What is the primary mission of the church?

Would you have ever thought there would be confusion on the answer to that question? Apparently there is. Last fall, when John Piper made the statement “As believers we are concerned about all human suffering, especially eternal suffering” it stirred quite a controversy at, of all places, the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization. Why?

The growing trend today is that the main task of the church is to care for the physical needs of the world over caring about and concerning ourselves with the eternal destiny of individuals.

Of course we should care for the suffering and sick, defend the oppressed, and give aid to the poor. But, our primary mission is to take the message of salvation to the ends of the earth. Suppose we do minister to the suffering and the sick; what if we do come to the rescue of those oppressed and what if we do meet the needs of the poor? If we leave out the gospel what have we really done? To quote Piper again- “As believers we are concerned about all human suffering, especially eternal suffering.” Those who die without a saving relationship with Christ do in fact suffer eternally. Only the message of the gospel can reverse that.

Perhaps the question I asked earlier can be best answered by highlighting the word ‘primary.’ The word primary in that sentence is an adjective. It means first in importance. Of all that we should do, the first on our list of importance is to proclaim that Christ died and was raised to life again for fallen man in rebellion against his creator God. All who repent of sin and trust Christ alone will be born again. This is and remains the primary mission of the church. Let us do all the good for man that we can but let the church not fail to point man to the Lord Jesus Christ who alone can change the human heart and give man real goodness and eternal life.