In today’s world the word “missions” has become a vague term, says Zane Pratt, who served as a Southern Baptist missionary with the International Mission Board for 23 years.
For some, missions can refer to anything done outside the walls of the church building, from cleaning up a park to playing sports with children, said Pratt who currently serves as senior ambassador, seminary partnerships, and theologian-in-residence with the IMB and is an assistant professor of Christian missions at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
“There is nothing wrong with any of those things or other such events but unless they are rooted in Christ and proclaim Christ, they are not Christian missions,” he stressed.
Pratt addressed “The Preeminence of Christ in Missions” during the Alabama Baptist Pastors Conference on Nov. 10 at Whitesburg Baptist Church in Huntsville.
Drawing from Colossians 1:15-23, Pratt explored the preeminence of the person of Christ, the preeminence of the work of Christ and the preeminence of the proclamation of Christ.
It’s vital that people understand who God is, Pratt noted. “We live in an age that thinks small thoughts about God and big thoughts about ourselves. … We’ve turned Jesus into our cosmic buddy who’s there to make us feel good about ourselves.”
Pratt observed that when you see Jesus, “you see perfectly the nature and character of God.”
Pratt spent most of his adulthood in the Muslim world. While Muslims will acknowledge Jesus as a prophet, they will not acknowledge a Jesus who is God, he said.
Secular society will tolerate a Jesus who was merely a good teacher, but Jesus will not tolerate being regarded merely as a good teacher, he added. “The Word of God makes it clear. The only real Jesus is God Himself who came to save us. …”
Jesus is the totality of what we proclaim and nothing else, he said. “So, what is our mission? … The mission of the people of God is to proclaim Christ. Now, we do so not just to make converts, but to make disciples who are being transformed into the image of Christ.”
Pratt said the IMB has identified 12,000 distinct people groups who live in the world today and about 6,000 of those, comprising up to 4 billion people, have never heard the name of Jesus.
In order for those numbers to decrease, Pratt challenged pastors to “never preach a Christless sermon. … Never preach a sermon that a rabbi could preach. … Preach Christ. He is everywhere in the Bible. The Old Testament points forward to Him. The gospels proclaim Him. The New Testament explains and declares Him to a lost world.”
He challenged pastors to call out the called. “Don’t just preach about missions once a year (in preparation for the (Lottie Moon Christmas Offering). By all means, do that. But God’s heart for the nations is all throughout Scripture.
Pratt thanked Alabama Baptists for their support of the Cooperative Program and the LMCO. He also cited the IMB’s need for well-discipled believers and churches to engage with the board in proclaiming Christ.
“Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is a gracious Savior … and it is for the glory of Christ that we take the gospel to the ends of the earth.”
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