Mandate for the Church
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
— Matthew 28:19-20
CGM Magazine is rooted in the simple truth that Jesus’ words in Matthew 28 and the other Gospels are still a mandate and call for the church today! But what happens when we lose sight of our calling? Sixteen years ago I wrote the opening chapter of my book, Igniting a Passion for Missions: A Guide for Church Leaders, but now post-COVID the words still ring true. Following is an excerpt:
Church… or Chaplaincy?
The Church in America is in crisis. What are some of the symptoms? Church attendance is declining, with new research indicating on any given Sunday about 20% of Americans attend church—less than half of the commonly reported 40% … A recent report by the Barna group flatly stated, “American Christians are biblically illiterate.”
Closely linked and equally as serious is the loss of Christ-inspired, Biblically-based, Spirit-led purpose in many congregations. This is most clearly evidenced by the pervasive lack of response to Jesus’ command to the church to make disciples of all nations. All too often, we see scenarios similar to the one on the following page.
Why would we do that?
The couple was missions-minded, contributing regularly to various world mission organizations since their local Lutheran church wasn’t doing much anymore in response to the Great Commission. The wife had grown up in one of the countries devastated by WWII and the communist aftermath, so she had experienced first-hand the tragic cost of tyranny and oppression. Through Bible study and personal experience, they knew the world—and their Christian family—was far bigger than the city where they lived. So, the arrival of a new pastor, one who had traveled extensively in world missions to different parts of the world prior to coming to their church, gave them hope things might change.
One Sunday morning a few months after the pastor arrived they asked him, “Can you organize and lead a short-term missions team somewhere next year and take interested members of the congregation with you?” Excited about the idea because he hoped to expand the worldview of his new congregation, the pastor invited the couple to come to the next council meeting and make the request themselves. “I’ll speak in favor of it, but you’ve been here a long time and I think it will be even better if the idea comes from a member!”
They arranged the visit, and the following Tuesday they came to the meeting…
“Our pastor has traveled a number of places in the world, and we think this experience is a blessing and answer to prayer for our congregation,” they said to the gathered church council. “We’d like you to give him permission to organize and lead a short-term missions trip for members of our church sometime in the next year or two.” The new pastor watched the council members’ faces, waiting with some anticipation for the discussion to begin. The council president sat thoughtfully, and then replied, “Why would we do that? Would you take a leave of absence? Would you go without salary? Would you be on vacation? What would this be for?”
The conversation went downhill from there, as the couple and the pastor sought to gently but firmly make a case for the role of their church in world missions, even in this small way. No one on the council ever fully grasped that those who might go would be sent from the church, in the name of Christ, using the gifts, calling and availability of the pastor and other volunteers to make a difference in response to the Great Commission. The couple left disappointed, and the matter never came up again. That pastor never led a mission trip during his years serving that congregation…
What’s wrong with this picture?… Is this in keeping with God’s heart, seen in His Son Jesus Christ who said He came “to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:10)? Have our congregations forgotten that Jesus Christ is the head of the church, and He is the one who said, “Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:20)? …I’ve come to the conclusion that, all too often, we’ve lost our understanding of the real purpose of the church. The biblical view of the church has been supplanted by what I call “the neighborhood chaplaincy.”
Neighborhood Chaplaincy
This phrase came out of a conversation I had some years ago with a man who was frustrated with his congregation as they were preparing to call yet another pastor. It became apparent that bringing new people into the church, growing a youth ministry and expanding an outreach ministry weren’t very popular. In the opinion of this member, talk of discipleship and missions was falling on deaf ears. “They aren’t really looking for a pastor to lead this church…they’re looking for a chaplain who can make sure services are held and the sick are visited,” he said sadly.
Neighborhood chaplaincy is where people gather for worship services, the Lord’s Supper is celebrated, babies are baptized, youth are confirmed, marriages are celebrated, and the funerals take place. It is the place where the sick can call to arrange for the pastor to come while they are hospitalized or shut in. There is no doubt all these things are a part of the ministry of the church, a part of healthy pastoral care. But sometimes things degenerate to the point where these activities become the primary focus and purpose of the church. Sadly, they sometimes sum up…(what) members want or expect, or all some pastors are willing to offer.
The Parable of the Crude Life Saving Station
In 1953, Episcopal priest Ted Wedel, former canon of the Washington National Cathedral, penned a now-famous parable about congregations and their loss of purpose in reaching the lost:
On a dangerous seacoast where shipwrecks often occur there was once a crude lifesaving station. The building was just a hut, and there was only one boat, but the few devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea, and with no thought for themselves went out day and night tirelessly searching for the lost. Many lives were saved by this wonderful little station, so that it became famous. Some of those who were saved, and various others in the surrounding area, wanted to become associated with the station and give of their time and their money and their effort for the support of its work. New boats were bought and new crews were trained. The little lifesaving station grew.
Some of the members of the lifesaving station became unhappy in time, however, because the building was so crude and so poorly equipped. They felt that a more comfortable, suitable place should be provided as the first refuge of those saved from the sea.
And so they replaced the emergency cots with beds, and they put better furniture in the now enlarged building, so that now the lifesaving station actually became a popular gathering place for its members. They took great care in decorating it beautifully and furnishing it exquisitely, for they found new uses for it in the context of a sort of club.
But fewer members were now interested in going to sea on lifesaving missions, and so they hired lifesaving crews to do this work on their behalf, and in their stead. Please don’t misunderstand, the lifesaving motif still prevailed in the club’s decoration and symbols—there was a liturgical lifeboat (symbolic rather than fully functional) in the room where the club initiations were held, for example—so the changes did not necessarily mean that the original purposes were totally lost.
About this time a large ship was wrecked off the coast, and the hired crews brought in boatloads of cold and wet, half-drowned people. They were dirty people and they were sick people, some of them with black skin, some with yellow skin. The beautiful new club, as you might imagine, was thrown into chaos, so that the property committee immediately had a shower house built outside the club where these recent victims of shipwreck could be cleaned up before coming inside the main clubhouse.
At the very next meeting, there was a split in the club membership. Most of the members wanted to stop the club’s lifesaving activities for being so unpleasant, as well as for being a hindrance to the normal social life of the club. Some members insisted upon lifesaving as their primary purpose, pointing out that, indeed, they were still called a lifesaving station. But these few were finally voted down and told that if they wanted to save the lives of all the various kinds of people who were shipwrecked in those waters, they could begin their own lifesaving station down the coast. And so, they did just that.
As the years passed, the new station down the coast came to experience the very same changes that had occurred in the older, initial station. It evolved into a club, and yet another lifesaving station had to be founded to restore the original purpose.
Well, history continued to repeat itself, so that if you visit that seacoast today, you will find a great number of exclusive clubs along that shore. Shipwrecks are frequent in those waters, but most of the people drown.
Tragically, many churches unknowingly and gradually make the transition from church to chaplaincy, and there are consequences for those without Christ in the neighborhood or across the world.”
— Chapter 1, Igniting a Passion for Missions: A Guide for Church Leaders by Bill Moberly.
Obedience to God’s Call
The “Neighborhood Chaplaincy” mindset still rears its head today, for example, when a congregation figures it has done its part in faithfulness to the Great Commission by meeting once a year to decide how to dispense benevolence dollars, or to occasionally send people and funds to storm ravaged places. The parable of the life-saving station was written in 1953, but 70 years later it still hits close to home. When there is a tornado, earthquake or hurricane, the church can step up and help with needs usually met by the Red Cross and FEMA, but FEMA and the Red Cross will never preach the Gospel. Is it a wonderful blessing for God’s people to be front line in times of crisis and disaster? Absolutely! But this must never replace our obedience to God’s call to make disciples among the nations, especially the least reached and unreached.

Baptism service in Cambodia

Baptisms in JHIKRA Village, Bangladesh

Evangelistic meeting in Bangladesh

Children and Youth Training at Aung Tha Pyay Lutheran Center in Myanmar
Pray for Awakening
I pray that God awakens us anew to what delights the heart of the Father: when the “lost come home”. In His parables about the lost sheep, lost coin and lost son, Jesus said that “there is joy in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10).
Rev. Dr. Carl Braaten said it this way in 1991:
“The church spends prime time on concerns for which it has no unique competence, but neglects the one thing needful which only the church, and no other agency in the world, has been commissioned to accomplish. …The apostolic mission of the gospel created the church; we call it evangelism. God has given the church this commission to go with the gospel to all who do not yet, or who no longer, believe. It is an assignment God has given to no other people in the world. If the church does not proclaim the message of salvation in the name of Jesus to those who do not believe, it will not get done.
[Rev. Dr. Carl Braaten, “The Mission of the Gospel” (1991).]
I pray that we make room in our hearts and our mission strategy to actively engage in core Gospel outreach: preaching, teaching, church planting and Bible Translation! How will they hear, unless we pray, send, give and go? To God be the Glory!