Gathering: The Missionary Movement of the Church

I was reading through Ed Clowney’s wonderful work from the Contours of Christian Theology called simply The Church and wanted to share a few thoughts from the late Dr. Clowney that I thought helpful to orient our identity and praxis missionwards.

The Church as Gatherers

God accomplishes his saving mission by sending his Son into the world. Jesus is the great Missionary, sent by the Father. As Lord, Jesus comes to gather his people, and to form his disciples as a company of gatherers. God had promised to deliver his sheep from false shepherds. He promised to shepherd them himself, and to gather them from where they had been scattered (Ezk. 34:12). God promised, too, that his servant David would be prince among them in the day of his deliverance (Ezk 34:24). Jesus announced that he was the true Shepherd, come to gather those the Father had given him, including the ‘other’ sheep that were not from the fold of Israel (Jn. 10:11-30). His sheep would also hear his voice and recognize him, the Son of David who is also David’s Lord. He is the Shepherd who will be struck down (Mt. 26:31; Zc. 13:7), the Good shepherd who gives life for the sheep (Jn. 10:11)…Jesus came to gather, and to call gatherers, disciples who would gather with him, seeking the poor and helpless from city streets and country roads. Jesus said, ‘He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters’ (Mt. 12:30; Lk. 11:23). Mission is not an optional activity for Christ’s disciples. If they are not gatherers, they are scatterers. Some suppose that a church may feature worship and nurture, leaving gathering as a minor role. More often, Christians shrink from affirming such position, but implement it in practice. Mission is reduced to a few offerings, the visit of several exhausted missionaries on fund-raising junkets, and the labours of an ignored missions committee. Such a church is actively involved in scattering, for the congregation that ignores mission will atrophy and soon find itself shattered by internal dissension. It will inevitably begin to lose its own young people, disillusioned by hearing the gospel trumpet sounded every Sunday for those who never march.

What is true of a congregation is true also of a Christian home. If a family fails to seek to gather friends and neighbours to Christ in hospitality and quiet witness, the children of the family will be scattered. We fail to bring up children in the nurture of the Lord if we fail to in to involve them in our efforts to gather others to their Saviour.

Jesus calls his disciples to bring a harvest as field-workers, and to draw in nets as fisherman (Mt. 9:37-38; Lk. 5:1-11). These are heartening images. Th labour in fields where the harvest is ripe: others have planted-and, indeed, he himself is the Sower-and they harvest his field. He is the Lord of the Harvest. Prayer is the key to the mission of the church, for he will answer prayer by sending his labourers into his harvest. He is the Lord of the Sea; their nets gather the fish he has summoned. Jesus did not call his fisherman as they cleaned and mended their nets after fruitless hours of fishing; only when his command had filled their nets to the bursting point did he make them fishers of men.

Christ’s commission to make disciples forms the climax of Mathew’s Gospel. But the Great Commission at the end of this Gospel (Mt. 28:18-20) must not be isolated from the Great Constitution in the heart of the Gospel (Mt. 16:17-19). The words with which Jesus responded to Peter’s confession show what it means to make disciples. Missionary churches may feature the Great Commission, and give little attention to the Great Constitution. The Church of Rome, on the other hand, has given more emphasis to Christ’s words to Peter; those words, not the Great Commission, are inscribed around the entablature under the dome of St. Peter’s.

Mission expresses the purpose for which Christ came into the world, and the purpose for which he sends us into the world. His purpose is the purpose of the Father. We are called to mission, not only as disciples of Christ, but as children of the Father. Jesus teaches that the law of the Father’s kingdom is love that is compassionate. The righteousness of the kingdom must exceed that of the Pharisees (Mt. 5:20). We are not to be more punctilious in legalistic observances, but we are to express the heart of the law in burning love to the Father, imitating his love of grace toward guilty and undeserving enemies (Mt. 5:44-48). Such love does not ask what it must do as a minimum, but rejoices in doing unrequired good. The compassion of the Samaritan does not ask, ‘Who is my neighbour?’ Rather, it displays the free love of a neighbour, reflecting the compassionate love of God (Lk. 10:24-37). We are to be merciful as our Father in heaven is merciful. Ed Clowney, The Church, pp. 159-161.