MISSIO

By Rev. Dr. Milton L. Ortiz

He handed out gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastorteacher to train Christ’s followers in skilled servant work, working within Christ’s body, the church, until we’re all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God’s Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ.

(Ephesians 4:11-13 The Message)

Paul was in prison in Rome, maybe house arrested, when, through a letter, he urged the believers to live a life worthy of the calling they had received. What that meant, he said, was that we need to be completely humble and gentle, be patient, bear one another in love, and make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:1-3).

To accomplish this, Paul said, we need to keep in mind that there is

• one body: Christ’s body, the Church.

• one Spirit: The Holy Spirit.

• one hope: The confident affirmation that God will complete what he has begun.

• one Lord: The God who exists as a Trinity of Persons.

• one faith: The confidence in God’s ability to bring us through every circumstance of life.

• one baptism: The baptism of the Holy Spirit into Christ’s body.

• one God and Father of all: The Creator of everything (Ephesians 4:4-6).

Then, quoting Psalm 68:18, Paul said that after his ascension Jesus gave gifts to his people. Those gifts were persons given to the Church:

• apostles,

• prophets,

• evangelists,

• pastors and teachers.

These persons were given with one specific purpose, to equip Christ’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:7-13).

As you see, persons who have answered God’s call to ministry are gifts to us, to the Church. One of the gifts is called apostle. Are there apostles in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church? Missionaries are apostles, but the early Christian church adopted the Latin word missio, which means sent or the sent one. A missionary is a person sent by the Church to cross language, culture, and geographical boundaries to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with people from different countries, languages, and cultures than their own. As Cumberland Presbyterians, we send people to the mission field. We endorse them to work directly for the CP Church, to establish/provide services to CP churches and institutions under the direct supervision of the Missions Ministry Team. We pray for them and financially support them.

ASK

Ask yourself, am I being called to be a missionary, or how can I support the missionaries working in Cumberland Presbyterian mission fields?

PRAYER

O Holy Lord, our Father, and our God, Hear Thou and answer this ardent prayer of our hearts – The Cumberland Presbyterian Church, a Missionary Church, The Cumberland Presbyterian Church, a Missionary Church, Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen1