Reflections

In the late 18th century, the Particular Baptists experienced a revival that birthed a renewed vision for global missions. Among the leaders, Andrew Fuller emerged as a key voice, calling for earnest prayer, the preaching of the Word, and gospel proclamation reflecting Jonathan Edwards' emphasis on the ordinary means of grace in revival. Building on this foundation, William Carey (1761–1834), often called the "father of modern missions," urged the believers to "Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God." This sparked the founding of the Baptist Missionary Society in 1792 and launched a missions movement reaching the unreached peoples around the world.

Today, Carey's words still grip us, for the Great Commission remains the unfinished task Christ entrusted to his church. And it is through this same conviction that the ordinary means of grace shall continue to guide the work of missionaries serving  around the world. I am deeply grateful for these faithful witnesses, whose work is both Christ-glorifying and God-honouring.

Pray that the heartbeat which moved William Carey for the unreached peoples would continue to grip our hearts as well. Pray that God would strengthen and sustain our missionaries, and that the Lord of the harvest would raise up more labourers for the plentiful harvest for the global mission. Pray that his name will be exalted among all nations as we make disciples of all nations.

May we be mutually encouraged, committed to expect great things from God and attempt great things for God.

Missions is not a foreign concept to most churches today. Many churches are already preparing to send short-term teams this summer, whether across Canada or overseas. Yet it is still worth pausing to ask: What is missions? What is the purpose of missions? Why are we sending short-term missions teams every year?

Missions has become a familiar part of church life today. There is no doubt that it's because faithful men and women before us were deeply convinced of the authority of Scripture and the centrality of the local church in God's redemptive work for missions. Among them, William Carey stands as a foundational figure in the rise of modern Protestant missions. In his well-known work, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens, Carey challenged the Particular Baptists to recover their biblical responsibility to proclaim the gospel and make disciples of all nations.

That burden eventually led to the formation of the Baptist Missionary Society in 1792, along with Carey's exhortation: "Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God." But Carey's vision was not merely pragmatic or strategic. It was profoundly ecclesiological. His goal was not simply the conversion of new believers but the gathering of believers into faithful local churches. He longed to see mature disciples, biblically ordered churches planted, and faithful pastors equipped for a lifetime of gospel ministry.

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to visit Carey Baptist Church and Serampore College in West Bengal, India, where the lasting fruit of Carey's missionary labour, alongside Joshua Marshman and William Ward, can still be witnessed. After more than 230 years, it was evident that their missionary labour was marked by Bible translation, the training of leaders, and most importantly, the planting and strengthening of the local churches. In other words, Carey's missionary labour was not detached from the local church. It was carried out to establish healthy churches and strengthening those churches by equipping believers towards maturity.

So, what is missions? How should we engage in missions? What should be the goal of missions, whether it's short-term or long-term? As we consider these questions, it may be worth reflecting on Carey's ecclesia-centric vision of missions. Missions is not merely about going somewhere, nor is it for our personal benefit or growth. Missions is about proclaiming the gospel, making disciples, and seeing those disciples gathered into healthy local churches for the glory of God. At the heart of missions is God's redemptive work among the unreached nations carried out through the local church and in the local church as Jesus promised: "I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matt 16:18, ESV)

May we see a generation of mature disciples equipped to strengthen the local churches and sent out as qualified workers for missions.

When Jesus declared, "I will build my church" (Matt 16:18), he made clear that the church belongs exclusively to him. The pronoun my reveals Christ's authority, ownership, and covenant claim over his people. The church is not ultimately the possession of leaders, institutions, or denominations. She belongs to Christ alone. He is the one who gathers her, forms her, rules her, and preserves her.

In the Old Testament, God called Israel "my people," identifying them as the covenant community he had redeemed for himself. In the same way, when Christ says, "my church," he shows that the church is the fulfillment of God's covenant purpose. She is the people of God gathered under the lordship of Christ and bound to him by grace.

The word church (ecclesia) also carries this covenant background. It reflects the Old Testament idea of the qāhāl, the assembly of God's people gathered before him to hear his Word and live under his rule. Jesus is not introducing a completely new concept, but bringing God's redemptive design to fulfillment through his saving work. Yet this new covenant community is no longer defined by ethnicity, geography, or national identity. It is formed by faith in Jesus Christ. Those who belong to the church are those who publicly confess their sin and profess their faith in Christ. This covenant identity is then visibly expressed through church membership, which belongs to those who have made such a public confession and have been baptized as believers. As members of this covenant community, they also have the privilege of partaking in the Lord's Supper (communion).

The local church, therefore, is not merely a Sunday gathering or a social club organized around cultural preservation, but the visible covenant community of God's redeemed people, belonging to Christ and displaying his glory.

What are the marks of the true church according to the Protestant tradition? Protestantism is a broad term that is often used rather loosely today. Some may define Protestantism as a movement that "protests" for the truth of the gospel, and while that contains an element of truth, it does not fully explain what makes a Protestant church truly Protestant. Historically, Protestant identity is rooted in the confessional tradition of the sixteenth-century Reformation.

The major Protestant confessions help clarify this identity. Documents such as the Augsburg Confession 1530, the Geneva Confession 1536, the Confession of Faith of the English Congregation in Geneva 1556, the Scottish Confession of Faith 1560, and the Belgic Confession 1561 reveal how the Reformation tradition understood the marks of the true church. From these confessional documents, four key marks consistently emerge: the preaching of God's Word, the faithful proclamation of the gospel, the right administration of the sacraments, and the practice of ecclesiastical discipline.

These marks show that the true church is not defined by flashy programs, pragmatic methods, or merely by carrying the label 'Protestant'. Rather, according to the Protestant tradition, the true church is recognized by its confessional and theological commitments. A true church is one where the Word of God is faithfully preached, the gospel is clearly proclaimed, the sacraments are rightly administered, and church discipline is exercised for the purity and health of the body.

The local church today must not define itself by popularity, innovation, or outward success. The true local church is seen where God's Word is rightly preached, the gospel is clearly proclaimed, the sacraments are faithfully administered, and discipline is practiced with love and holiness. These marks remind pastors and congregations that the church is sustained by the ordinary means of grace, not by methods. We should commit ourselves to churches that honour these marks, and church leaders should labour to build congregations shaped by truth, reverence, accountability, and joyful submission to Christ the head.

May his church be honoured by the marks of the true church.

Jonathan Leeman, in Baptist Foundations: Church Government for an Anti-Institutional Age, writes, "Polity is what constitutes the local church as a local church. Put another way, polity provides the nexus between the universal church and the local church." He also states, "Polity is inevitable. The only question is whether one's polity is coherent, orderly, and, most of all, biblical."

In an age where institutionalism is often viewed as outdated, restrictive, or merely traditional, many churches have moved away from ordered ecclesiology toward pragmatic ministry. The assumption is often that structure slows down mission, doctrine limits creativity, and polity creates unnecessary barriers.

Leeman explains the importance of church polity this way: "A church's polity establishes who possesses authority over the processes of membership and discipline and what role baptism and the Lord's Supper play in signifying and constituting members as members and the church as a church. Polity creates leadership offices in the church, demarcates their responsibilities and jurisdictional boundaries, specifies who is eligible to serve in those offices, and stipulates the selection process. Polity dictates how significant decisions in the life of the church will be made. And polity delineates the nature of the relationship between a church and other churches or denominational structures, whether those ties are formal or informal, binding or nonbinding."

In other words, church polity gives visible shape to the church's life together. It helps the church understand who she is, how she is to function, and how she is to remain faithful to Christ. This is why church government cannot be reduced to bylaws, committees, or organizational charts. At its best, biblical polity is a theological framework for ordering the household of God.

Therefore, every local church must ask not whether it has polity, but what kind of polity it has. Is it biblical? Is it orderly? Does it reflect the teaching of Scripture? Does it protect the gospel? Does it strengthen the congregation? Does it help the church obey Christ faithfully?

A church without polity is merely a social gathering. But a church ordered by Scripture is a visible expression of Christ's body, entrusted with the gospel, and called to display his glory to the world.