“Do your job!”
This statement has a special meaning to New England Patriots fans. It was the season motto for 2017 and continues as an underlying theme for the Pats amazing organization. Football writer Jackson Carter wrote a book by that title, emphasizing Coach Bill Belichick’s leadership principles that have created a NFL dynasty.
The correlation of this theme—“Do your job!”—to church on mission is striking. Everyone in the church needs to do their job, which could be restated as, “Be on mission!” So how does the job get done?
It starts with pastors/elders doing their job. After 32 years as a pastor/elder, I distill my job down to three essentials. The first is caring for the flock. I must be part of the shepherding team that oversees God’s people in such a way that a safe environment for healing, growth and contribution is created. The second essential to my job as pastor/elder is guarding the teachings. Over and over again the epistles remind us that good teaching is essential to a flourishing Christian community. The third and last essential to being a pastor/elder, and the one that is most easily missed, is leading the church on mission.
From the time we planted River of Grace Church in Concord, New Hampshire in 2002, we’ve said we want to become better Christians as we make more Christians. The two are inseparable. No Christian becomes better while ignoring the lost condition of their workmates, neighbors and friends. And we can’t make more Christians if we aren’t growing in our devotion and humility. The simple way we measure whether we are making more Christians or not is by our baptisms. In 2019, our congregation with 86 adult members and an average attendance of just over 100 has baptized four new believers. We can honestly say we are on mission because through a biblically-taught, super-loving congregation, lost people are being saved. In fact, we can “boast in the Lord” that our little church is outpacing New Hampshire’s population growth rate!
So why does the mission suffer in little and big churches? There are at least three negative forces I am aware of that could keep us from mission focus. The first is what could be labelled “gospel anemia”. The church that has lost its wonder and joy in the enormity of the gospel becomes unhealthy and focused on the wrong things. Another drag on the mission is outsourcing. With global missions being a focus in the western church for the last 200 years, the typical congregant has forgotten that every Christian is a missionary on mission. The last negative force that keeps a church from being on mission is what might be called professionalism. Evangelism has been relegated to professionals and programs. Certainly God gifts evangelists and their gifts should be maximized. And certainly programs meant to evangelize are not bad in and of themselves. But this professionalism can detract from the power of life-on-life mission engagement.
So how do we do our job?
Here are five principles I think will enable any congregation, of any size, in any community, to succeed on mission.
The elders must model mission by finding places in the community in which to invest their lives and by becoming friends with lost people. I think a question every elder candidate should be asked is, “Who are two or three lost people in your life who consider you one of their best friends?” Elders should not be afraid of being in messy places with messy people.
“Gospel doctrine must create gospel culture” (Ray Ortlund, The Gospel, 21). The Christian community informed by the grace of Jesus must be a safe place for seekers and prodigals to work through their “stuff.” Ortlund has been known to say that the effective church on mission has a formula of “Gospel + Safety + Time.”
Expository preaching must take into account the new attendee who doesn’t know Bible stories or theological terms. A good pastor takes into account the spectrum of people hearing the message, with careful awareness to the lost listener. This should not diminish from expository preaching, but rather make it accessible to those in process.
Training, such as what is offered through the book Small Town Mission by Aaron Morrow, will help retool disciples who have been overly influenced by outsourcing and professionalism. This training need not be difficult. Church leaders could meet once a week for 10 weeks and discuss a chapter in Small Town Mission, or something similar.
Hospitality is the last act of the gospel. By this I mean that the final part of the redemptive story is being invited to live in the Father’s house forever. When we invite people into our homes, and when our church gatherings are exceptionally hospitable to guests (and many are not), the love of those homes and gatherings will be the gospel culture that proves the gospel message to be true.
I’m convinced that every church, led by biblically-qualified, Jesus-enamored elders, can become effective in mission. Size is no barrier to the power of the gospel. At the end of the day, we just need to do our job!
David Pinckney
David Pinckney is the lead pastor of River of Grace in Concord, NH, an Acts 29 church and the co-director of the new Acts 29 Rural Collective. He's a graduate of Bethel Seminary, a long-time New England pastor, and he and his wife Sharon have four sons and one daughter. He enjoys traveling, people, and history.