Mission and Worship

Last night we met with our community group (other churches call them small groups, life groups, city groups, etc.)  The night’s discussion turned to mission.  Our church has been pushing mission for the past few months now, bringing in guest speakers and our own pastors preaching on the message of mission.  Mission is key in bringing the gospel of Jesus to those that have never heard it proclaimed before.  I love mission; its what Jesus told us to do and we should follow his teachings.  The book of Acts is full of mission and it is beautiful to see what the apostles went through to spread the gospel.

Something I have noticed about the early church in Acts is that no matter what happened - arrests, death, snakes - the apostles continued to teach, preach, and WORSHIP.  It was Tim Hughes who once wrote that “Worship without mission is self-indulgent. Mission without worship is self-defeating.”  I would like to extend that and say that you cannot be on mission without experiencing worship first.  If you do not praise the greatness of Jesus Christ and what He can do, your mission is worthless.  To me mission without worship is nothing more than help for the needy, and does not glorify God in the highest at all times.

I feel you cannot glorify God without worshiping Him first.  You must have an encounter with God, and be filled with his Holy presence before even considering mission.  You must understand the gospel of Jesus, and embrace it as law before even moving forward to help those in need of the gospel.  Without worship, your works are selfish and there is NO way you can win others to Christ without picking up your cross and bearing witness to Him. Worship teaches us that.  Worship to God equips us for mission.  How do you know if you are ready for mission?  The only way you will know is to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and that is accomplished through much prayer and worship.

Let’s flip around and focus on what Tim Hughes said about worship without mission.  This is true and evident in our Christian culture.  When we only worship and praise the Lord, and we try to keep God for ourselves and away from others, we are not acting on mission.  American Christians do that. We get wrapped up in our world and forget Jesus as soon as the doors open when church lets out. When we are told "we are sent" it means that we MUST take our worship out of ourselves and pour it into the world. This Earth needs our worship, it craves it.

Let us not be afraid to use Jesus when on mission. He should be first and foremost when on mission. And finally, let us be on mission all the time and use our worship to fuel the mission, and vice versa.

Verses to chew on:
We've been sent - Matthew 28:16-20
We are called to mission - Mark 12:28-31
We are called to worship - John 4:16-26