Seeking and Saving

The focus of the church is distracted amongst many diversions. Church growth, Sunday schools, building management, worship, the most recent Christian events or Christian concerts. These things can be good, in context, but none of them should be the focus, the center-point of the church’s time and resources. Jesus gave us a clear commission, “As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” (John 20 We are to continue Jesus’ mission, and take it as our own.

What was Jesus’ mission? The clearest, broadest statement made by Jesus is in Luke 19—“The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Jesus came to find those who had fallen away from God, but were still soft-hearted toward Him. Those whom Jesus found were ready to respond to him in faith, he restored them to God, allowing them to find acceptance in God’s kingdom.

This is to be our mission as well. Our mission, our focus is not for the feed and caring of the ninety-nine who remain in the fold, but to leave the flock behind and search for the one or two or million that are lost. There are many in every one of our communities, and beyond our communities, that are ready to be restored to God. So often, however, we think that the revival of our own congregations lie in the teaching or worship or entertainment of our group. Rather, our quickening comes as we do work that is led by the Spirit alone—restoring the fallen back to God.

Our focus isn’t to be on the latest book or video, the latest Christian event that comes around the circuit. Rather, our focus is to be reaching out to the lost, wherever they may be. We are to seek out the downcast, the ones who seem to have no reason to have faith and give them reason to have confidence in God through Jesus Christ. We are to seek out the poor and encourage them to seek God for deliverance. We need to seek out the destroyed and give them hope in God’s restoration. We are to seek out the mentally ill and pray with them into wholeness. We are to seek out the oppressed and tell them of God’s coming day of salvation. We are to seek out those misled by false teachers and to assure them of God’s truth, purity and love.

So often we demonize groups that seem to be opposed to our way of life and that threaten our comforts. We make bold stands against Muslims, the Mormons, the homosexuals, the secular humanists and various cults. Or we can vilify others who are Christian or evangelical for holding views opposed to our own. Perhaps some of their ways aren’t the ways of Jesus, but we fail to recognize that in our accusatory polemic we are ostracizing and separating when we really ought to be reaching out to those among those groups who are ready to be restored to God. Our job is not to destroy the enemy, but to restore those oppressed by our true Enemy.

It is our task to go out to the lost, to find where they are and to seek them out. We need to teach the truth gently and with great patience—greater than the world gives. We need to coax the lost back to God, treating them with kid gloves. We need to assure them that they are welcome and that the Lord is waiting for them to commit themselves to him. We need to pray for them to receive the covenant of God and to hear and listen to the Holy Spirit. This is the mission of the church. This is our focus.

In this mission is our life. In this we will be revived in the Holy Spirit. In this, we will gain the tools that we need to change the world, to establish God’s kingdom.