In this 21^st century, have you ever pondered – what is the role of an ambassador?

Before becoming a pastor, my key job was lobbying for an insurance license in East Asia on behalf of my company. In that role, I rubbed shoulders with “ambassadors” and I realised the role of an ambassador had shrunk over the decades. In colonial times, the ambassadors from key Western countries behaved like kings. In the 21^st century, they are nothing more than glorified messengers. Of course, there are always exceptions. Ambassadors to key strategic countries still hold considerable power and influence beyond mere delivering messages.

But whether one’s task is to be a messenger boy or a power broker, the central “mission” of an ambassador is to be the loyal representative of the sovereign of his country – whether it is to his king, his president, or his prime minister. The very moment an ambassador loses sight of that; he has gone AWOL.

Today, in the church, we have a similar confusion between our “mission” and our “missions”. So often, we use the word “missions” to describe the outreach programmes of the church. Most of the time, “missions” means our outreach to a foreign land or culture. More and more in the 21^th century, those programmes usually target UPGs (Unreached People Groups) with the proclamation of the salvation message. Some have claimed that these “missions” are the sum total of the church’s “mission”. Others have asked: what about living out of the gospel (discipleship)? What about the arenas of the marketplace, social justice, and the public square? Are those not part of our “mission”?

In Jesus’ great commission (Go and make disciples) in Mt 28:19, Dr Christopher Wright of Langham Partnership pointed out rightly that the word “go” is not a command but a participle. The actual command is “to make disciples” (to reproduce disciples who follow after the pattern of Christ’s life). Some call it simply living out the gospel. But to do that we do have to “go”: sometimes out of our culture, sometimes out of our country, but always we have to “go” and leave “the world and her values” behind. Discipleship is our “mission” whether our arena is foreign or local; whether our skill is cross-cultural or within culture; whether our focus is in the “church” or the “marketplace”.

But let us come back to the term “Ambassador”. What defines him? What is his heart beat? It is to represent his sovereign in whichever arena that he is sent, to do whatever he is requested. Some are sent to comfortable developed countries, some are sent to pioneer developing countries under trying circumstances.

Paul mentioned in his letters two times that he was an “ambassador”. In 2 Cor 5:20, he called us “ambassadors for Christ” i.e. we represent Christ. We are his messenger boys and girls. Our mission as “ambassadors” is a Christ-centred one. We start becoming ambassadors when we lay our all on the table for him.

In Eph 6:20, Paul further called himself “an ambassador in chains”. It is difficult to imagine an ambassador that is in chains. An ambassador is supposed to look dignified to represent his sovereign. And yet in 2 Cor 4:7, Paul captured the attitude of a Christ-centred ambassador well. I will end with that in the NLT version:

^“7 We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.”

Only those who are on a Christ-centred mission to make disciples will have this attitude to become “ambassadors in chain”; to be undignified like clay pots: so that our audience will only see “Christ in us” and not polished “ambassadors”.

On October 8, two world renowned ambassadors for Christ: Rev Edmund Chan and Rev David Doong will go further to help us connect the dots of Christ-centredness, missions, and discipleship. Their mission is to shed light on the journey – “Inside Out: The Journey of Christ-Centred Missions!”

Come join us.

Rev Peter Lin
President