[ souls for the lamb by graham kendrick ]

Evangelism is Worship, Worship is Evangelism

Assumptions: we all have them. Those residual deposits of belief whose power lies in the fact that they are buried deeper than our working self-knowledge normally probes. One of mine got thoroughly exploded some years ago when I heard this story.

During the early 18th century, a movement emerged from a small refugee community in Saxony called Herrnhut which within a single decade became a centre of worldwide mission. Its motto summed up the motivation: ‘Souls for the Lamb’.

In 1731 the leader, Count Zinzendorf, met a negro slave called Anthony who came from the island of St. Thomas in the West Indies and who had become a Christian. He told Zinzendorf about the appalling conditions of poverty and disease that the slaves lived in and how they desperately needed the gospel. Zinzendorf invited him back to their headquarters where his report had such an effect on a young man called Leonhard Dober that he immediately determined to offer himself to serve these oppressed people.

Anthony said that he believed the only possible way for a missionary to reach the slaves in St Thomas was to become a slave himself since, after working all day on the plantations, they were kept by a strict curfew to their huts by night. Only by working alongside them in the sugar cane fields could anyone hope to have a chance of sharing the gospel.

This daunting prospect did not deter Dober and some time later, along with David Nitschmann, he set off for St Thomas. With virtually no money in their purses they headed to Copenhagen to get a ship to the West Indies. When they told of their plans, they were laughed at, especially when they said that if necessary they were prepared to work as slaves. Everyone thought they were mad!

In December 1732 they stood on deck as their ship came into sight of the island of St. Thomas. Ahead of them lay danger, disease and possible slavery Yet it was at this moment that Dober is reported to have turned to Nitschmann and said, ‘Let us give to the Lamb the reward of his sufferings.’

When I first heard this story my spirit was profoundly stirred. It was not just their selflessness and courage that moved me, although that was awe-inspiring, it was the motivating passion of their hearts expressed in those words. The simple words exploded an assumption: that evangelism and mission were somehow distinct from worship and praise. Where that assumption came from I’m not sure, but in that moment I saw more clearly than ever that they are essentially the same thing. There are endless good and noble reasons for fulfilling Christ’s Great Commission, not least simple obedience, but I suddenly saw the best and highest motive: to bring to Christ as a gift the people for whom he suffered and died.

It seems that the same pure passion of the worshipper fuelled and focussed the Apostle Paul’s mission efforts. He describes the grace given from God ‘to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest the gospel of God, that my offering of the Gentiles [unbelievers] might become acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit’ (Romans 15:16).

Although his church-planting had taken him zig-zagging around the Roman Empire, in market-places, auditoria and homes, Paul saw his ministry taking place in the spiritual temple. He knew that his preaching of the gospel was a priestly duty. In the physical world he stood before people, but in the spiritual world he knew that he was ‘priesting the gospel’ before the mercy seat, the throne of God, where the sprinkied blood speaks of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice.

The offering Jesus brings is people and nations. His job is to prepare them, like a priest prepares an offering, to be acceptable to God and sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

Paul had one supreme motive for his extraordinary labours of love as he planted churches and carried the burden of them through his difficult life. He was bringing love-gifts to God, aspiring to labour where Christ was not yet named - where Christ was not yet worshipped, obeyed and exalted. Paul’s empowering vision was to see representatives from all peoples worshipping God in Christ’s name. His ministry could have been motivated by lesser things, but he dignified, purified and elevated it into a priestly ministry by his desire to bring to God what pleases him.

What does God want? There are two things that God is described as seeking. One is the lost. The other is true worshippers. Paul determined to bring them both together in one package!

As events unfolded, Dober and Nitschmann were not called on to become slaves, but their sufferings were severe. Out of the group of 18 more Moravians who joined them on the island, eight died from disease within a year. Yet they laboured sacrificially despite violent and sometimes murderous opposition from vested interests among the colonial authorities. As a result, 13,000 slaves were converted and baptised in the West Indies before any other missions began there.

An early Moravian hymn has this line which exemplifies the mission motive:

‘Glad, we bear want and distress
To set forth the Lamb once slain'

This is reminiscent of the new song which the four living creatures and the four elders sing before the Lamb in the Book of Revelation. They proclaim Jesus’ worthiness because he gave up his life and with his blood purchased for God people from every tribe and tongue and nation. Should we deny him what he has already purchased at such a price? He endured the Cross and despised the shame for the joy set before him, the joy of bringing people like us to the Father. Will we then rob him of some of that joy? What better act of worship could we possibly bring him than people, redeemed out of every tribe and tongue and nation, as a crown for the end of the ages?

A surprising postscript to this story came about three years ago when I was in the Czech Republic, not far from the region where the Moravians originated. I was discussing the next meeting with my music director, Steve Thompson, and told him of my intention to retell this story, the details of which were unfamiliar to him. When I mentioned the island of St Thomas in the Caribbean, Steve did a double-take. It turned out that his father, who emigrated to England in the 1950s, had been converted to Christ on the island of St Thomas, in a church founded by Moravian missionaries! That evening we were able to introduce the local Czech believers to one of their spiritual great-great-grandchildren!

Missiologists say that the worldwide Church has never been closer to fulfilling Christ’s Great Commission. The harvest is ripe but the labourers are few Let’s bring to Christ a final glorious worship offering to close this age, presenting to the Lamb the reward for his sufferings.