Great Commission, Great Confusion, or Great Confession? (Hint: it's usually the middle one)

Everyone, every Christian, if they want to understand the true calling and work of the Christian, MUST NEEDS read the book "Great Commission, Great Confusion, or Great Confession?" by Lucas V. Woodford (Wipf and Stock Publsihers, Eugene, OR). This book is quite probably the best book I have EVER read regarding the Great Commission. It is almost certainly one of the best practical books I've ever read when it comes to ministry. And it is an excellent answer to the deficiencies (a discussion for another time and another post) that are inherent in Reggie McNeal's mostly-okay and mostly-interesting book "The Present Future," a book where, after reading it for the first time in five years, made me more mad and upset than it ever had, due to its lack of Sacramental influence (which, incidentally, I have always felt would be fixed by such an influence) and my growth in understanding true theology and practice by practicing theology.

There is really nothing bad at all about or in this book. Proving the point, after previously quoting an excellent passage from Tulian Tchividjan's mostly-excellent book, "Jesus + Nothing = Everything," which helps to put the Law into its proper place (only guiding, never giving, only accusing, never forgiving), Woodford sums everything up with a definition of the Gospel from the late, great C.F.W Walther on pg. 158: "[T]he Gospel, or the Creed [of the Church], is any doctrine or word of God that does not require works from us and does not command us to do something but bids us simply to accept as a gift the gracious forgiveness of sins and the everlasting bliss offered to us." The definition of the Gospel is one that is sorely lacking in the Church today, and most churches in America think (and some have plainly said), "Yes, we know Christ has died for our sins. Fine. Now let's get on to living." The Church is sick, and it always is, always has been, and always will be because of one simple problem which is daily compounded: sin.

Thus, Woodford's book is a clarion call to repentance and forgiveness as well as a true understanding of the remedy: Christ for us, Christ in us, Christ with us. For context, prior to the coming quote, Woodford has a short, but important, passage on the importance of vocation, something to which readers and listeners to my sermons and good theologians, especially in the Lutheran tradition, are no strangers. Vocation is the life and living of the Christian, the call to do work which is given to us, e.g., father, mother, friend, neighbor, daughter, pastor, servant. All Christians have vocations, gifts from God, that we live out and we have many and varied, even at the same time. From there, he addresses the inherent problems, demanding efforts, and ultimate promotion of the Law of the current efforts of some (read: most) churches emphasis on mission and missiology.

Simply, mission and missiology on its own is something to be avoided. The Church proclaims the mission and it does this by Word (written, read, and proclaimed) AND Sacrament (Baptism and the Lord's Supper). When a church or an individual misses or is denied either one of these two gifts of God, they are denied the gift to the church's people and the church does exactly the opposite of what the Great Commission is about. A Christian needs Word AND Sacrament, and continually so. From here, I'll let Woodford speak for himself in this most excellent, and book-summarizing, quote.

Unfortunately, this profound understanding of vocation is often undermined when the church service and church programs are elevated as the primary modes of outreach. This is also the case when the organizational structure of the church is geared toward "making disciples who make disciples" rather than proclaiming the Word and administering the Sacraments to the disciples so that sinners can be forgiven and freed, renewed and refreshed, discipled and dispersed back out into their vocations.

Harold Senkbeil provides a good reminder: "[T]he key to Christian living is the real presence of Christ with His church through His holy Word and Sacrament. The best way to tell you what to do as a Christian is to tell you who you are in Christ. He will do the rest." In short, when the value of the mundane estates of everyday life are trivialized and dismissed as unimportant by the church in the name of what is claimed to be a more important missional way of life – whatever that means – a great loss is suffered and an undue burden begins to afflict the believer.

For example, a Christian mother and her four young children go to the grocery store and meet a fellow shopper, but because she needs to tend to her children and do the grocery shopping for her family, she do not evangelize to the fellow shopper. Does this mean that she is not a missional person or, worse, that she is sinning? What about the college student who is tending to his studies instead of formally evangelizing the students of campus? Does he lack a missional attitude? Is he sinning? Or is he simply living his vocation as a student?

I am by no means saying they cannot or should not share the faith. Rather, my point is that demands to be missional can often evoke guilt or even the illegitimate abandonment of a God-given vocation. And again, to be clear, this is by no means meant to discourage witnessing to others. It is simply meant to celebrate and intentionally recognize, as Wingren demonstrated, that the mission of God encompasses the greater whole of life. Tree reform, if we are being honest, perhaps we should consider whether or not a missional pressure to abandon one's vocation is not actually a disservice to the church.

Yes, there is always a balancing act. But I believe we need to be careful. Demands to be missional flow out of the Law. They have a tendency to make the Gospel into a burden. And when this happens, joy is lost, Good News is gne, and love becomes an obligation rather than a genuine manifestation of the Gospel.

Lucas V. Woodford, "Great Commission, Great Confusion, or Great Confession?," pg. 165.