The Mission of the Church

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 16, 1906

The Mission of the Church

The church is the body of Christ. Through the church, filled with the Holy Spirit, Christ is to continue on earth the work which he began in his own person. The apostles believed that the commission given to Jesus was addressed equally to them. This is plainly shown by the words of Paul and Barnabas at Antioch in Pisidia, who gave as a reason for turning to the Gentiles the prophecy concerning the world-wide character of the work of Jesus, applying it to themselves thus: “For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.”

It is therefore the work of the church to preach the gospel, to proclaim salvation from sin through faith in the atoning work of Christ, and to prepare dwellers on earth to be dwellers in the heavenly courts. “While Christ is the minister in the sanctuary above, he is also, through his delegates, the minister of his church on earth. He speaks to the people through chosen men, and carries forward his work through them, as when, in the days of his humiliation, he moved visibly upon the earth.”

For many centuries it has been admitted without dispute that the mission of the church was to deal primarily and chiefly with the souls of men, to break to them the bread of life, and to impart to them spiritual gifts. In view of this, the apostle Paul wrote “to all that be in Rome:” “For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established.” But in this time of dissatisfaction with old beliefs and old methods there has been advocated quite a different conception of the church’s mission in the world, and this modern idea has been crystallized in the expression “the institutional church.” Such an organization conducts various lines of effort which are thought to contribute to the temporal benefit of the community, on the basis that it will thus be able to do a more successful work of soul saving. The institutional church therefore maintains an employment agency, a medical dispensary, and perhaps a gymnasium and an amusement parlor. It may conduct cooking schools, sewing schools, schools of carpentry, etc. It may have a free reading-room and provide a popular lecture course. Thus in various ways it may seek to reach the people with such

spiritual truth as it has to offer to them, by attempting to be a sort of general helper to them,—by offering them first the gospel of philanthropy, or, as it is sometimes designated, the greater gospel of humanitarianism.

After a personal experience of five years in administering one of these institutional churches, Dr. A. C. Dixon, of Boston, testifies concerning the results. We take the following paragraphs from his article in The Ram’s Horn. Speaking of the employment agency, Dr. Dixon says:—

In one year more than eight hundred people were given employment, and I was charmed with the result. It looked like the poetry and music of religion, and yet, after two or three years of observation, I could see no spiritual results. There seemed to be no conversions or additions to the church as a result of this beautiful philanthropy. This led me to watch more closely its workings, and during the third year I became convinced that our employment agency made more converts away from the church than toward it. . . . A few months of observation convinced me that our beautiful employment agency was a millstone around the neck of the church, and it was discontinued. We still assisted in securing employment for those out of work, and succeeded just as well without the incubus of an advertised “employment agency.”

The same lack of spiritual results appeared in connection with the medical dispensary, although the services of several physicians were secured for two or three hours a week, and it seemed to be doing good work. Dr. Dixon expresses his conclusions thus:—

My conviction is that a hospital connected with a church will drive away from its services as many as it will attract, even of those who have been physically benefited by its treatment. And when, as is often the case, medical treatment at the dispensary does no good, while the patient grows worse, the church does not escape censure, and if the patient dies, the family and friends are as apt as not to be so critical of the church for having such physicians under its auspices that they will not go again within its doors. A Christian nurse, going from house to house among the poor, teaching them the laws of health and ministering to the sick with loving sympathy, will do more good than a dispensary.

The general influence of this philanthropic work is thus described by Dr. Dixon:—

The institutional church if plentifully supplied with money, is in danger of pauperizing the community in which it is located, while it repels the self-respecting working man. . . . And when a church has made a reputation of helping the poor with a liberal hand, the independent working man hesitates to go to it, lest he may be considered as seeking charity, against which his soul revolts. . . . And we find ourselves in the rather unusual predicament of having to live down a reputation for charity work before we can reach the very men for whose benefit the church was endowed. The body is redeemed, and Christians should do all they can to relieve physical wants, but the great work of the church is the redemption of the soul, and everything else should be made secondary to that.

After this experience Dr. Dixon expresses his belief that “it is easier to reach the bodies of men through their souls than the souls of men through their bodies.” His experience and his conclusion are worthy of careful study. While the whole gospel includes the redemption of the body, and temporal benefits may come from the acceptance of the gospel, yet those who are induced to accept the salvation of their souls because of expected temporal benefits usually fail of receiving either the salvation of their souls or the anticipated temporal benefits. The simple gospel must be its own attraction.