Selective Obedience

The Lord Jesus said, "Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations..."; and again "...you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

I am grateful for those faithful Believers that live out that verse. They are witnesses to their neighbors, and they are the ones that support missions. They are an encouragement to me. May God bless them and may their tribe increase.

I have to wonder at how people can read those words from our Lord and Savior, and seem to think that Jesus was making a suggestion, and not a command. What makes me more confused is thinking that the reason that some faithful church goers think like that is because they got it from their pastor! It makes my head spin to think that a pastor, a minister of the Word, could delude himself into thinking that Jesus Christ was offering an elective response in the 28 words quoted above! I am thinking mainly of pastors and church leadership as I write this.

King Saul evidently deluded himself about obedience in 1 Samuel 15. He had a clear mandate from God to destroy the Amalekites and their livestock. He partially obeyed the directive and in verse 22 received the scathing rebuke, "Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice..." The Lord was not pleased with partial obedience. King Saul was rejected as king because of his selective obedience.

So, I wonder as I look around at churches that are 20+ years old, and ask, "How are they measuring up to the Lord Jesus command; what is that church's commitment to missions?"
If I look at the budget of the church, what percentile is dedicated to missions, and what percentile is committed to serving the interests of the church? The answer tells much about the focus of the church.
Then, I look at the evangelistic outreaches that the church supports. Some churches have a special bulletin board, or a wall dedicated to showing where the missionaries are that they support. Usually, those bulletin boards show the obedience to the command to "go to the ends of the earth." Look for the local obedience to serving Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and you hear only silence. Why?
Maybe it is a cultural thing. Maybe the North-American Christian has been led to believe that putting money in the offering plate satisfies our Lord's command. In part, it does, but we are still stuck with the rest of the command, to reach out to our Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria.

Jerusalem, for the first century Believers, was mostly dealing with the same culture. It was for some, the place of their greatest failure, too. The disciples fled from Jesus in the garden. Peter denied the Lord. Being a witness for Christ to family, friends, co-workers can be a hard mission field. It was for the early church, and it is for us today.
Judea was still much of the same culture, but a little further away, and easier to forget. It took more effort to do outreach there. There might be more cultural variation, poor roads, more hardships to endure, in Judea.
Samaria was the location of the half breeds. They were openly despised by the Jewish people and called "dogs". The culture was different, and they were a poorer community. Yet, the Lord Jesus sends the early church to minister to the place of greatest defeat, some hardships, and even to confront racism and poverty.
How does the local church really measure up to obeying our command to show the love of Jesus in their own Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria? Back east, the churches have Hispanic communities, or ethnic Afro-American communities. Out here in the West, we have Indian people in our "Judea and Samaria".

I wonder when church leaders face the Bema Seat of judgment, and they are asked about how they attempted to fulfill our Lord's command, what will the response be? "Lord, we raised money for mission projects in Africa, South America, Mexico, etc..." and the long list of "to the ends of the earth" is proclaimed. But when it comes to building relationships with different cultures that were right next door, the pastor will have to drop his eyes in shame, for he did not lead the church to fulfill the whole command of the Lord.
Maybe it is too ugly to say it out loud, but I wonder if the reason why some Christian radio stations do not have cross-cultural programming is because those minority communities don't have the money?
Is it possible that pastors, elders, and deacons do not reach out to the minorities in their "Samaria" because "those people" are needy and would be a drain on the budget? Perhaps others don't reach out because they know that if the minorities in their "Samaria" started coming to their church, then that might mean a change in the church? That would mean different music, (and we all know how churches can fight about their preferences in music, don't we? )
Fulfilling the commands of our Lord meant that the people of the early church were to connect with their neighbors, those across town, and the ethnic minorities around them, and to reach out to the distant lands as they were able. I think it is the same for us today. Instead of thinking of ministry as a "program", we need to be willing to do the sometimes hard work of divesting ourselves of our cultural preferences and for the love of Christ, try to put on the culture of our neighbors. Evangelism has always been carried by the same means, relationships. Perhaps our North-American culture has numbed our consciences to believe that we are pleasing the Lord with a little program for the community, or money in the offering plate.

Some smaller churches do not have the means to reach out beyond their local area. That isn't the heart of the matter, is it? Isn't the real matter, "to whom much given, much is required." What do we do with the spiritual gifts and resourced that He has given us to use in His name? Are leaders in churches responsive to the Great Commission in part, or in the whole?

"...It is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful." 1 Cor. 4:2.

(Well, I beg the pardon of some that might be offended because I openly shared my thoughts. This is a blog-site after all, and not a doctoral dissertation. I know many pastors and church leaders that are truly reaching out to their "Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and beyond." They are doing the best they know how, with what God has given them to use. Yet, I know of other churches that seem to exist to serve themselves, the honor of their name, and comfort zone.
May God help us all to offer obedience and not just sacrifice to the honor of His Name.)