Church sent into the world

David Bosch writes, “The involvement in the world should lead to a deepening of our relationship with and dependence on God, and the deepening of this relationship should lead to an increasing involvement in the world.” Tod Hiestand writes: " the individual church must see itself as sent into the world, it must also see itself as sent into the world along with the church catholic."

The mission of the church is derived from Jesus' call to gather together. also the apostle Paul called us not to neglect our own congregational meetings which form the church, (Hebrews 10:25)
The church’s call to be a “sign, witness and foretaste” of the coming Kingdom may not be overlooked.

God has sent the church so that in His mission His “love and attention are directed primarily at the world". God has given His son as the foundation of the Church.

We are all part of the world but God and His son Jesus have given us the task to distantiate from the worldly matters. The church that “goes” is the church that finds its primary identity detached from the world and set apart as holy.  The separate and untainted church rightfully understands that it needs to be a witness for the gospel.
Missiologist David Bosch writes: “Spirituality or devotional life seems to mean withdrawal from the world, charging my batteries, and then going out into the world. The image is of an automobile that runs on batteries only.”
Jesus light of Israel, but also for all people, states the need for us to remain set apart in their sentness, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.”(John 17:18) We can hope to reap which shall only be possible if we properly reflect the teachings of Christ Jesus. Christ means ‘Messiah’, the  anointed one. He was anointed in order " to preach the Gospel" (Luke 4:18); and we too have been anointed insofar as we are in Christ, the anointed one (2 Corinthians 1:21). Therefore as He was ordained a preacher of the Gospel to the world, we too share that honour (as we do all His honours, to some extent). He was anointed (‘oiled’) by God in order to give the oil of joy to His people; He shared His experience of anointing with us, and we must go out and do likewise (Isaiah 61:1,2) (cp. Luke 4:18).

Isaiah’s description of the beauty of Christ’s preaching in (Isaiah 52:7) is quoted by Paul concerning every preacher of the Gospel (Romans 10:15); the “he” of (Isaiah 52) is changed to “them” in Romans 10. And Paul is quoting this Old Testament prophecy about Jesus to prove that we are all “sent” to preach the Gospel. The validity of our commission to preach is quite simply that Jesus Himself preached; in this way we are all personally “sent” to preach, simply because He was sent to preach. As the Father sent Him, so He sends us.  We should be ambassadors for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20) and we should show the world that we are united in that one Body of Christ. Jesus prays that they would remain unified, “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” With Jesus’ prayer as a foundation for understanding the nature of the church we see that the Church finds itself in the world, yet set apart and unified.

We as brothers and sisters in Christ do have to be unified if we desire to have an effective witness in the world and to build a true church of Christ. We can not be monads or private disciples going our own way, out of love for our fellow believers we do have to share the love of Christ and our own love with the whole community.

We need to speak out against the suburban value of extreme individualism and call Christians back to community. We should prepare the ground, fertilise the field, and plant Bible based structures.

We need to deconstruct the value of consumerism in a way that leads instead to sacrificial living and we need to understand how our individualism and consumerism lead us to neglect the hurting and needy people in our neighborhoods and cities. We cannot stay together in a closed or isolated cocoon. It can help everybody if we can move from an individualized witness to a more robust and powerful communal witness.

Jesus was not about sending his disciples out by themselves into their individualized world to “share the gospel” so that people could “go to heaven when they die.” Rather, he was sending them out to be a communal, public witness to the Kingdom that he was announcing and inaugurating. We need a Church that rejects the lone ranger mentality and lives in sacrificial and compassionate community.

(Based on ideas from Todd Hiestand and Duncan Heaster)

The Conclusion of the System of Things

Travelingman wrote:

One day, "while (Jesus) was sitting upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples approached him privately, saying: "Tell us, When will these things be, and what will be the sign of your presence and of the conclusion of the system of things?" (Mt. 24:3)

Many who are familiar with this account know that Jesus didn't simply give them a date as to when the conclusion of the system of things would be. That is because at that time, "concerning that day and hour nobody (knew), neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but only the Father." (Mt. 24:36)

But in the following scriptures, Jesus did give signs that would show the time period of "the sign of (his) presence and of the conclusion of the system of things." Many of these signs we are all aware of: "earthquakes", "food shortages", "increasing of lawlessness", the preaching of the good news of the kingdom in all the inhabited earth, etc. All of these signs we have seen in significance in the time that we live in.

However, one of the signs that Jesus foretold then, I have not noticed in a significant measure and yet it was one sign that not only did Jesus mention first of all, but twice:

⁴ "And in answer Jesus said to them: "Look out that nobody misleads YOU; ⁵ for many will come on the basis of my name, saying, `I am the Christ,' and will mislead many."
And:

23"Then if anyone says to YOU, `Look! Here is the Christ,' or, `There!' do not believe it. ²⁴ For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will give great signs and wonders so as to mislead, if possible, even the chosen ones.
I realize that there have been false prophets and false Christs in recent memory. But they have only been small-time crack-pots who have in sporadic incidents, misled only a relatively few people. Yet, Jesus foretold "many" being mislead, giving "great signs and wonders so as to mislead, if possible, even the chosen ones".
Am I merely placing more importance to this sign that is necessary, or is this a sign that we will see more prominently in the future?

To wich I reply:

Mr. Moon says he is the returned Christ, and he has a lot of followers all over the world. Followers are commonly referred to as the Moonies (after the cult's founder and leader, Sun Myung Moon). Some followers object to the name, claiming it is meant as an insult. However, the name was coined and used by members of the Unification Church itself.Currently the Unification Church goes by the name "Association of Families for Unification and World Peace," or "Family Federation for World Peace and Unification." However, the Unification Church operates under numerous names and business fronts.

I agree all other strange people who said they were the Lord, had just local followers, though some of them got also up to 2500 followers or more.

Paul Leonard writes:
The word "Christ" is the same as "anointed". You could say that many will claim to be anointed or the FDS. Basically all churches say they are "anointed/born again" and used by God. However this could be specific to the evil slave or apostate anointed as well.