Shooting Sacred Cows
David Mays
*Or Shooting Myself in the Foot
David Mays
David and Marcy
• Ministry: Providing training, resources, and
networking in world evangelism
• Dream: A movement of churches centered on
The Great Commission
www.davidmays.org
The Mission Exchange
Serving church and mission leaders
Webinars
Leader’s Edge Book Summaries
Author interviews
Church and Individual
memberships available
www.TheMissionExchange.org
First Shot. Bang!
The heart of the Great Commission
is NOT “make disciples.”
Matthew 28:18-20 (NIV)
• Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching
them to obey everything I have commanded you.
Books on Doing Church
• The Great Commission is the marching orders.
• The heart of the Great Commission is to make
disciples.
• Reach people in your community, bring them into
your church, and make disciples.
• Missions gets a half page near the end of the
book.
• What’s wrong with this picture?
What happened to “the nations”?
Mt 28:19
…μαθητεύσατε παντα τά εθνη…
• “Go ye therefore
and teach … KJV
• “Therefore go and
make … NIV
• “Teach” is a transitive
verb. It requires an
“object.”
• What is the object?
• What are we to do?
• “Make” is a transitive
verb. It requires an
“object.”
• What is the object?
• What are we to do?
Matthew 28:19
• The “heart” of the Great Commission
...is not make disciples.
• The “heart” of the Great Commission
...is disciple all nations!
(μαθητεύσατε παντα τά εθνη)
• It includes evangelism and discipleship.
Discipling the Nations
• Is not a program of the church.
• It is the purpose of the church.
• Purpose implies the commitment and
contribution of
– Every leader
– Every ministry
– Every member
Second shot. Bang!
Poverty, pain, and oppression are
NOT God’s primary concern.
Please note:
• God IS concerned about poverty, pain, and
oppression.
• BUT, it is not his PRIMARY concern.
His Primary Concern
•
•
•
•
•
His glory among all nations
The billions who do not have LIFE
Lack of fellowship with His creatures
The huge out of reach areas of the world
LIFE.
–
–
–
–
Abundant life
Spiritual life
Eternal, forever life
The Christ life
Two Themes
• Real Life – spiritual and forever
• This Life – temporal and temporary
Merging of Two Streams
• Good - Cultural sensitivity to human need
• Bad - Weak faith, understanding, education, and
experience
• Key Questions:
– Will missionaries be able to give people eternal hope?
– Will we “redefine service as evangelism?”
Third shot. Bang!
Every Christian is NOT a
missionary.
Every ministry is NOT missions.
Have you ever heard?
• We are all missionaries.
• When you go out that door you are entering your
mission field.
• You are either a missionary or a mission field.
• You are the missionary to your world.
• So, David, What’s your problem?
Scope Creep
• When everything becomes missions, missions
doesn’t get very far.
Definition of “Missions”
• Sending (or being sent as)
• Trained and equipped workers
• Across barriers
– (e.g. language, culture, distance, specialization)
• For spiritual purposes
• And efforts that support this process.
God has a vision for His Church
God’s Vision
• After this I looked and there before me was a
great multitude that no one could count, from
every nation, tribe, people and language,
standing before the throne and in front of the
Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were
holding palm branches in their hands. And they
cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to
our God, who sits on the throne, and to the
Lamb.“
Rev. 7:9-10
Keep the Goal in View!
Let’s do our best to help our church do all it
can to disciple the nations.
Ten Main Things
1. God has an end goal for humanity.
2. This goal is a major theme of Scripture
3. The Great Commission – the evangelization
and discipling of all nations – is the means.
4. The Church is God’s primary agent in this age.
5. The Great Commission is the primary mission
of every church.
6. This mission belongs to the whole church.
Ten Main Things
7. The Great Commission includes 3 kinds of people
–
–
–
People like us nearby
People unlike us nearby
People unlike us far away
8. The congregation is responsible to reach nearby.
9. “Missions” is primarily the church’s efforts beyond
the reach of the congregation.
10.The missions team is responsible for deployment
and mobilization.
David Mays
The Mission Exchange
www.TheMissionExchange
DMays@TheMissionExchange.org
317-852-0348