Kingdom People Living by Kingdom Principles

The Church must take the lead in being holistic in its approach to mission. Fulfilling the call of mission requires the Church to approach this call from a holistic point of view. The Church has done an excellent job in preparing people for the afterlife; but one of the areas in which we are lagging is preparing the church for end of life experiences and even traumatic experiences. In order to address these issues adequately there has to be a deliberate effort taken to look at the religious structures and spiritual practices at work in the context of the community the Church is ministering.

The challenge as to how to be truly missional requires those who consider themselves to be disciples engaging their communities in their everyday lives. This has posed a challenge to the Church: How will missions and being missional in the twenty-first century be different from the first century to the twentieth century? How could one truly and radically live out the mission of the Church? The idea of being missional is not about the Church coming up with some program and fancy name, but more importantly, it is about understanding the needs of the community—spiritual, social, financial—and how to live in ways that can help transform the community. Every person must begin on his or her own doorstep. The Church’s basic mission is to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God; this message has social and political aspects to its application. We are called, commissioned, and authorized to go with the Gospel. This is the fundamental responsibility of the Church, but this message is holistic, and affects the total person: body, soul, and spirit.

At the end of the book we introduce a process called ‘Strategic Evangelism’. This process puts into practice the principles we have identified. Change is required. One of the premises that we will build on is that of relationships. Gone are the days when we build a beautiful church, plan a real first-rate evangelical event, invite a renowned charismatic speaker, and then issue an invitation to the community to attend this function and they would show up. Now we are in a new era, and if we are going to be effective we have to change and embrace a new paradigm built on biblical principles. It is this holistic approach that embraces the Great Commandment, Great Commission, and Great Compassion; this I call ‘The Circle of Missions’. To be effective in living out the call of the Gospel, diligence is a must in understanding the spiritual journey of the person we are ministering to.

What is proposed here is a practical demonstration of holistic missions. This requires a holistic approach that is Biblical. If anyone is going to be on missions he or she has to have to depend on the Holy Spirit. As each person realigns himself or herself of God’s agenda, what an amazing demonstration it would be of the mission of God taking root and the Kingdom expanding. This is Kingdom people living by Kingdom principle—the call of missions, a holistic approach.

While we will never lose sight of the fundamental purpose of the Church, we also embrace the holistic approach of the message of the Gospel. Jesus said that He came that we should have abundant life; this is seen in the spiritual and physical person. The very nature of God is missions; therefore, those who want to follow God have to be on mission. Jesus said that He came to seek and to save those that are lost.

Mission is the calling and sending of the Church with the Good News of forgiveness, reconciliation, restoration and love. This message is holistic and is rooted on Biblical doctrines working through the church with the emphasis of restoring a broken relationship between man and God. The focus of the missionary message is about advancing the Kingdom of God. The grand finale of the missionary message is the restoration and consummation of the new Heaven and Earth. Evangelism is the methodology of carrying out this mission. Noteworthy is the other side of the missionary story, which is as important as the main focus of this book, that of the eternal separation from God for those that reject the Gospel Message. Hell is the place that will be completely opposite to the all the wonders of Heaven. Although the main mission is to get us back into a relationship with God, the other side of the coin speaks as loudly—the escape from hell. Missions or missionary endeavors are currently defined as one going to a foreign country to bring the Gospel to the people of that country, while attending to some of their physical needs. Mission in this context is sometimes separated from evangelism. One cannot truly understand missions and all the implications without properly dealing with the understanding of the Kingdom of God. Jesus’ longest and first sermon or teaching session was centered on the Kingdom of God and the principles that govern this Kingdom. The Church has to recognize that their primary mission is to advance the Kingdom of God. Jesus prayed for the Church in John 17:11-17:
“And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me… I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.”

The church has to recognize its role as the vehicle or instrument that God has ordained to bring about the message of the Gospel. While there might be other organizations that are performing aspects of this missional call, it is primarily the Church that is sent to the world. This is demonstrated in several passages in the Bible, particularly in Matthew 28:19-20 and Acts 1:8. It is imperative that as the conversation around mission continues the Church must deal with mission by understanding the role and nature of the Church. As this theme is developed, we will evaluate the “Kingdom of God” and its relationship with the Church while challenging the Church to be open to understand how God is working outside and inside the church in our times.

Peter was one who struggled with seeing the world outside of Jerusalem and the Jewish context. The Holy Spirit, however, gave him a lesson that God is impartial and all need the Gospel. As the Holy Spirit taught Peter, we need to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to our hearts on this matter as stated in Acts 10:15, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” We should be willing to take the Gospel Message to the world, and have no exception. Once Peter understood the message, he was able to go into Cornelius’ home and present the Gospel and fellowship. This was a remarkable accomplishment: a Jew not only going into a Gentile’s home, but he was staying for a while and eating there. The food was not declared clean by Mosaic Law but by the fulfillment of the laws through Jesus Christ.
In Acts 10, we see that the Holy Spirit was the guiding hand in this missionary endeavor and that the message was all about Jesus Christ. Peter did not go to Cornelius with a message of cultural change, but one of spiritual revolution. Good deeds do not complete the conversion process, but a full acceptance of the person and work of Jesus does. It was at this point in the message that the Holy Spirit fell on Cornelius and his friends and family who were present.