Four Strategic Steps for the Great Commission Church

The Great Commission does not call on churches to act like traffic police departments. Nor does it require them to act like information desks. And one more thing: The Great Commission does not teach churches to act like professional sports teams.

People often joke in our church that I don’t know much about sports, and maybe that’s fair. But there’s one thing I do understand: the ultimate goal of any sports team is to win a championship. The team strives to recruit the best players, build state-of-the-art training facilities, and optimize its coaching staff—all in an effort to win the league’s top trophy. Of course, the team is glad that other teams exist, because without them there would be no league. However, its ultimate goal is to beat other teams.

I don’t think many churches really think, «We need to beat other churches!» But let me ask you a few diagnostic questions to see if you’ve got the «our team is the best» mindset creeping in:

• Are you willing to sincerely release your best ministers to other churches?
• Do you rejoice when, while praying for revival, you see it begin in a neighboring church? (Thanks to Andy Johnson for this insightful question!)
• Do you regularly pray for neighboring churches and other communities in your city?
• Do you allocate part of your budget to restoring old or establishing new churches in your city, across the country, or abroad?

Too often, there is a hidden competition among evangelical churches. But the Great Commission church does not compete with other churches that preach the Gospel because it understands that every such church is part of the same team.

Great Commission Church = church that plants new churches

Here’s the basic idea: a Great Commission church is not only a church that preaches the gospel and practices discipleship. It is also a church that plants new churches and helps restore other churches. It seeks to grow the kingdom of God through its own ministry, but it also desires to see it expand beyond its walls through other churches.

The Great Commission Church seeks to organize numerous evangelistic activities that go beyond its own borders to attract new people. At the same time, it is interested in seeing these efforts eventually lead to the establishment or support of other local churches. Such a church is not satisfied with its own spiritual health; it desires to see many other healthy, biblical, evangelical churches.

Such a church supports other evangelical churches and new churches, even if they are just a few blocks away. It prays for them by name, is willing to provide good workers to help other churches, and works to plant and support churches in various parts of the world.

The Great Commission Church works hard and prays to raise up men worthy to be elders, and then willingly releases them into ministry. It adjusts its budget according to the priorities of the Great Commission: some funds remain for ministry on the ground, but some are directed to support other communities near and far.

The church works to rebuild fallen communities where possible. It strives to cultivate in its members, both publicly and privately, a team mentality and a proper attitude toward other evangelical churches. Its members and leaders are as happy to see a new church preaching the Gospel as they are to see a new soup kitchen in a famine-stricken country.

So what does the Great Commission church do? I want to suggest four strategic steps.

Cultivating a culture of discipleship

First, the Great Commission church creates a culture of discipleship among its members, where each member feels responsible for the spiritual growth of other believers. As Paul says, pastors equip the saints for the work of ministry (Eph. 4:11-12), meaning ministry is the task of all saints. The whole body grows as it speaks the truth in love and builds itself up as each part does its work (Eph. 4:15-16; see also 1 Cor. 12, 14).

Discipleship is primarily my own following of Jesus. Discipleship is when I help someone else follow Him (2 Tim. 2:2). In the Great Commission church, older men in the faith nurture younger men, and younger women seek mentorship from older women. For example, if you are a single woman, you might offer to help a stay-at-home mom with her laundry so you can talk to her. If you are an elder teaching adult Sunday school, be sure to involve a younger teacher. Your goal is to prepare them to teach so that you can pass on the ministry to them and start a new class and involve a new younger teacher.

The Great Commission Church also exhibits the geographical sensitivity that Jesus alludes to when he says, «Go.» For those who remain in their local church, «going» may mean moving closer to the church or to a group of its members so that it is easier to minister to one another during the week. Where do you live? Does your location contribute to fostering a culture of discipleship in your church?

The Great Commission Church will be uncomfortable, even provocative, for the nominal Christian. If you came to such a church as a guest on Sunday, having fulfilled your religious «obligation,» you might not like it. You will be welcomed, but the values of its members are different: they have dedicated their lives to following Jesus and are committed to helping each other do so. This level of commitment and activity is part of the church’s culture: conscious questions, meaningful conversations, prayers, and constant reminders of the Gospel.

Fostering a culture of evangelization

Second, the Great Commission church actively cultivates a culture of evangelism. On the one hand, its members know that the gospel is heard in every gathering. This motivates them to invite their unbelieving friends, because the gospel is poured out through singing, prayer, and every sermon.

Are you confident that any unbeliever you bring to your church will hear the Gospel? If not, what can you do to change that?

On the other hand, the Great Commission church seeks to teach its members evangelism because it understands that they encounter more unbelievers in a week than they can possibly bring into the church building. Therefore, «success» in evangelism is not limited to bringing your unbeliever friends to church to hear the Gospel. Success is about sharing the Gospel with your neighbors and friends.

The church strives to train its members in evangelism so that they can share the Gospel with others. To this end, our church has adult Sunday schools dedicated to evangelism. I try to set an example in preaching, especially when reaching out to unbelievers. We provide church members with various resources and tools to help them grow in their evangelism work. We give away Greg Gilbert’s book, «Who Is Jesus?» so that members can share it with their unbelieving friends. In the evening meetings, we talk about evangelism opportunities that have arisen during the workday or week and pray for the efforts of others, which inspires members in their own efforts to spread the Good News.

What does the Great Commission mean to you? It means that Jesus calls you to be a «disciple maker,» that is, to both evangelize unbelievers and to instruct believers. This is the task of each of us—at home, at work, in our neighborhood, among our friends. You are to do this both in the church and through the church.

So enlist your brothers and sisters in church for support. Invite a minister to dinner and ask for his advice. Share your intentions and pray with a small group. Go out with friends and evangelize.

WORKING TO REACH PEOPLE THROUGH MISSIONS

The third thing the Great Commission church does is seek to reach the unreached through missions. What is the difference between missions, evangelism, and house church planting? In reality, missions is simply evangelism and church planting when it happens across ethnic, cultural, and usually national boundaries.

Jesus commands us to «go and make disciples of all nations.» While I haven’t delved into this topic, many books have covered this idea in great detail. However, it is hard to imagine that the church could read this command and not feel the need to take the Gospel to those nations who have never heard it.

No church can cover the entire planet at once. Therefore, it is advisable for churches to focus their efforts in a few places. For example, our church focuses on a few countries in the so-called «10/40 window»—the region in the Eastern Hemisphere between 10 and 40 degrees north of the equator where the Christian population is the smallest percentage.

If you are a member of our church and express a desire to be involved in missionary work, we can support you with more resources if you go to one of the places we already invest in. We simply cannot afford to fund a hundred missionaries going to a hundred different places. Because of this, we prefer to support fewer missionaries with more resources than many missionaries with little help. This allows those we support to spend more time planting churches and less time fundraising. It also allows us to have a closer relationship with the missionaries and ensure accountability.

Our church works with missionaries directly and through missionary organizations like the Southern Baptist Convention International Missionary Council. We also work with amazing groups like Access Partners who help find businesspeople in strategic locations around the world so they can support missionaries on the ground.

What role can each Christian play in helping the church reach the unreached? Certainly, pray for your church’s missionaries. Get to know them during their vacations. Consider short-term missionary trips to support those serving in the field. Read biographies of missionaries. And perhaps consider going yourself. We will return to this issue in later chapters.

Another thing you and your church can do to reach people is to pay attention to the foreigners in your city. Our church actively serves international students. What other international communities are there in your city? If you take the Gospel to them right here in your hometown, there is a good chance that they will take the message to their countries.

Work to strengthen other churches

The fourth area of activity of the Great Commission church is strengthening other churches. Often churches have a budget for missions, but I think it is worth adding the item «Supporting healthy churches.».

My church, for example, uses these funds to support projects like our Pastoral Internship Program. Each year we fund internships for twelve men, most of whom go on to become pastors or ministers in other churches.

We also direct these resources to support the ministry of 9Marks, an organization dedicated to building healthy churches. Our team has a special structure through which employees are trained and sent out to serve. For example, assistant pastors serve for two to three years and then leave; junior pastors serve for three to five years and then leave. Only myself and the assistant pastors (along with pastors and elders who are not full-time employees) stay with our church for the long term. The others are trained to go to new places.

Our church also hosts weekend conferences where pastors from all over the world come. In addition to regular meetings, we host several lectures and question and answer sessions. I also participate in weekly phone conversations with several networks of pastors from around the world, and each of these conversations provides an opportunity to pray and work for healthy churches.

Much of our effort to strengthen other churches by planting new ones and reviving existing ones is focused on our region, which will be the subject of the next chapter. However, we also help with these tasks internationally. For example, almost a decade ago, we sent a brother, John, to a church in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, when that church was looking for a pastor. God used John mightily to reviving that international church. One of his key elders who helped bring John there was Mack, a longtime friend of mine. When John and Mack had the church back on track, Mack, along with another brother, Dave, left the church to start a new church half an hour away. We also sent a former assistant pastor and a former intern to help Mack and Dave with this new endeavor. At the same time, we sent another former intern to start another church in another city in the UAE.

There are now three healthy churches operating in this Muslim country. None of these projects were part of any grand strategy. In fact, neither the possibility of restoration nor the establishment of the two new churches were initiated by us. We simply prayed, helped, and sent financial and human support where we could. Incidentally, some of our members have transferred their work to the UAE to help with the ministry of these churches. Our church does not receive any direct benefit, except for the pure joy of seeing the Kingdom of God expand in this far-off country.

What can the average church member do to strengthen other churches, whether in their own region or around the world? Pray personally for other churches, of course. Pray with your family at dinner. Support other ministries financially.

Also, be careful not to criticize other churches. Yes, your church practices or some minor doctrinal issues may differ from those of other churches. And, of course, we have good reasons for these differences. I am not urging you to ignore such differences. However, remember that those minor issues on which your church may differ with others are never as important as the Gospel that unites us. So avoid a critical spirit and look for opportunities for joy in partnership for the common Gospel.