Rev. Kortering is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches.

A number of years ago I had the privilege to serve as pastor of Covenant Evangelical Reformed Church in Singapore. Since they were without a pastor, it fell within my duties as minister-on-loan to help them in this way. These were formative years for me, as it was my first real exposure to serving in a local congregation with a mission setting. The members were first-generation Christians, their zeal for the Lord persisted; they carried a desire to bring non-Christian family members, colleagues, and schoolmates into the fellowship of the body of Christ. It was a special privilege to serve the Lord in such a congregation.

Prior to one of the morning services, one of the elders came excitedly into the room where we had gathered for prayer. One of the members of the congregation had taken his colleague to church with him and, though he was a professed Buddhist, he was showing some signs of being open to the gospel. The purpose of this adulation was to urge me to include in the morning’s message a gospel emphasis, to set forth the need for Jesus and a call to repent and embrace Him. Much to my surprise, this was rather easy to do, and I gladly complied with the request. In fact, my preaching had a fresh urgency, and I discovered that it was a not-to-be-taken-for-granted privilege to be a bearer of good news to the lost. I developed a sensitivity to be aware of those who might join the congregation for worship, and an appreciation for how God had given to me as a pastor the high calling to bring the gospel to all whom He brought into the worship service. The above scenario was replayed many times, over the years, and we thank God for the opportunities both to preach to such persons and to talk with them after the service and other follow-up.

In addition to such incidents, it was common practice to hold special gospel services with a view to bringing non-members, some from other churches and even others holding heathen religions, under the preaching of the gospel. Sometimes these services were included in the regular time of worship. At other times, special services were arranged for this purpose. The idea was to bring a more simplified message, so that non-Christians or ignorant ones could understand the gospel of the Reformed faith, and the emphasis was upon the call to salvation. God abundantly blessed these efforts over the years and used them mightily to gather His church through the preaching of the gospel.

Now that we have returned to the USA and have the privilege once again to worship in our beloved Protestant Reformed Churches, the thought came to mind whether there is a difference between the established church in America and the established church in Singapore as far as preaching is concerned. True, there are differences in circumstances and society. The church in Singapore is in quite a different setting than the church in America, and this difference affects gospel preaching. This can be seen in the use of illustrations and applications that properly reflect these differences. It also affects the simplicity of the gospel preached, that is, adapting the gospel to the spiritual level of the congregation. But our focus of interest here is on the message itself. Is the preaching of the gospel message different in the ERCS from that in the PRCA? Let me put it this way. Should God by His mercy bring into our service here in the states a non-Christian, should we expect the preaching of the gospel to be adequate to convert him under the blessed work of the Holy Spirit just as much as we do in Singapore?

For the sake of convenience, we will call this “mission preaching.” By this we simply mean that the pastor brings the message God wants an unconverted person to hear, viz., a call to conversion, to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. In the mission setting, such a call unto salvation is expected and obviously necessary; in the established church this may easily be overlooked or disputed.

Upon some reflection, my conclusion is that the content of the preaching is not any different, nor ought it to be any different, in the established church or the church in the mission setting. If the preaching of the gospel in the established church is done faithfully, and God brings a non-Christian into the worship service, he will hear the call of the gospel necessary for conversion and salvation. The whole church may eagerly bring such people into the worship service, for they know such a person will hear the gospel as well. By this wonderful work of salvation by our sovereign God, we learn anew of His power to save us.

If we reflect on the field of labor for a missionary, it is easy to conclude that he has to busy himself with mission preaching as defined above. His task as missionary is to focus on non-Christians for the most part, for they are without Christ and without God in this world (Eph. 2:12). If his labors are blessed, he may expect unconverted people to come under his preaching. He needs to expose sin, call men to repent and convert, to turn from their evil way lest they perish. Central in this message is the hope of faith in Jesus Christ as the only way to the Father.

Yet, if a pastor understands the established church properly and has a biblical view of the congregation, he quickly learns that there is no essential difference between his congregation and the missionary’s field of labor. If the congregation and pastor are busy in their outreach ministry, God will from time to time place among them one who is unconverted. Besides that, if you stop to think about it, the pastor needs to bring to his own flock the same message of sin and misery, salvation through conversion and faith in Jesus Christ, and the necessity of leading a thankful life of holiness. This is the threefold knowledge that the Heidelberg Catechism describes as necessary to live and die happily in the comfort of our Heavenly Father.

We should take a moment to say a few things about the nature of the local established congregation. How ought we to view such a church in relation to a mission church?

1.The Bible makes no significant distinction between a mission church and an established church as far as divine instruction is concerned. True, in the historical account given in the book of Acts, the mission labors of Paul included groups of people who were in the process of being established. This was true during the missionary journeys. The first contacts were made in various areas of Asia Minor and even extending into Macedonia and Greece. Paul and Barnabas made initial contacts during the first part of the first missionary journey; and during their return visit, elders were ordained in all the churches (Acts 14:23).

We can conclude from this that there was a process of instituting the churches through mission labors. The message of Christ to His church throughout the world at that time, however, was not one message for churches in the process of being instituted and another for churches already instituted. Instruction to preach the gospel, including how to preach it, came to the churches no matter whether they were meeting in someone’s house (Rom. 16:5, 23; I Cor. 16:19; Col. 4:15;Philemon 2) or the congregations scattered throughout all areas (Rom. 16:4; I Cor 7:17, II Cor. 8:18). The preaching of the gospel is the same for all.

2.The seven letters from Christ to the churches in Asia Minor (Rev. 1-3) further confirm this. In these letters, Christ focuses on the strengths and weaknesses of seven congregations, which represent the entire church in the world. Among them, Philadelphia represents the church that has mission opportunities. We must not isolate that congregation as if that was unique for her. Rather, she represents all the churches from the perspective of outreach. All the other six congregations have to face the same issues as Philadelphia, only in various measures. We must receive the seven messages today as well. We do not read them and preach on them as if we have to discover which of the messages to the seven churches apply to us. Rather we have to examine how all seven messages relate to us as an individual congregation. We can conclude from this that the mission concern of Philadelphia’s “open door” is the mark of every faithful congregation.

3.The so-called “great commission” (Matt. 28:18-20) given by Christ to the disciples who were about to become the apostles represents the commissioning of the church by Christ Himself. The command to make disciples of all nations comes to the local congregation first. Because of the office of believer, every Christian is anointed by the Holy Spirit to function as prophet, priest, and king (cf. Heid. Cat., L. D. 12). Such believers come together, institute a church, and appoint from among themselves gifted men who can serve in the special offices (their gifted prophets become pastors, their gifted priests become deacons, and their gifted kings become elders). They possess all that is needed to serve as a church of Christ. That is not the end of their calling however. They also must take into consideration the need for unity among Christians and churches. Hence, they take seriously the need to federate as local congregations. In doing this theydelegate some of the authority, which Christ has given to them, to the federation. This relates to mission work. Some mission work can better be done by the churches in common, the federation. Thus the congregations labor together to do this work.

However, we must not conclude from this that the local congregation may relinquish her calling to do mission work. That may never be done. In principle, the local congregation has the mandate to do outreach work, and she must take that seriously. There is no essential difference between a missionary and a pastor. The missionary is called and ordained to focus upon a ministry that will reach outward and draw inward those whom God is pleased to gather unto the establishing of a congregation. The pastor focuses upon a congregation already established, yet includes in his ministry an effort to increase the church. This is not limited to internal covenant growth by begetting children. It also pertains to outreach to those lost in sin. The words of Acts 2:47 give comfort and hope to all pastors and missionaries: “the Lord added to the church daily, such as should be saved.”

The divine mandate to make disciples comes to the local congregation first. For this reason, we also appoint a local calling church to oversee both domestic and foreign missionaries. We recognize this principle. Real mission work is not done by the denomination but by the local church. The federation joins in to consolidate funds and manpower to make it more effective. The denominational mission committees represent the churches in common in doing this work as a check and balance. This is a workable arrangement and must always be kept in view. The authority and commission to preach the gospel, however, rests in the local church.

Critical for mission preaching, the call of the gospel to the unconverted, is the preacher’s view of his congregation. There are a number of possibilities, and we ought to determine which is biblical.

1.He could possibly look at them as lost in sin and needing conversion. Historically, this is the approach of the Arminian preacher. Because his focus is upon lost sinners who need conversion, he is thumping the trail to “win souls for Christ.” He does this in the mission field as well as the local congregation. Every time he opens his mouth, he is pleading with sinners to accept Christ. This fits his theology because he firmly believes that one can be a true believer one day and lose it the next, so the preacher constantly needs to be busy saving such people. True saints among them soon complain, “We are always saving souls but totally neglect the souls already saved.” The emphasis on soul-winning takes such priority that careful expository preaching, which helps the believer to grow in his faith and equips him for meaningful service of his Master, is lacking. We must not fall into this error of viewing the congregation as lost and in need of salvation.

2.Neither must the minister swing into the opposite direction and view the congregation, in its entirety, as saved. He must not imagine that the only thing they need to be instructed in is in the realm of their salvation — how to be assured of it, and how to enjoy its benefits. The old threat of “presumptive regeneration” can relate not only to children of believers, but to our view of the entire congregation as well. Such a view is contrary to fact (not all members of the church are truly saved, they were not in the old covenant, and they are not in the new either). Besides, such an approach to preaching will produce such deadness that the congregation will soon be lulled into complacency and spiritual hypocrisy.

3.Perhaps the pastor ought to view his congregation as a mixture of believers and unbelievers, as converted and unconverted. They more than likely are that, to be sure; but we are not talking about objective fact, but about how the preacher must view them when he preaches. If he takes this approach, he will inevitably fall into a terrible error. He will begin to place the members of his congregation into one or the other of the two categories. He will become judgmental and soon think it his duty to address those in his congregation who are yet unconverted or say certain things to those who are converted. Before you know it, he will be making one greater mistake, that of playing God by thinking he has to determine who are elect and reprobate. His preaching will become personal, in that he thinks it is his duty to run out of the church all the wicked who are there and to protect all the righteous.

4.There is a better approach, one which is thoroughly biblical. It comes out of the coined expression, “organically.” The pastor must view his congregation as the church of Christ united in true faith, but he must be fully aware that among them may be those who are not even converted unto God. And there are those who are true believers but need daily to be converted unto God. If this is his perspective, he will include “mission preaching” regularly in his messages. At such time when God may be pleased to bring an unconverted person into the worship service, he will hear God’s call to repent of sin and embrace the Savior. This is regularly heard in such preaching.

We will examine this in detail in our next article.