Small World Connections

What is the difference between Missions and Church?

Well, i actually believe the definition of this has changed historically over the last 50 years. Originally, the church was a local meeting place in your community of like minded believers in Christ. Missions was something your local church did to fulfill Christ's command to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. Over time, Missions grew to include local missions, to another region within your country. This included church planting and high school and college ministries. This also evolved to include "one-time" service projects which took place over very short periods of time 1 - a few weeks with a goal of meeting short term needs and showing the love of Christ while seeking opportunities to evangelize.

Now these definitions of church and missions are blurred abit as the internet is spread around the world. My church may be my facebook group which prays for me and i for them. Where 2 or 3 are gathered may now include people from different locations around the world communicating together over the internet. I dont see this diminishing the local church, just expanding what it can mean despite location of its congregation. Missions is the same. Now i can use the internet and worldwide google talk to expand the reach of the gospel, the same way airplanes and radio have for missions 50 years ago.

Exciting times...

my2cents

Dean