Not Without You

A Commission and a Commandment–Both are Great

By Scott Anderson, Executive Pastor

The Great Commission seems to always be at odds with the Great Commandment, doesn’t it?  The Great Commission commands us to spread the Good News to every person, proclaiming the salvation that is available to all through Jesus Christ.  If you read it just right, it appears to be the most important and critical element of what it means to be a Christ follower.  Similarly, the Great Commandment commissions us to be the hands and feet of Jesus to a sick and dying world filled with people who are less fortunate than we are.  If you read it just right, it appears to be the most important and critical element of what it means to be a Christ follower. 

 I’ve heard it said that the best way to reconcile these two challenges is to assume that the poorest among us has nothing to do with money or things, but rather has to do with the condition of one’s soul, meaning that the great Commission encompasses the Great Commandment.  I’ve also heard it said that a person who has to truly worry about food or shelter will only respond to God when that need is met, meaning that the Great Commandment encompasses the Great Commission.

 Here’s what I think…each person, and even each church, has to discern the difference and the balance between these two critical challenges that God places in front of us.  I could argue that the need for both is more intense now than it has ever been in the history of mankind, and the saddest part is that too many people (and too many churches) choose not to invest deeply in either one.  How must that make the Father feel? 

 At Eagle Brook, just like for each person who follows Christ, we are constantly doing our best to discern and respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit to both reach people who are far from God (and save them from eternal death) and provide for the real physical needs of the desperately poor ( and save them from physical death).  Three years ago, prior to the God’s Amazing Church campaign, we felt drawn to a deeper involvement in the plight of the world’s poorest people, and launched an effort to do what we could in an area of Mozambique ravaged by HIV/AIDS and poverty.  Since then, over $2 million has been invested through World Vision in the lives of people we will never know, but with impact beyond what we can imagine.  It’s made us a better church, filled with better people.  Now, as we launch the Not Without You campaign, we again have included Mozambique in our plans to impact poverty and AIDS (Great Commandment stuff); in fact, we have a dream to increase our sponsorship level from 1,100 to 2,000 by March of next year.  

 What’s new in this campaign is that we are once again on the move here at home, with the dream of establishing at least two more campuses in the next three years in communities like Blaine and Woodbury (Great Commission stuff).  Things like reaching people who will spend eternity separated from God is never at odds with helping the poorest among us – in fact, neither is at odds with the other, unless one is pursued without the other.

 We’re called to do both – as individuals and as churches.  We’ll continue to look for ways to grow both values in our church, even as each of us individually should do the same.  Isn’t it interesting that God didn’t lay it out more clearly for us with percentages and formulas to know exactly how we should serve him?  I think it’s because the journey is the destination – and it’s the most amazing journey imaginable!

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