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Claire is currently serving the church in Mozambique. As well as being involved in discipleship, Claire is passionate about mobilising the church for mission. Here she shares more about what mobilisation actually means, and why it’s so important.
Mobilising? What’s that?
Although a vital task in these last days, the ministry of mobilisation is often misunderstood. Like the word ‘trinity’, ‘mobilising’ does not appear in the text of the Bible, but it is very much a biblical concept. Max Chismon, Founder and International Director of Simply Mobilising, explains: “The prophetic ministry in the Old Testament was primarily a ministry of mobilisation. Its main purpose was not to predict future events but to bring God’s people back to God and to challenge them to live for the reason that they were called to be his chosen people.” Indeed, the ministry of mobilising is one of the most vital ministries in the Church today.
Mobilised to share the gospel
A local Mozambican pastor commented:
“When Claire told us about the deaf in Mozambique being an unreached people group it really touched my heart. I thought, “If we don’t share the gospel with them, who will?” There are three deaf and dumb people living in my area so I called them together and now we meet to learn about God and they are ‘hearing’ the gospel.”
Jesus is coming back again. That’s not something we hear preached very often these days, but the Bible makes it abundantly clear. Jesus is coming back, and we need to be ready! Yet 2,000 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, as we await his second coming, one third of the world’s population still has not heard about the first time he came. That is 2.9 billion people in 7,000 unreached people groups. And significant numbers of those people live in Africa.
In Mozambique, as in many countries across the world, God’s church is established and growing, but it is often preoccupied and distracted by many things. Jesus’ mandate to ‘…go, and make disciples of all nations…’ (Matthew 28:19) is frequently sidelined by other, often domestic, issues. Throughout the world, ‘church’ can too easily become a comfortable social gathering with little thought or concern for those outside its walls. Jesus didn’t die for churches, or projects, or organisations. He died for people – every single one a precious, unique creation, made in his image and therefore of immense value.
“The privilege of knowing Christ carries with it the responsibility of making him known…”
Making Christ known
Privilege and responsibility go hand in hand. The privilege of knowing Christ carries with it the responsibility of making him known. But how? If we are ever going to complete the task of fulfilling the Great Commission, we cannot leave it to just a handful of faithful ‘professionals’, be they missionaries, pastors, evangelists or any other group. No, the Great Commission was given to all of us, and its fulfilment requires the involvement of the whole church. The whole church must be mobilised. Everyone is needed.
Would you choose to use a thimble to fill a bath? Or a toothbrush to sweep the floor? We may laugh at the thought, but that is often how the church has approached the Great Commission in the past. In fact, if we keep doing church the way that we have always done church, it may be another 2,000 years or even more, before the Great Commission is fulfilled.
Today, countless millions of people are dying without ever hearing that there is a God who loves them, who sent his only Son so that they can be restored to right relationship with him. We have what they need! So let’s get moving, and mobilise the whole of God’s church to reach the whole of his creation. Will you join us?
