Being Holy and Being Missional
Mark Lauterbach from Gospeldrivenlife is in the midst of doing a series of posts entitled “The Gospel and Culture.” In them he is seeking to help us understand that we cannot comfort ourselves with our holiness when we are failing to be missional and we cannot comfort ourselves with being missional when we are failing in holiness. The gospel will drive us to both. By the way- the idea of missional has to do with being involved in the culture for the purpose of purusing social justice as well as proclaiming the gospel of Christ. Here are some excerpts from the first post in the series.
Shall we be Missional or holy? My simple response: It is a lie from the pit of hell to pose these two as opposites. Satan loves false dichotomies and this one is at the top of his list. Pitting these two against each other has done more than most other errors to remove Christians from appropriate relationships with non-believers for the Gospel. I have observed it for years and felt its temptations in my own heart.
and then later…
So, in relating to the culture — it is not a choice of either holiness or mission — it is a call to both. My mission is an expression of genuine holiness — and how can I claim to be holy and be in direct disobedience to one of the clearest commands of Scripture? For believers to deliberately NOT plan some form of seeking the lost in their lives is an act of rebellion no different than adultery. For believers to compromise their godliness in the name of obeying the missional commands is also equally sin.
It is stunning how confused we can be and how self-deceived — to think that I preserve my obedience to God by disobeying his command to bring the Gospel to individuals around me. I think it is our tendency to see sins of commission much more readily than sins of omission. It is not our pattern to say too often, “I have left undone the things I ought to have done.”
Finally…
A church is not to think it must choose between caring for its members or bringing the Gospel to the outsider. Pastors care for the total godliness of their flock by leading them into comprehensive obedience — including dying to self and seeking the lost. It is false reasoning to say, “Let’s first get our church and family life together and then bring the Gospel to the lost” — that is false because you will never get there — and it is false because you are not the message!
No, we must war against the false dichotomy and labor to be obedient in all things — godliness includes missional living.
In light of our great and glorious salvation may we become a people who are both holy and missional.