Denominations Contribute to the Global Mission of Christ

Several of my readers wrote to commend the work of denominations in global mission. Here are some of their comments:

Denominations historically have been the most efficient way of taking the Whole Gospel to the Whole World.  Indeed, His Spirit is now using “foreign” disciples in the “third world” to whom denominational missionaries first introduced the Gospel, to hold us in the “first world” accountable. Praise God!  

D.S. San Clemente, CA  

Denominations are places were churches together can do better (value added places?) together in the Missio Dei.  

Dave Moody, Sparta, IL, blog 137

Opportunity for collective action/mission/ministry—training and supporting pastors and other leaders, doing mission, providing resources for congregations and individuals to grow spiritually and act out their own service for God, etc.  

S.A.  

If you look back at the effort to reach the world with the gospel, surely denominations figure prominently in this effort. This is not the sort of thing a single church can do, unless it is very large and has significant resources. But a group of churches, banded together for a long period of time, can muster the resources and the people to reach across the globe for Christ.

Of course, today, there are many non-denominational mission agencies. So I wouldn't say that denominations are essential to the work of world evangelization. They certainly can help, however.

The Book of Order of the Presbyterian Church USA has a wonderful section on the mission of the church. Here is an excerpt (from G-3.0300):

  The Church is called to be Christ’s faithful evangelist  

(1) going into the world, making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all he has commanded;    

(2) demonstrating by the love of its members for one another and by the quality of its common life the new reality in Christ; sharing in worship, fellowship, and nurture, practicing a deepened life of prayer and service under the guidance of the Holy Spirit;

(3) participating in God’s activity in the world through its life for others by

(a) healing and reconciling and binding up wounds,       

(b) ministering to the needs of the poor, the sick, the lonely, and the powerless,

(c) engaging in the struggle to free people from sin, fear, oppression, hunger, and injustice,       

(d) giving itself and its substance to the service of those who suffer,

(e) sharing with Christ in the establishing of his just, peaceable, and loving rule in the world.