4 October 2026

A Middle Way with Mission

1 Timothy 1:12-17

Our reading today is from 1 Timothy chapter 1, verses 12-17

12 I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, 13even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, 14and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 15The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost. 16But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life. 17To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

A few years ago I ran across a picture of the main welcome area of a large church. This church described its mission with three words – Worship, Teaching, Fellowship – and had banners hung all over its main entrance proclaiming those initials: WTF. Now that’s unfortunate for several reasons. First of all, someone at that church really should have pointed out that WTF is an internet abbreviation for a crude expression. Really, before adopting any slogan or logo, you should show it first to a thirteen-year-old boy. But even beyond that, there’s a deeper problem there. Worship, Teaching, Fellowship – all very good things for a church. But did you notice what’s missing? Those are all things that are done by and for insiders. There’s nothing in that mission statement about mission. Here’s another story. One of my Anglican friends told me about the vicar of a church who got so fed up with budget deficits that he announced to the congregation that until further notice, all money collected by the church was staying in the church. There would be no fund-raisers for mission projects, no collections for community ministries. Until their fiscal house was in order, all funds were going to themselves. I sympathize. I, too, have known the constant battle to meet the church’s financial obligations with diminishing gifts. It can, in fact, seem irresponsible to challenge our members to pledge money for others when our own budget is short. I know that vicar’s frustration.

But we can’t do that. We can’t turn inward. The Great Commission of Jesus Christ is all about going out into the world and making disciples out there. The great parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25 says that we will be judged, not on how stable an institution we maintained, but on whether we’ve fed the hungry, visited the sick and the prisoners, clothed the naked. The church that turns inward and only supports itself has lost its identity as a church. As for that church that prioritizes Worship and Teaching and Fellowship and ignores mission and service – What the …? I mean, My goodness! Yes, we worship, learn, and encourage each other, but we don’t do those things to make ourselves feel good. We do them to strengthen each other for mission to the world. As 1 Timothy 1:12 says, I am grateful to Christ Jesus who strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service. We are made strong inside the church, because we have a job to do outside the church. I’m guessing that Anglican vicar had a rude surprise. If you were part of a church that announced it was only going to spend money on itself, would you give anything at all? I wouldn’t. Theologian Emil Brunner wrote: “The church exists by mission, as a fire exists by burning.” Without burning, there is no fire; without mission to others, there is no church. 

But when we say “mission” what do we mean? Here again, we find American Protestantism split between two extreme views on what constitutes the church’s mission. On the one hand, stemming from the revival movements of the 18th and 19th centuries, there’s the view that the mission of the church is to make converts. We are to proclaim the message of salvation and persuade people to make a decision to commit their lives to Christ. Our mission is to save souls. Now, our founder – John Wesley – was a part of that evangelical revivalism from the start. Saving souls is in our DNA, so do not dismiss it. But we have to admit that there have been some great abuses in this single-minded effort. We have seen Christians use emotional manipulation, fear tactics, and repellant hard-sell marketing techniques in order to “save the lost.” (And by the way, that sort of stuff doesn’t even work. The Barna research institute, an evangelical polling group, says that mass mailings plus advertising plus gospel tracts taken together are responsible for less than half of one percent of all conversions to Christianity; meanwhile, Barna’s data indicates that as much as 10 times as many people are turned away from Christ by those same techniques.) It doesn’t work, but too often, the definition of mission as recruitment has led the church to lose sight of human beings in their scramble to save souls. 

But, on the other hand – inspired by the so-called Social Gospel movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries – others define “mission” exclusively in terms of meeting physical needs. Soup kitchens, clothes closets, food pantries, job training initiatives, advocacy for oppressed and marginalized people – from racial minorities to immigrants to LGBTQ individuals. And again, it’s worth noting that our founder, John Wesley, was very involved in this sort of mission. The Methodists began schools and orphanages, visited in prisons, taught adult literacy, cared for the poor, and opposed slavery. These are good things, and this, too, is in our Methodist DNA. But this sort of mission also has its problems and abuses. For many, it sets the bar of following Christ incredibly low: drop off some used clothes and few dented cans of expired vegetables at a rescue mission, and you’re good. These aren’t bad things to do, but this isn’t mission. Jesus was not impressed with people who sacrificed only what they would never miss. Even worse, though, when we focus only on meeting physical needs, we tend to forget that any other needs exist – or that the Church of Jesus Christ has anything to offer for those needs. At that point the church becomes indistinguishable from any other service organization, which means that we’ve left out a defining element of Christianity: Christ. 

So today, as I wrap up our sermon series on finding a middle way between lunatic extremes, I ask this: How do we find a middle way when it comes mission? First of all, we must preach Christ. Being nice and generous in a generic fashion is a start, but it isn’t enough. It must be about Christ, and must proclaim Christ. 1 Timothy 1:13-14 says simply: I received mercy . . . and the grace of our Lord overflowed. That’s why we do mission: not because we’re nice people, but because we have been redeemed by Christ, and that joy is too good to keep to ourselves. Our lives should point to Christ. But, second, I am emphatically not telling you to go out street preaching, passing out tracts to strangers, or cornering co-workers in the breakroom to “present the Gospel.” You hate it when people do that to you; don’t do it to others. 

But there is a way to do both sides of mission, naturally and authentically. Make friends with others: not just with other Christians, others. Make friends – not so that you can witness to them or invite them to church, but just because people are kind of cool. Whether you recognize it or not, that person bears the image of God. So love people – whole people. Care about what matters to them. If they are hungry feed them, if they are lonely sit with them, if they are without purpose, and if they ask you, tell them how your life has found purpose in Christ. But first and above all get to know them as people. Both of the extreme positions commit the same sin: they forget people and focus on categories. The evangelicals talk about “the Lost” and the social gospel-eers talk about “the Needy.” Hear this: categories are not real, only people are real. Christ did not die for the Lost, and he did not feed the Needy; everything Christ did was for people, complex and wonderful individuals. God does not send us to categories; God sends us to people. 

But that will take time, won’t it? And commitment. and it’ll be inconvenient sometimes, won’t it? Yeah, that’s it. That’s how you know you’re doing it right. That’s mission. Remember: God had mercy on you, went to considerable inconvenience for you, and God’s mercy is not exhausted yet. You have enough to share. As our text in 1 Timothy says, And for that very reason I received mercy, so that . . . Jesus Christ might . . . make me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life.

That’s mission.