by Dave Rudolph, Managing Director, Biblical Ministries Worldwide South Africa
Living Out God’s Purpose Together
1 Peter 4:10–11
Missions is at the very heart of why the church exists. When we hear the word missions, most of us instinctively think of the Great Commission in Matthew 28, where Jesus commands His followers to go and make disciples of all nations. In that sense, missions often evokes images of believers leaving home and country, crossing cultures, learning new languages, and taking the gospel to faraway places. And rightly so. This mandate—to take the good news of Jesus to the nations—has been entrusted to the church in this age.
However, I want to broaden the conversation a little. While missions remains central, this article focuses on the larger concept of mission. Scripture makes it clear that God’s mission is not reserved for a select few but entrusted to every believer.
Now, if you’re thinking, Isn’t mission just another word for missions?—you’re not alone. The distinction isn’t always obvious, and to complicate matters further, there’s another word that has gained popularity over the last few decades: missional.
So let’s bring some clarity.
Author and missiologist Ed Stetzer offers these helpful definitions:
- Mission is the reason the church exists—joining Jesus on God’s mission.
- Missions is the pursuit of taking God’s mission to the nations.
- Missional describes living daily with a sense of purpose shaped by God’s mission.
We’ll return later to missions in its narrower sense—taking the gospel to the nations. But first, we need to grasp a foundational truth: every Christian is called to live on mission.
Sent, Just as Jesus Was Sent
Jesus makes this unmistakably clear in John 20:21:
“Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”
Jesus Himself was sent by the Father—sent to take on human flesh, to live in perfect obedience, and to die on the cross for the sins of humanity. Having completed that mission, He turns to His followers and says, in effect, “Now you go.”
This is not a selective calling. This is not for pastors, missionaries, or particularly gifted believers only. This is the calling of every Christian: to follow Jesus and serve alongside Him in the mission of God.
Hope-Filled Faith Under Pressure
This calling becomes even more striking when we consider the context of 1 Peter. Peter wrote to believers who were scattered, marginalized, and persecuted. He knew suffering firsthand—beatings, imprisonment, threats, rejection—yet his letter is filled not with despair, but with hope.
Again and again, Peter points suffering believers to Jesus, urging them to remain steadfast, holy, loving, and hopeful. Living hope, he insists, is found in Christ alone. As we reach chapter 4, Peter emphasizes the urgency of faithful living in light of Christ’s return. He calls believers to self-control, prayer, earnest love, and hospitality. Then, he turns to something profoundly practical and deeply spiritual: the use of spiritual gifts.
“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace” (1 Peter 4:10).
Here, Peter issues a call for everyone to stay engaged in God’s mission. This is Isaiah’s “Here I am, send me” lived out in everyday church life.
A Concerning Reality
And yet, when we look at many Bible-believing churches today, a troubling pattern emerges. A significant number of Christians are not actively using their God-given gifts to serve others. If that is even partially true, then something is deeply wrong.
Researchers like Ed Stetzer and Thom Rainer, in their book Transformational Church, concluded that a majority of people in most evangelical churches in North America are unengaged in meaningful ministry and mission. Their sobering summary? Most people show up for the show, but not for the serve.
Even allowing for the limitations of statistics, the trend is concerning. Too many believers settle for a spectator role instead of active participation. The question is not whether this is a problem—but what we are going to do about it.
Peter gives us clarity through two vital truths.
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Every Christian Has Been Given Spiritual Gifts to Serve Others
Peter begins with a simple truth: each believer has received a gift. Ministry is not optional, and it is not limited to a few.
Interestingly, the word “gift” is singular in 1 Peter 4:10. Most commentators conclude this points first to the gift of the Holy Spirit Himself, who is given to every believer at salvation. When you were born again, God’s Spirit took up residence in you—sealing, regenerating, sanctifying, empowering, and guiding you.
What a treasure that is.
But you were not only gifted with the Spirit—you were gifted by the Spirit. Through what Peter calls God’s “varied” or “manifold” grace, and the gifts the Spirit distributes, enable believers to serve on mission in the church to glorify Him. Grace, then, is not only God’s unmerited favor in salvation; it is also His active power at work in believers for ministry. His grace-endowment to us, for others.
Peter uses two specific words to describe how this grace is expressed— gift (charisma) and grace (charitos). The two words come from the same root in the original Greek—charis, which has the meaning of “being favorable towards, or leaning towards.” This paints a picture of believers as table-waiters, serving up the grace of God to others, and then as stewards—house managers responsible for the well-being of the household.
Your ministry, then, is both given and sustained by God. You are entrusted with grace, not to store it away, but to distribute it faithfully for the good of others and the glory of God.
Paul reinforces this in 1 Corinthians 12:
“To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”
Every believer is included. Every believer matters. And every believer has something vital to contribute.
From Consumers to Co-Laborers
One of the great dangers facing the modern church is a consumer mindset. Churches can begin to function like service providers, while Christians behave like customers—shopping for the best experience, comfort, or convenience.
But God has not called us to build a room full of customers. He has called us to gather co-labourers—brothers and sisters who serve one another with humility and joy.
The church is not a vendor of religious goods; it is a family of gifted believers stewarding God’s grace together. You were never designed to stand by as an observer or to step out of the way! His plan is for you to stand in the gap and be actively engaged in everything He is doing within His body, the church.
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Every Christian Has Opportunities to Use Their Gifts In and Beyond the Church
Peter continues:
“Whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 4:11).
Here, Peter groups spiritual gifts into two broad categories: speaking and serving. Whether you teach, encourage, exhort, lead, show mercy, give generously, or serve practically, the source of power is the same—God Himself.
When you speak, you are called to speak God’s truth, not merely your own thoughts and opinions. When you serve, you do so in God’s strength, not your own. The result? God receives the glory.
This is the beautiful mystery of the Christian life. We work hard, yet it is God’s grace at work within us. Paul captured this tension perfectly when he wrote:
“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.” (1 Corinthians 15:10). And again in Colossians 1:28–29: “Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.”
The Christian life is supernatural. Nothing done in the flesh has eternal value. But when believers live surrendered lives, walking in the Spirit and exercising their gifts faithfully, God’s grace abounds, and He gets the glory.
Everyone on Mission
If you belong to Christ, you are called to ministry. Pastors are not the only ones called; they are called to equip others for the work of ministry (Ephesians 4:12).
Some believers serve energetically and faithfully—and they are a tremendous encouragement. Others are still discovering how God has gifted them. If that’s you, take heart. It’s not too late. Ask God to show you where and how you can serve, and then just begin serving! Talk with mature believers. Step forward in faith.
And if you are already serving, look around. Help someone else find their place. Stir one another up to love and good works, as Hebrews 10 reminds us.
From Local Mission to Global Missions
Here’s the connection we must not miss: missions flows out of mission.
God raises missionaries from churches where believers are already living on mission—faithfully serving, loving, and stewarding grace together. This is the prerequisite to missions. If we do not love God’s people locally, how will we love lost souls globally?
This conviction has shaped our growing burden for missions across Africa. One country in particular weighs heavily on our hearts: Madagascar.
Madagascar, the island nation off Africa’s southeastern coast, is home to 33 million people. Only about 6% are evangelical Christians. Many follow ethnic religions steeped in ancestor worship; others practice Islam. The country faces political instability, deep poverty, and limited access to basic resources like water and electricity. The nation is in a critical predicament, which is not unusual for countries on our continent. Yet for the Malagasy people, this has been a devastating sequence of events. There is much at stake for this nation, and they need your prayers.
Would you also pray for God to raise up a church-planting team of South African missionaries to develop a strategy of reaching this beautiful country with the Gospel? Madagascar is not far from us. It is reachable for Christ, and the people are desperately in need of the gospel.
Our prayer is that God would raise up Bible-believing missionaries—men and women already living on mission in their local churches—to go, plant churches, and proclaim Christ.
Perhaps God is already stirring your heart.
A Final Encouragement
Peter’s call is simple, but it is not small: everyone on mission. As believers serve one another with God’s grace, God is glorified. And from such churches, God sends workers into the harvest.
“To Him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
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