I have been thinking about Matthew 4:19 where Jesus says to Simon and Andrew, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” This call seems to set the tone for the call of Jesus on the lives of all the disciples.

My thinking here is that our mission as followers of Jesus, as His Church, is to follow Jesus and to participate with Him as He calls people into the kingdom of heaven. I say this because just prior to the calling of Simon and Andrew we read, “From that time Jesus began to preach and say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand;” (Matt 4:17).

As His witnesses it seems to me that a great part of the process of witnessing is to be with people in such away as to reveal to them how pertinent, applicable, germane, significant, and important Jesus is their lives.

John Wesley caught this in his words, “The Church has nothing to do but save souls.” Furthermore, Wesley understood the nature of the mission when he expressed, “The church changes the world not by making converts but by making disciples (see Matt. 28:19-20).

What we proclaim is, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). We proclaim this because Jesus said, “He who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life” (John 5:24).

So it is that the Church of 2010 prays and loves and serves, and worships, and evangelizes, and teaches, and baptizes, and makes disciples. We are on a mission because the kingdom of God is at hand, and Jesus is calling people into that kingdom.