes for and within. Therefore there is ultimate truth to be found in any and every situation.
The question today however is;
Does the tree matter at all? Christians today would probably say, 'Not really'. Does the world matter at all - that is what the movie, the Matrix is about.
The purpose of this illustration is that Christians believe that the physical world is an illusion, like the matrix, there is no real substance to it and the spiritual world is much more important.
This idea, that we have come to accept in Christianity is not a Biblical worldview, it is Hinduism.

We are not Hindus, but our thought process in coming to the conclusion that the world does not matter is more like Hinduism than Christianity!

Now many of our students come into DTS or YWAM (I work for Youth With A Mission) or exist in our congregations or churches with an agnositc view of life, meaning that the spiritual aspects of life are of utmost importance and the physical a distraction.

Sometimes in Discipleship Training Schools and the church we don't ever deal with this mindset, we deal with salvation, spiritual warfare, living by faith and other aspects of the spiritual world, but the students mindset is never confronted with a Christian worldview in it's entirety.

The fact is that all that is created is by God and for God. This is God's world and He has purposes and principles to govern it. The church is mechanism by which God expresses Himself in society, it is one way that God is expressed and revealed, but there are other ways too.

Here is a list of the domains of society that God expresses Himself in, you will need to identify your Sphere of Influence within them;

There are 8 domains under which all of human culture and interaction and vocation fall, they are the following basic areas of society 

1. Government
2. Education
3. Science and Technology
4. Family
5. Church
6. Arts and Entertainment
7. Communications
8. Economics

God expresses Himself and His purposes through the body Of Christ. What is the difference between the church and the body of Christ?
The church is a domain of society, the body of Christ is made up of many different members, all with different functions in all of the 8 domains. So, as a full time missionary, I am in the domain of church. But my friend who is a musician, is in the domain of arts and entertainment.

So discipling nations begins with the church domain where all members of the body of Christ come on Sunday or to a discipleship Training school to get discipled in life and in a Christian worldview.  This is just the beginning, it ends with those members of the body of Christ going back into their respective domains and living out Godly principles in the other 7 domains - economics, government, education, family, arts and entertainment, science and technology and communication.

This is when and how we are to disciple nations. Each domain is as important as another. They all have to be held in tension with one another and yet stay true to their function.

Otherwise what we have is a church domain which makes converts but then encourages them all to become evangelists and leaving their vocation in one of the other domains, as well as their influence within that domain.

So in Malawi and Uganda, we have hundreds of evangelists, which is great, but we have few Christians in government, economics or health care and education. We have places in the world that are over evangelised, but under discipled.

Why? Because we don't truly believe that God loves the world and society at large! We think church is the only important domain to God. Instead what we should have is God's heart, which is a heart that is breaking that the church is not teaching the complete gospel.
Salvation must be hand in hand with social reform. We need reformation, we need to disciple nations.

This starts on a personal level, then in the domain of the church and then on to disciple the extended body of Christ who live and work in other domains of society. This way God's principles will filter down to the grass roots level of believers.

That way the body of Christ can get to work discipling the nations on Monday morning, after learning how, through a Christian worldview, on Sunday morning from their local pastor.

We will find then, that there will be no sacred and secular, no jobs better than any other and we can begin influencing through the domains, to get rid of the abuse within the domains, pornography or ideas of beauty are two areas of society that need redeeming.

For instance young girls look at anorexic models and are told they are beautiful, men look at pornography and are abusing the laws of natural order and redefining right and wrong for society.

These can be painful and emotive issues, but as the body of Christ we need to engage with society and get to know the pain. Identification is the key to good communication.

If we can identify with the pain of the situation, we won't be so quick to judge, but it will be very painful. Yet that is what a couple does when they get engaged. They pledge to get to know each other, they spend time together and become a support and begin to feel the pain each other feels as well as starting to find solutions to some of these issues.

We need to engage with the world. When we speak of the world we tend to think of the lost, we think God's heart is breaking for the world, but actually God's heart may just be breaking for the inaction and selfishness of the church's lack of involvement as salt and light in the world.

If a man stood by the side of a river with a life saving ring in his hand and watched as another person gets washed away, wouldn't he have to take some responsibility for their death?

The fact is, that only 20% or less of the body of Christ should be a part of the domain of church as full time workers.

The other 80% should be going back into the world where they can be a positive influence in the other 7 domains.
The domain of church needs to equip them to do so by opening our mindset to see that God is already involved in the domains of society and waiting for us to come on in..

The priests, missionaries and clergy should be the start of discipling the nations, the entire body of Christ is responsible to reform society.

Note: © 2003, God-life.com,
This article cannot be reprinted without permission from the author, If you would like to use this article, please contact us at [email protected]

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