The Heart of the Matter: Emerging Paradigm Shift in Christian Missions.
It goes without saying that the Heart — the central organ that pumps lifeblood to the brain and other parts of the body is vital to continue human existence. A healthy heart is the driving force of the human body. Often used as an organic metaphor the heart suggests something alive and pulsating — a source of life: The heart of the matter!
We seek to raise questions in this article about the heart and meaning of Christian missions in our postmodern world. We dare say that the central focus of missions today in the developing world is a far cry from what it used to be several decades ago and in the early church.
Here’s what we mean:
A retiring arch-bishop of a denominational church in Lagos, Nigeria left office with a severance pay of 250 million Naira (local currency), in addition to other benefits such as a house in a highbrow neighborhood and accompanying 60-million-Naira car to the bargain.
His exit ignited a crisis within his diocese — resulting in a lawsuit. In contention was what the litigant church members considered an extravagant deployment of funds the church could ill afford. The outgoing archbishop was also accused of manipulating the selection process that led to the elevation of his surrogate — spiritual son — to succeed him in office.
The church seems to have gone 360 degrees full circle — going the way of politicians and the secular business world. Elected public office holders like state governors and key national legislators enjoy over-the-top allowances and payoffs at the end of their tenure in office. It seems they have set the standard and are role models for other Nigerian public officeholders, including apostles and pastors. Occupying public office becomes the fastest route to accumulating wealth in the country.
The archbishop in his response to the allegations leveled against him justified his payoff and other perquisites: One, by recounting his accomplishments in terms of increasing the church’s revenue during his tenure by way of investing in property development; Two, by referencing similar payoffs to other bishops before him. It is nothing new.
The archbishop, however, had nothing to say about how much the church expended on mission outreaches to the community. There was nothing about the number of souls that were added to Christ’s Kingdom under his watch. Nor was there reference to any charity outreach to the poor, the sick, and the orphans; not to talk of contributions of the church to the health and education ministries in his domain — arguably the trademarks of early missionary enterprise in the country.
Apparently, soul-winning or disciple-making commissioned by our Lord Jesus, has ceased to be the priority of this and other big churches in Nigeria. Clearly, there is a difference between making a crowd and making disciples!
Whereas the case in question is not an exemption, it provides a vivid illustration of an emerging pattern of “doing church” for the benefit of the clergy and ministers in leadership positions in many churches. The most telling effect of this development can be found in rural communities where the poor, and the aged are victims of systemic financial exploitation in support of the clergy.
This is not the legacy of the early missionaries who brought Christianity to Africa.
We are witnessing a paradigm shift in mission work — a growing departure from Christ-centered missions to self-centered enterprises — from soul-winning to business dealings and material acquisition. The heart of missions— that passion for souls and human development exemplified by Christ and the early church has gone to the winds.
The question is: What was the heart of Jesus’ mission on earth, and what would he do in our circumstances?
First, Jesus declared his mission at the onset of his ministry on earth in these words:
The Spirit of the Lord is on me because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to set the oppressed free (Luke 4:18).
This declaration was made in the synagogue on the sabbath after overcoming the tempter in the wilderness. Scripture says, “He stood up to read and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it he found the place where it is written, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me…” (Isaiah 61: 1).
His comment on Isaiah’s prophecy affirming his mission was, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:20).
To answer the second part of our question, we go to Ecclesiastes 1 which says, “there’s nothing new under the sun.” As it was in the beginning, so is now — but we need not continue down the wrong path. Mattew 21:10–14 tells us what Jesus did in a similar circumstance during his earthly ministry:
When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “who is this?” The crowd answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee. Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written”, he said to them, “My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers.
A House of Prayer — Not a Business Center!
The phrase house of prayer again echoes the prediction of Isaiah 56:7 where it is used twice:
These (foreigners) I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar, for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.
A house of prayer for all nations — that is what the church of Christ was designed to be. David captured the heart of the house of prayer in his own heart’s cry in Psalm 27:4:
One thing I have desired of the Lord that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple.
The house (temple) of the Lord is no longer a building or physical location somewhere on a mountain where one can be in God’s presence. Jesus told the Samaritan woman by the well:
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth. (John 4:21).
After ejecting the traders from the temple courts, the Lord reestablished the temple as a house of prayer: “The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them.” But the chief priests and the teachers of the law were offended, especially as the children started shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David.” “They were indignant.” (Matt.21:15).
John’s account relates how Jesus was challenged by the Jews seeking to know by what authority he was acting. “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” They asked him (John 2:18). They were aware of diverse sources of authority. They knew that the spiritual realm operated under authority.
Jesus responds by linking his authority to the temple — the house of prayer and seat of the ark of Covenant. “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days,” he said. Jesus here speaks of the end of temple sacrifices and offerings that henceforth take expression and fulfillment in his death, burial, and resurrection. The Old and the New Covenants converge in Jesus.
But the Jews and his disciples didn’t get it. They replied,
It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” But the temple he had spoken of is his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken. (John 2:11–22).
After the resurrection, the temple building ceases to be relevant having been replaced by the body of Christ — the believers in whom dwell the Holy Spirit. Do you not know your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? (1 Cor.6:9).
All the questions and doubts about Jesus’ authority were put to rest after his resurrection. As the disciples gathered together waiting on the mountain in Galilee, Jesus came to them and said,
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go into all the nations and make disciples….
On all authority in heaven and on earth, the Church goes out into the world making disciples and baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
The mission is clear: It is the Great Commission to the church then and now.
The question arising is, how committed are we to the Great Commission? In what ways are our churches making disciples today? Who is a disciple?
