Whenever we put up announcements asking for volunteers, helpers or servers, the response can be rather slow and sometimes we might have no response at all. In my initial years, I was told that TWPC culture is more of one-to-one persuasion. We have to approach people individually and talk to them on a personal basis. Then there is a high chance that people might respond and step up.

Ps Kien Seng has also often joked that he dreams of a future TWPC when people will respond with great enthusiasm that we will have to tell the church that we have no more slots to accommodate more people. We are not alone.

Two decades ago, Dr McLarty, a Presbyterian minister lamented that Presbyterians are not the most enthusiastic people because we are temperamentally reserved, socially restrained and theologically grounded in the doctrine of election.

Last Sunday our speaker asked, “Can Presbyterians say Amen?” We all know the answer: it doesn’t come naturally to most of us. And that is also probably the reason why we are comfortable worshipping at TWPC. Unlike people from other cultures, we are not very expressive when it comes to sharing our feelings. We are more guarded and reserved. Most of us have a “Poker Face” and prefer not to share too much.

As mentioned earlier, we also respond to one-to-one gentle persuasion because we prefer the gentle approach. We don’t like being pushed and prefer not to push others too. We believe in being gracious even to the point of being hyper-gracious at times! To ensure that our message gets across, we often have to say it 3 times. We tell our children, “Eat, eat, eat! Go, go, go! Move, move, move!”

We also believe in the doctrine of election and therefore know at the back of our minds, that God has already chosen the elect and so there is no need for us to be so enthusiastic about missions. After all, with or without us, God knows who will come to know him and He can save them.

How does this reality now affect our understanding of Missions? The Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20 says:
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Immediately we are confronted with the imperative or command – GO! In God’s kingdom work, there are no excuses. It is simple and go means Go! There is no time to express our reserved nature or wait for someone to persuade us. The reason is because the one who calls and commands us to go has authority both in heaven and on earth. He is none other than Jesus Christ. He commands us to go.

It takes a lot of effort for most people to turn around and talk to the person seated next to us. We even had to conduct a class on how to teach our people to walk across the room/pew to befriend others! But that’s because of our reserved nature and we don’t want to perhaps, lose face trying to start a conversation with someone we may not even know. Or worse still, the person may not want to talk to us too. But to turn around and initiate a conversation is a small step in obeying the command of our Lord Jesus Christ. If we don’t make the first move, who will do it? Obviously, we don’t expect the non-believers to take first step, do we?

For some of us, God may call us to take a bigger step than just turning to our neighbours in the church or walk across the room. We may be asked to literally go somewhere. In the last 100 years, there has been huge developments in the way people travel. We can now fly from one place to another in a short span of time. This would have been unthinkable in the past but with better mode of transport, we can now go to places with the Gospel. When God calls, he also provides the mode of transportation too. We can literally go to many places to share the good news.

Once we take the first step of obedience to go, we can begin by sharing what it means to be a disciple of Christ – that is to obey God’s commands. We cannot pick and choose what we want to teach. We are to teach obedience to Christ and His commands – all the commands. It may take time but we can begin somewhere.

We can share simple truths from the word of God which we ourselves know. We can only make disciples if we ourselves are disciples of Christ. We can strengthen our own spiritual disciplines and take time to share with others what we believe, why we believe and what we do. We can share why we read the Bible, why we go to church, why we pray. In times of trouble, what do we do and how we gather to worship as a community of believers.

The great commission confronts our comfort zone. We are very comfortable with people who are like us, think like us and behave like us. But the command from our Lord Jesus Christ is this – Go and make disciples of ‘all nations’. If others were comfortable with only their own kind, the gospel would not have reached Gentiles like us! We thank God that His command still stands today and we are called to embrace others who may not be like us. How will others come to know the saving grace of Jesus if we do not want to embrace them in the first place? God has embraced us and we ought to do the same.

The Great Commission confronts us but it also empowers us because it ends with this comforting words- “I am with you to the very end of the age.” We are not alone in our struggles and excuses. God is with us and He will go before us, with us and behind us.

We have been saved for a reason. If we know that our child is about to be hit by a car, we will not be reserved or try the gentle gracious way of persuasion. We will immediately go, warn, pull, push and shout in order to save a life. That’s the urgency of the gospel today. Let us take the Great Commission seriously and go. He will be with us.

He summons us. Let us Go, Go, Go!