FRIDAY REVIEW

Jackson Kemper, First Missionary Bishop in the United States , 1870

May 23, A.D. 2008

We Are Missionaries

Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

(Matthew 28:18-20)

Tomorrow the Church calendar remembers Jackson Kemper, a New Yorker who served in Philadelphia and then headed west in 1835 as the Episcopal Church’s first missionary bishop. That year the church also declared that all members of the Episcopal Church were members of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society. Bishop Kemper was consecrated as missionary Bishop of Missouri and Indiana. He oversaw congregations in Iowa , Wisconsin , Nebraska , and Kansas as well, and he conducted missionary work throughout the South in Alabama , Arkansas , Mississippi , Louisiana , Georgia , and Florida . Kemper also became the Bishop of Wisconsin, but he is perhaps best honored by his unofficial title, “The Bishop of the Whole Northwest.”

Yes, there was a time in our history when the church was committed to both domestic and foreign missions and encouraged all members to be involved in mission and the support of mission work. Sadly, the Episcopal Church lost its focus on authentic mission as it lost its commitment to the Living God who is the author of mission work that all may come to know, love, and worship the one, true God.

Our unchangeable God has always been a missionary God. He tells Abram in Genesis 12:2-3: “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” God’s purpose has always been to bless all peoples on the earth through His people. We have abundant blessings in Him, starting with His love and saving grace, and He calls and empowers us to reach out as His missionaries and bless others by helping them come to know the God who saves.

Jesus, of course, fills this Old Testament revelation fuller when He gives us His Great Commission to go into all the world and make disciples. Our Anglican Communion Network is committed to this Gospel work. We’re working to build the Common Cause Partnership (CCP) – a biblical, missionary, and united Anglicanism in North America . To this end the CCP has consecrated and sent out new missionary bishops.

Just as men like Bishop Kemper played a significant role in building up the Church as our settlements expanded westward, so our new missionary bishops are working across great geographic distances to spread the Gospel, encourage God’s people to live lives worthy of their calling, and rebuild a vibrant and faithful American Anglicanism.

May we never again be guilty of being only “pew sitters,” expecting our clergy to minister while we simply congregate. Our new DNA is one of a passion for sharing the saving Good News of Jesus with others. We are called to be a Church of disciples who make disciples, and we’re called to serve in churches that make it a priority to plant more churches, all for the love of God.

“And we humbly beseech thee, O heavenly Father, so to assist us with thy grace, that we may continue in that holy fellowship, and do all such good works as thou has prepared for us to walk in; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be all honor and glory, world without end. Amen.”

Your brother in Jesus the Christ,                                                  

Jim McCaslin+