Lausanne World Pulse – Imperative of Transformational Discipleship in the Global Church Pursuit of the Great Commission
By U. Obed
To be contextually realistic, we adopted a sponsorship approach different from any Western style. Through our Partial Missionary Sponsorship Program (PMSP), our church developed an increasing sponsorship capacity, and we are now supporting more missionaries. In 2007, we spent about $6.2 million NGN ($58,000USD) on 240 missionaries across our nation.
2. The global Church’s interpretation of the Great Commission was stuck. About ten years after GCOWE ‘97, Christian leaders have not realized the mistake of regarding mission as almost the absolute interpretation of the Great Commission.
It has been 216 years since William Carey presented his mission burden to his church board and invariably to the world. The passion of Christian leaders to reach the unreached people groups has not waned. In fact, new challenges keep emerging as mission proponents are diversifying the definition of “unreached people groups.”
As the pastor of a local congregation, I strongly believe that mission is the responsibility of the Church. Any church leader who has no vision for mission has no legitimate right to continue in that office. But are we right if we regard mission as the overriding interpretation of the Great Commission?
Re-visiting the Great Commission
People hold different views of what constitutes the Great Commission. A church in my city is named “Great Commission Ministry,” and has Matthew 28:19 as its motto. Many people refer to only this verse when speaking of the Great Commission. But other people, including myself, think the Great Commission needs to be spoken in terms of the whole of Matthew 28:18-20. If we include these verses, we have the promise of God’s power (v. 18) and presence (v. 20). In between these promises is the very divine intention of the Great Commission (v. 19-20). In it, the Lord has commanded three specific action steps: go, baptize, and teach. These combined will result in making disciples of all nations.
When we consider global Church emphases, it is obvious we have been faithful to go and baptize—as indicated by our pursuit of mission, evangelism, church growth, and church planting. In every mission conference I have attended, these have been the focus.
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Dr. U. Obed is international coordinator of the Apostolic Discipleship Movement and the continental coordinator for the African Initiative on Transformational Discipleship. He was a senior lecturer in physics education and is currently the senior pastor of the Glory Tabernacle Ministry in Ibadan, Nigeria. |