The Great Commission can only be accomplished if we:

1) make disciples, not just converts, and

2) teach them to observe everything that He commanded.

        Where today is this being accomplished? What have we better to do than give ourselves to seeing His commission fulfilled?

        There is no one person, church, or movement that can fulfill the Great Commission alone. We must come together in unity for this to be accomplished. One of the basic things that He has commanded is the unity of His people. The unity of the body of Christ is coming. Jesus prayed for this repeatedly, and we know the Son of God is going to have His prayers answered. It will be one of the greatest miracles of all—so great that it will convince the world that Jesus was indeed sent by the Father as we are told John chapter 17.

         As we have covered, this unity is not a unity of conformity, but a unity of diversity. No one person has the complete ministry of Christ, but each of us has been given an aspect of His ministry that must fit together with what has been given to others. As we have read in Ephesians chapter 4, the New Testament ministry of Christ is a team ministry. It takes apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers to equip the saints, who are then supposed to do the work of the ministry. How does this apply as we are growing up to be the church we are called to be?

         When we started our congregation in the Charlotte area, I was asked what kind of church we would build. My answer was that I had no idea until I saw what kind of building material the Lord sent. If the Lord sent mostly evangelists, I knew we were called to be more of an evangelistic church. If He sent more teachers, I would have considered this to be our main foundation. As it turned out, He sent us mostly prophetic people, but also some very strong teachers and evangelists. However, from the beginning we were very weak in pastoral ministry. We were so weak in this that I used to tell people that if they needed a lot of personal ministry and counseling, they should consider going to another church that had a strong counseling ministry.

         Shouldn’t the church be able to meet everyone’s needs? Yes, and it can, if we understand the church as it is. The church in Charlotte includes all of the congregations in the city. There are others that are strong in the areas we are weak. Likewise, we may be stronger in areas that other congregations are weak. No church will be as strong as it is called to be without being rightly related to the rest of the body of Christ in their city or region.

         Now the goal of our worldview is to view the world with God’s eyes. We must also consider that this requires unity as well. We each see things through our own filters that are the composite of our own experiences and knowledge. Then we build on this view with the knowledge of His ways established in the Scriptures. These are built upon our ultimate purpose, which is to love God above all things. After this we are to love one another. Then, because we love Him and want to love all that He loves, we begin to love the world that He came and gave His life for. In everything, as we are told in I Timothy 1:5:

“But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”

         So our goals are:

1)   love

2)   a pure heart

3)   a good conscience

4)   a sincere faith

       All of these begin as a doctrine we perceive. These are solidified in our hearts and actions as we practice them in the experience of koinonia life in the body of Christ. It is through koinonia that they become practical and operational in our lives, and therefore a part of our lives. From this strong position of koinonia, we carry it forth into the world as a demonstration of the kingdom of God. As we are told in I John 1:7, “If we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship (Greek word koinonia) with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

         It is all about God and people. What God is building, He is building with people, not systems or principles. Systems and principles can be used and may be helpful. However, they are not the structure, but the scaffolding used to help during construction.

        For this reason, it is more important who we are becoming than what we are doing. If we are becoming like the Lord, we will do the works He did. But He did not call us just to do works. Yet when we do the works, He wants us to do them for the same reasons and with the same heart that He did them. This is the goal of our instruction and it is love, because He is love.