For a few more weeks Bryan Pillsbury and I are teaming up to teach Sending MVBC, a class on missions. We are packing into a few hours the basics that we'd like every member of the church to know about the global evangelization of the world.
In the next session, I want to make the point that missions without the church is like flour without bread. Bread is the point of flour just as the church is the point of missions. We plant the gospel so that God will plant churches.
One of the amazing facets of God's plan is the way he uses congregations to promote the gospel. Individuals can certainly share the gospel. But God seems to delight in using a whole community of brothers and sisters in Christ who locak arms to see the gospel go forth.
Don Whitney commented on the remarkable power of a corporate witness:
In a world where everyone has broken relationships, supernatural unity in a church family bears to the power of the gospel in a marvelously God-glorifying manner. And as necessary as individual witnessing is, it can never show unity as a congregational witness can. Or, to put it another way, Jesus said that unity was essential for effective evangelism, and it takes a group of Christians to demonstrate unity. Therefore churches need to consider ways to exhibit unity in the presence of unbelievers, for this both brings glory to God and brings people to Christ. (Spiritual Disciplines Within the Church)
What are some ways that we can "exhibit unity in the presence of unbelievers"? In other words, how practically might God use our unity as a church to help unbelievers see the power of the gospel at work? Let me know what you think.
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