One of the main ideas of the Emerging Missional Progressive church movement is living ‘sent or on mission’ (hence the “missional” element). There are no commands in scripture to “live sent” and no commands to “live on mission” these simply come from the giving context to things in scripture that really are not there or by taking scripture out of context.

Many times in scripture Jesus refers to the Father who sent Me, or makes statements like “this is the will of Him who sent Me”… ‘sent’ is the mark or the finger pointing to the authority by which Jesus was sent or the authority behind what He said/did. It is not a word that teaches some watered down pay it forward, false doctrine like living “sent or on mission”. It speaks to authority– God’s authority in sending Jesus. Biblically the word mission when used in reference to Christianity, refers to the “sending forth” of men with authority to preach or spread the gospel. Jesus wasn’t sent to leave big tips at restaurants, or to surprise people by paying for their coffee in the drive thru, Jesus wasn’t sent just to eat meals with people and He certainly wasn’t sent to drink beer with people, Jesus wasn’t sent to clean up cities, or to create an equal society for all… He was sent by God the Father for one purpose, to redeem sinful people, not a group, not a community but individual people. John 3:16, “For God so loved the world (humanity) that He (God the Father) SENT His only begotten Son that whoever (individual people) believes in Him (Jesus) shall not perish but have everlasting life.” When John the Baptist came as a forerunner to Jesus, the Pharisee’s questioned him asking if he was the Christ, was he Elijah, was he the Prophet… they wanted to know the authority by which he was sent preaching repent and be baptized.

Sent: one that is sent forth. This has nothing to do with how a Believer lives, it has everything to do with the authority by which we live out what God has commanded us to do in His Word. It is a word of “commissioning”… Believer’s are commissioned by God’s authority to preach the gospel (1Corinthians 15:1-4), to make disciples and to baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

We are not sent (commissioned) to be ‘missional’, to live ‘sent’ or on ‘mission’ doing acts of kindness, social justice activism, paying it forward in the fast food line etc. Sent/Mission biblically speak to authority and commissioning, they do not have anything to do with deeds/works. Living ‘sent, on mission’ as pushed by the Emergent Missional Progressive movement is a false ideology that doesn’t have a basis in scripture.

Like Jesus, who was commissioned by His Father to save humanity from the penalty of sin, we have one purpose preach the gospel… we do this (commissioned) by Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Church, stop looking for easy works based, culture friendly Christianity, stop being deceived, stop listening to ‘thought leaders’ (the use of this title by people should be a red flag) who are teaching a false Christianity and who are rewriting the Bible to fit their narrative. That’s it. StraightUp!

Matthew 18:5-6 is a warning to those who cause others to stumble.