What is the purpose and mission of the Church?

I was home last Sunday because I was ill. During my time of prayer, meditation, and study at home I was reading Dr. Robert E. Webber’s Ancient – Future Evangelism: Making Your Church A Faith-Forming Community . As I was reading, I came across a passage that in my opinion summarizes a great deal of our current struggle to get clarity on the purpose and mission of the Church. This is what I read:

“If the mission of God through Jesus Christ is to rescue creation from the presence and power of evil, then what is the mission of the church? If the church is the context for Christian formation, we must then have a biblical view of the purpose of the church. There seems to be some confusion about the purpose of the church in both the mainline and evangelical communities. Let me explain.

Back in 1979 a church leader sent a letter to evangelical leaders declaring, “God is calling us to march into the halls of Congress and clean up America for God.” His concerns were certainly appropriate: the rise of the permissive society, the breakdown of marriage, violence in the streets, pornography, abortion, and drugs to name a few issues that pointed to the breakdown of American society. Rev. Jerry Falwell’s answer was to found the Moral Majority and through this organization mobilize churches throughout America to vote Christians into office. These Christians were to act as responsible moral citizens in places of power. The idea was that through them a reforming and stable influence would be established to stem the eroding values of a godless American culture. The particular arm of the government through which evangelicals were to fulfill their calling to be salt and light to the world was the Republican Party.

In the meantime the mainline church was also mobilizing to assert an influence on another set of political problems. --- poverty, racism, the crumbling of the inner city, gangs, and the meaninglessness found among the jobless, single mothers, and aging dependents. For mainliners these matters of raising humanity to a more humane level were the goal of the church and the arm of the government through which this task was to be accomplished was the Democratic Party.

What’s wrong with this picture then and now? The church was being politicized. That is, this view says the agenda of the church is accomplished by teaming with a political power of the world. This view compromises the purpose of the church. It results in a distortion of the church’s mission to the world. Yet this view persists. Consequently we must ask: What is the purpose and mission of the church? ….

The mission of the church is to be about the politics of Jesus. Jesus is Lord. He has won a victory over the powers of evil and is now and shall be forever be the reigning Lord over everything God has created. The Church is called to live this truth, proclaim it, enact it, and call people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and to a life of obedient discipleship under His reign in their lives. “ (pgs 153 & 154)

I believe Dr. Webber has done a very good job in summarizing a significant part of what has been happening in the church over the last thirty years. I was part of that process in which there was an attempt to stand and war against the evil in society through the politics of the Republican Party. Christians struggled to move from an isolated cultural ghetto to become a dominant political voice. All of these movements were impacted by many factors such as views on prophecy, economic back grounds, cultural environments, and existing political beliefs. Christians sincerely want to respond to the problems of our society and influence it for good.

Yet, how do we do this without having the church simply absorbed into the secular purpose and plans of the existing political powers? How do we keep the church from just becoming a pawn in an elaborate game that is being played by other institutions, movements, and powers? How do we maintain the independence and integrity of the church as God’s embassy upon the earth? How do we avoid being taken over by the spirit of the age in which we live? How ought we to live in this post-Christian society?

As I thought about these issues, I remembered an old mentor of mine; Dr Francis Schaeffer. One of the first books I read by Dr. Schaeffer was Death in the City which is a group of meditations on Jeremiah and Lamentations. In that book Dr. Schaeffer said:

“The church in our generation needs reformation, revival, and constructive revolution. At times men think of the two words reformation and revival as standing in contrast one to the other, but this is a mistake. Both words are related to the word restore. Reformation refers to a restoration to pure doctrine; revival refers to a restoration in the Christian’s life. Reformation speaks of a return to the teachings of Scripture; revival speaks of a life brought into its proper relationship to the Holy Spirit. The great moments of church history have come when these two restorations have simultaneously come into action so that the church has returned to pure doctrine and the lives of the Christians in the church have known the power of the Holy Spirit. There cannot be true revival unless there has been reformation; and reformation is not complete without revival. Such a combination of reformation and revival would be revolutionary in our day -- revolutionary in our individual lives as Christians, revolutionary not only in reference to the liberal church but constructively revolutionary in the evangelical, orthodox church as well. May we be those who know the reality of both reformation and revival, so that this poor dark world may have an exhibition of a portion of the church returned to both pure doctrine and Spirit-filled life.” (Francis A. Schaeffer, Death In The City, Ch. 1)

This is actually a great summary of what I have prayed for and worked to see happen at First Church West over the last fourteen years. To goals is to have First Church West be a “portion of the church” which has returned to both pure doctrine and Spirit-filled life?” As a community of believers beginning a new year it would be good for us to refocus our attention upon revival and reformation.

So what do you think about these issues? What is the purpose and mission of the church from your perspective? How can we seek revival and reformation? May the Lord help us experience these realities and transform us more and more into what He desires us to become both as a local church and as individuals.