This General Conference Session has been Heavily Focused on Missions, but Our Mission must be Twofold

The 61st General Conference Session dedicated Friday, June 10, 2022, to missions. The various divisions shared information about their evangelistic projects and membership growth. There was also a report on Total Member Involvement, a major effort to involve the church in missions. Several videos were shown to demonstrate how the work is progressing around the world.

President Ted Wilson appeared, having not been seen since he arrived to put an end to the Covid-19 discussions [2], and prayed for the new Great Controversy Project 2.0. This is a project to get millions of copies of the full version of The Great Controversy book into the hands of people all over the world.

Giving out The Great Controversy books, evangelism, baptisms, engaging communities, Bible studies, making disciples, public outreach, saving souls, spreading the everlasting gospel, sharing the Three Angels’ Message, literature evangelism, transforming lives, and other works of mission are all undeniably a part of why we were raised as a people. All of these things must be done with God’s guidance.

But never forget that our mission is twofold, which means that our work has two parts. The first aspect is to try to save non-church members. The second component is to try to restore primitive Godliness within Adventism. Let us not ignore that seeking purity in the church is a mission as well. Another necessary mission is to eradicate apostasy. It is appropriate and in accordance with God’s will to pray for greater faithfulness among His people. Please take note of Christ’s mission. This is the experience He wishes to provide for His people:

“That he (Christ) might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” Ephesians 5:26, 27.

This is part of our mission. Jesus wants a holy and sanctified church. This happens when we study and apply God’s word in our lives. He “washes” us with His truth. This is the mission that Christ wants to accomplish today. The Apostle Paul also had this vision for the people of God:

“Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.” Colossians 1:28.

Mission is the life of the church, but you cannot evangelize your way out of a spiritual crisis. Wrongs need to be met head on for the sake of evangelism. Very well-meaning solutions have been proposed that tell us to just stay focused on our missions. However, unless God intervenes to bring reformation to our institutions, we will continue to slip into liberal Protestantism. When we merely stress “missions” while neglecting purity and holiness, we drift away from faithfulness to God towards humanistic relativism.

Whether we choose to acknowledge it or not, our people are currently facing a serious, deepening crisis. Ignoring this does not make the problem go away. Pretending that the Omega of Apostasy is not sweeping through Adventism is not the appropriate response. Pretending that Satan is not waging his final assault on God’s people will not keep souls safe.

Those who only want to hear happy, positive, and praise-worthy messages, who believe that nothing significant is happening today, and who only want to focus on evangelism and mission, will never see the need for true revival and reformation. If we do not embrace God’s twofold mission, evangelism will eventually become an alternative for the work of defending the faith and rooting out dangerous heresy that prevents people from experiencing salvation. Consider what God says about reaching out to the lost through evangelism if we are in a spiritual crisis:

“The Lord does not now work to bring many souls into the truth, because of the church members who have never been converted, and those who were once converted but who have backslidden. What influence would these unconsecrated members have on new converts? Would they not make of no effect the God-given message which His people are to bear?” (Testimonies, Vol. 6, p. 370).

Sources

[1] https://iwillgo2020.org/

[2] http://adventmessenger.org/in-an-unprecedented-move-ted-wilson-came-out-to-strongly-urge-the-delegates-to-shut-down-all-discussions-on-covid-19/