Evangelism and planting churches among the unreached and least- reached people groups of the world are extremely important.[1] But evangelism and church planting must be seen for what they are: a means to an end. The end toward which we have been commissioned by Jesus to work is not making converts to the Christian faith. The end goal is not “x number of churches in y number of years.” The end goal is not a Bible translation or Biblical storying or any of the many other important missions tasks. These are all intermediate steps to the end goal—the same unwavering goal that Jesus first commissioned His disciples to reach, nearly 2,000 years ago:
“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you.
And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
—Matthew 28:18b-20
The purpose of world missions, according to Scripture, is singular: make disciples of all nations. Accomplishing this task in a people group usually involves evangelism, church planting, Bible translation, and many other activities. But the goal itself must not become redefined according to one’s own particular area of focus, lest the means become the end. If the only tool I have is a hammer, everything really does start to look like a nail. In the same way, if I am a church planter then my natural inclination may be to see every need in world missions as a need that would best be solved by planting a church. If I am an evangelist, I may tend to perceive the definition of the end goal in terms of evangelism. A Bible translator must take care not to lose sight of the fact that the actual goal is “make disciples” not “finish the translation.”
This is not criticism; all of these are important components in making disciples of all nations. But, as Dr. John Piper puts it:
…making disciples means more than getting conversions and baptisms. “Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you . . .” Conversion and baptism are essential, but so is the on-going teaching of what Jesus taught. The new life of a disciple is a life of obedience to Jesus’ commandments, or it is not a new life at all. It is worthless to acknowledge the lordship of Christ in baptism and then ignore his commandments. So all disciple-makers must be teachers, and disciples must be continual learners.[2]
Why does it matter? What could possibly go wrong by inadvertently redefining the ultimate goal? In the short term, maybe not much. People come to Christ and churches are planted. But in the long term, the results of aiming for the wrong goal are often disastrous.
[1] “Unreached people groups” refers to people groups without any known converts to Christianity. The term “least-reached people groups” is not as easily defined, but is used here to refer to people groups in which there may be small numbers of Christians, but they are lacking in crucial elements of mature discipleship, namely adequate discipleship resources in their own language to sustain spiritual growth, and a self-supporting, self-propagating and self-governing indigenous church.
[2] Piper 1982
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