Refusing to teach some things has hurt the church …

There has developed a deep fear among some church leaders today that using certain “Bible words” is so culturally uncouth that they have dropped them from what they teach from scripture to their congregations.

All to the detriment of their congregations!

A key example of this is the term “ambassador” from the Apostle Paul’s writing in 2 Corinthians 5:18-20, which has mostly disappeared from the vocabulary of many church leaders. It wasn’t that way in the church 20-30 years ago — prior to the start of the current precipitous decline in the church!

By being afraid to use such a term for fear of what others in our culture will think has resulted in many Christians missing out on teaching about a pivotal part of our new identity in Christ, which is that of being an ambassador. There’s not a better word for that part of our identity. Messenger doesn’t fully engulf the whole story of what it is to be Christ’s ambassador. I think it is more than a coincidence that after so many ministers have failed to build into the saints they shepherd the ambassador identity that we have a declining church full of professing Christians who are not ambassadors for Christ.

Ambassadors make disciples; most Christians today are neither ambassadors nor disciple-makers. And most pastors would have to admit the vast majority of the people they shepherd do not have a well-developed identity as being an ambassador for Christ. But since most churches do not equip believers how to share the Gospel with non-believers, and instead attempt any semblance of an evangelism outreach by practicing an “attractional” model (trying to lure spiritually dead people to want to come to a religious service in a church building), it’s no wonder many church leaders don’t even bother with teaching the ambassador identity. Instead, most efforts are placed on getting church members to invite non-church members to “attend church” with them, then the “professionals” will take it from there. The result has been a real decline in the church and our reaching the lost for Christ.

In spite of all this, many church leaders still claim to believe in a “priesthood of all believers.” If that’s true, maybe we need to dump our fear and start teaching once again that scripture includes within our new identity in Christ that critical role and responsibility of every Christian being an ambassador for Christ. Build that into the DNA of your congregation and you’ll likely see Christians interested and willing to be disciple-makers.

Scotty

P.S. This post was originally written in 2015. I want to encourage you to go much deeper into the subject of being ambassadors for Christ by checking out my newly released book, “The Great Appointment.” You can find it on the Scott Free Clinic website here.