Editor’s note – Missions conversations often start with strategy – which field, which method, which need is greatest – before starting with God’s purpose. This piece resets that order, tracing the call to missions back to God’s own reconciling work in Genesis 3 and 2 Corinthians 5. We’re running it because of the line the author draws between every believer’s call to witness and the narrower call to cross-cultural missions that many churches blur.
God’s Plan is Reconciliation to Relationship
What is God doing in the world?
That question provides the starting point for understanding Christian mission. Before we talk about missionaries, mission agencies, evangelism, church planting, or reaching the nations, we need to understand God’s purpose. Scripture reveals that God’s plan is ultimately about bringing people back into relationship with Himself.
Humanity was created for relationship with God. Genesis 1:26-28 describes people created in God’s image and given responsibility within God’s creation. Genesis 2 presents humanity living in God’s presence. Then sin entered the story, and that relationship was broken (Genesis 3).
Yet, a broken relationship was not the end of God’s story.
Throughout Scripture, God moves toward people. He calls Abraham and promises that through him “all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). He forms Israel as His people and tells them they are to be “a kingdom of priests” (Exodus 19:5-6). The prophets repeatedly point beyond Israel toward God’s purpose for the nations (Psalm 67:1-7; Isaiah 49:6).
Then God comes to us in Jesus Christ.
Paul gives us perhaps the clearest description of God’s mission in 2 Corinthians 5:17-21. Through Christ, God reconciles sinners to Himself. Those who have been reconciled are then entrusted with “the ministry of reconciliation.” Paul says, “We are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.”
Notice the progression. God reconciles us. God gives us the message of reconciliation. God makes us His ambassadors. This provides an important distinction for understanding Christian responsibility.
Editor’s note – Notice what Paul does not say: he never tells the Corinthians to start an agency. He tells them they already carry the message because they were already reconciled.
Witness for All, Missionary for Some
Every Christian who has been reconciled to God is called to be a witness. Jesus told His disciples, “You will be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8). Every believer has a responsibility to represent Christ and testify to what God has done.
But every Christian is not “called” to be a missionary.
The church has a responsibility for local outreach, reaching people within its surrounding community and cultural context. Ralph Winter’s E-scale describes this as E-1 evangelism: moving from the church into the culture where the church is at home. E-0 involves evangelism among nominal or unsaved people within the Christian community. E-2 and E-3 move progressively across greater cultural and linguistic barriers.
Cross-cultural missions begins when the Gospel intentionally crosses significant cultural, linguistic, or ethnic boundaries. The missionary is called and sent with the authority of a local church to proclaim Christ, make disciples, and establish or strengthen the church among people beyond the missionary’s normal cultural context.
Editor’s note – Compassion ministries open doors and honor Christ, but they cannot replace proclaiming the Gospel and planting churches. The author is right to keep that line firm.
Proclamation, Not Just Compassion
This distinction matters because missions is not simply anything Christians do somewhere else. Medical work, sports ministry, education, disaster relief, and humanitarian service can be valuable expressions of Christian love and can serve as avenues for missionary ministry. But Christian missions cannot be reduced to the social gospel. Its purpose requires proclaiming the Biblical Gospel, making disciples, and establishing and strengthening healthy churches within that cross-cultural context.
The goal is not simply to improve someone’s circumstances but to be reconciled with God by a relationship with Him through Jesus Christ.
The End Toward Which God Is Moving
Revelation 7:9-10 gives us the picture toward which God’s redemptive plan is moving: people from every nation, tribe, people, and language worshiping before the throne of God.
From Genesis to Revelation, God’s purpose is clear: to restore man’s broken relationship with Him.
The church’s responsibility is to participate in that purpose—locally as witnesses, globally through prayer and partnership, and cross-culturally through those whom God calls and sends.
Mission begins with God’s plan.
A Word from the Editor
From Genesis to Revelation, Scripture tells one story: God moving toward what sin severed, whatever the cost. Every reconciled believer carries a piece of that same ministry, whether it plays out down the street or across the world.
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Distributed by – BCWorldview.org
Editor Comment: Thank you for anchoring the whole missions conversation in God's own reconciling work rather than in strategy or method.
This article appeared on Medium and is reprinted with modifications and by permission.