Before I give you what Jesus gave us all, let me share what's going on in the church today in terms of mission statements. Does your church have one? Here's an example...

"....Church is called to proclaim the Gospel of Christ and the beliefs of the evangelical Christian faith..."

Red flag. Not about the "Gospel of Christ" part, for sure, but "the beliefs of the evangelical Christian faith".

Is the teaching ministry of the church here being confused with the proclamation of Christ to the world? Is the church properly differentiating between preaching and teaching? We preach Christ. We teach the Word. And by the way, has anyone satisfactorily defined "evangelical" in this confused age? Why not just stay with proclaiming the Gospel?

How about this one:

"The mission of ................... is to sow "the Seed of Hope," Jesus Christ, in the hearts of many in ........................ and to the ends of the earth. Our context is the emerging post-modern culture. Post-moderns have rejected the "trinity" of modernism: reason, nature and progress-and the church that is built on it. Lacking a meta-narrative, post-moderns turn to a sort of primitive tribalism, or bury their pain in technology or consumerism. Our mission involves creating a Church that can be a safe gathering place for post-modern people to come experience the grace and forgiveness of God; a family of believers where they can find healing for the things that have hurt and wounded their souls; where they can "belong to believe"-that is, where they can be nurtured and discipled into faith in the one true God and in Jesus Christ whom He has sent."

Wow. Beyond all the 75 cent words, our job is to make a comfortable church where outsiders will be safe? I've found that when that happens, the holy people of God on the inside start to feel scared. And unsafe. Shouldn't we have such an atmosphere of truth and holiness where outsiders are forced to a decision rather than being lulled into a comfort zone? Mega-churches in particular strive to have everything in their church that the world already has. Many worldly people do indeed feel comfortable in that sort of church. But was this the mission of the Christ of the Gospels and Acts?

How about this?

"Our mission is to carry the gospel, the sacraments, and God's love and fellowship to the un-churched, the alienated, and the excommunicated (the church's homeless)."

Sacraments. For Protestants, I guess that would mean baptism and Communion. But why would we be taking those things to the un-churched? As to the church's homeless, why would the church have homeless people to begin with? Is there a true believer anywhere whose church body allows it to live on the streets? (I said "true".)

Not doing so well here. Let me try another.

"At ......................Church we're not about "having it all together" or even pretending we do. We're just a family trying to grow together toward a God who knows us and can help us put all the pieces of this sometimes bizarre world into perspective. We may not have all the answers but we know someone who does. In fact He not only knows the answers... He made up the questions."

This church's statement has a lot of nice sound bytes, but does it say what Jesus said on this subject? Is the church just a cozy family struggling to know God better, or did Jesus not give us some marching orders in the midst of all this groping for truth?

Jesus' vision of church is in its very name. The word church comes from a word that means "called out." First and foremost, the people of God must be called out by the preaching of the Gospel, separated from the world. That group so assembled is then to duplicate itself by doing for others what was done to them.

But that's just the hint, the clue. The real vision/mission is in actual words. We even call these words the Great Commission, admitting that a mission was in place from the beginning, though those two words are not in the Sacred Text.

What purpose could the church have that is better than what Jesus said?

Matthew 28:

1. Go

2. Make disciples of all nations.

3. Baptize your disciples.

4. Teach your disciples to observe everything I commanded you.

Mark 16:

1. Go into all the world.

2. Preach the Gospel to every creature.

3. Believers will be baptized.

Luke 24:

1. Go to all nations.

2. Preach repentance.

3. Preach remission of sins.

Acts 1:

1. The Holy Spirit will come upon you.

2. You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and all the earth.

So did they obey? What happened? Check out the record...

Starting in Jerusalem. Acts 2

1. The Holy Spirit fell.

2. Peter preached to Jews.

3. He preached repentance and remission of sins.

4. Repentant believers were immediately baptized.

5. Converts continued in the apostles' teachings.

In Judea. Acts 10

1. The Holy Spirit fell.

2. Peter preached to Gentiles.

3. He preached repentance and remission of sins.

4. Repentant believers were immediately baptized.

5. The apostles stayed and taught them more.

In Samaria. Acts 8

1. The Spirit scatters the apostles.

2. Philip preaches Christ to Samaritans.

3. The power of God comes into their midst.

4. Believers were baptized.

In (the beginnings of) all the earth. Acts 13 and following

1. Spirit calls Paul & Barnabas to evangelize.

2. They preach Christ beyond Israel's borders, well into Europe.

3. He calls them to repentance.

4. Miracles occur.

5. People are baptized.

6. People are taught.