The Great Commission (Jerusalem Declaration 9.1)
Editor’s Note: This is the fifteenth in a series of articles by Dr. Stephen Noll, titled “The Jerusalem Declaration: A Personal Commentary.” Dr. Noll draws on decades of experience in the GAFCON movement, especially his role as Secretary of the Statement group that drafted the Jerusalem Declaration and its accompanying Statement.
If clause 8 on human nature in the image of God is the soul of the Jerusalem Declaration, then I would call clause 9 the spirit of the Declaration, indeed of the Gafcon movement, as stated in the preface of the 2008 Statement: “GAFCON is not just a moment in time, but a movement in the Spirit…”
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Clause 9 reads:
We gladly accept the Great Commission of the risen Lord to make disciples of all nations, to seek those who do not know Christ and to baptise, teach and bring new believers to maturity.
Jerusalem Declaration, Clause 9
How else can one accept Jesus’ call other than gladly, as did the Ethiopian eunuch (see clause 1). At the same time, those so commissioned are enrolled to “fight the good fight of the faith” and to “love not their lives even unto death” (1 Tim 6:12; Rev 12:11).
The Biblical Foundation
Although the term “Great Commission” was first popularized by mission-minded Evangelicals like William Carey, Hudson Taylor, and the Moravians, the doctrine is strongly rooted in Scripture, appearing in all four Gospels (Matt 28:16-20; Mark 16:15-20 [long ending]; Luke 24:44-53; John 20:19-33).
The language of clause 9 most closely follows Matthew’s version:
And Jesus came to [the eleven disciples] and said to them: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matt 28:18-20
Trinitarian language, explicit and implicit, permeates the Commission. The Risen Jesus, soon to be seated at the Father’s right hand, mediates the authority of God over all creation and all peoples. He is Immanuel—God with us—through the Spirit in Word and Sacrament until the consummation of history (Rev 1:18).
John’s Gospel presents the Great Commission in terms of the dynamic work of the triune Persons, with the Father sending the Son who in turn sends the apostles through the Spirit.
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”
John 20:21-23
In Luke’s Gospel, the divine action plays out in human history, with Jesus announcing the promise of the Father foretold in the Hebrew Scriptures, which was to be fulfilled at Pentecost:
“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Luke 24:49; Acts 1:8
Acts and the Epistles provide a paradigm for the outworking of the Great Commission in the apostolic church, carried forward through history, in its various streams and eddies, to the present.
Global Anglicanism as an Historic Stream
Global Anglicanism is one such stream, with many tributaries. In A History of Global Anglicanism, Kevin Ward concludes:
The history of Anglicanism as a global ‘communion’ is not unique. Parallel histories of world Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist and Reformed Christianity can be written. Pentecostalism is equally global, but its history can hardly be written in denominational terms. If the Anglican communion as it has developed worldwide has a particular cohesion, this is derived partly from the political unity of the English nation as expressed through its national church, partly from the extension and persistence of British empire. It is also derived from the importance of a uniform ecclesial structure based on Catholic forms, order and liturgy, and on Reformation principles, but in which a great diversity of faith and practice can flourish.
Kevin Ward, A History of Anglicanism, pg. 17
Ward’s survey confirms my conviction that Global Anglicanism represents an authentic stream of the Great Commission in history and that, through all its vicissitudes, “the LORD of hosts has been with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress (Psalm 46:7).
The Gospel and the Marks of Mission
The “Letter to the Churches” from the third GAFCON Assembly claims that the Church is the goal and fruit of the Gospel:
The gospel of God creates the church of God. Through the invitation of the gospel, God calls all people into fellowship with his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. As the word of the gospel goes forth in the power of the Holy Spirit, they respond through the work of the Holy Spirit to repent, believe and be baptised, and are thereby joined to Christ’s body which is his church (Acts 2:37-44; 1 Corinthians 12:12-13). As members of Christ’s body, they are sanctified in him, called to live lives of holiness and to be salt and light in the world.
Letter to the Churches
The Great Commission authorizes the Church’s mission. Recent Anglican Communion bodies have adopted the following “five marks of mission”:
- To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom
- To teach, baptise and nurture new believers
- To respond to human need by loving service
- To seek to transform unjust structures of society, to challenge violence of every kind and pursue peace and reconciliation
- To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustain and renew the life of the earth
Anglican missiologist Christopher Wright summarizes these marks usefully as “Evangelism,” “Teaching,” “Compassion,” “Justice” and “Creation Care.” The first two marks are derived explicitly from the biblical text; the second three are implications of the Gospel of the kingdom of God but no less important for the fullness of the Church’s mission. It seems to me one can usefully divide these marks between clauses 9 and 10, with the focus of the former two on proclamation and catechesis, and the latter three on stewardship of creation, upholding justice in society, and relief and empowerment of the poor.
The Great Commission Comes to the Episcopal Church
In this personal commentary, I hope to explain how these marks of mission have played out in my experience in North American Anglicanism over the past half-century.
Proclamation (kerygma) is central to the ministry of the Servant of the Lord (Isa 52:7; 61:1), of John the Baptist, of Jesus himself, and of the disciples. Mark’s longer version of the Great Commission specifically speaks of “proclaiming the gospel” (Mark 16:15; cf. 13:10). Verbal proclamation is often accompanied by miracles of healing and exorcism (Luke 9:2; Mark 3:14-15). Peter’s Pentecost sermon is the the programmatic summary of evangelistic preaching, concluding with this exhortation:
“Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Acts 2:38
By the mid-century, the Episcopal Church USA—with notable exceptions—was indifferent, if not hostile, to preaching for conversion or seeking the infilling of the Holy Spirit. The renewal movements of the 1960s and ’70s overflowed into the Episcopal Church with an admixture of charismatics and Evangelicals. This renewal was ecumenical, with an openness to Roman Catholics, mainline Protestants, and Pentecostals, but it retained an Anglican and congregational character, what Charles Hummel described as “fire in the fireplace.” This broad movement was the seedbed of what became the Anglican Church in North America.
As the renewal movement matured, its leaders saw the need for a theological seminary, which led to the establishment of Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry (now Trinity Anglican Seminary) in 1976. At the same time, mission societies independent of the national church appeared: among others, the South American Mission Society (SAMS USA is now sending missionaries globally), Episcopal World Mission (now Global Teams), the Church’s Ministry among Jewish People (CMJ-USA), Sharing Our Mission Abroad (SOMA USA), and Anglican Frontier Missions (to unreached people groups).
Mission Unites Global Anglicans
Particularly significant was the vision of missionaries Walter and Louise Hannum in consolidating the work of these societies, many of which moved their offices near Trinity Seminary in the early ’90s. In 1994, the Hannums convened the first New Wineskins mission conference. New Wineskins has met triennially since then; the latest conference in 2025 drew more than 1500 attendees from more than sixty countries. The New Wineskins Missionary Network now lists nearly thirty mission partners with nearly one hundred long-term missionaries, and hundreds of relief and development projects worldwide.
Providentially, the rise in mission consciousness among North American Anglicans coincided with theological crisis over sexuality. In 1997, I presented “A Plea to the Anglican Communion” at the Anglican Life and Witness Conference in Dallas, which brought together 45 bishops and four archbishops, equally from North America and the Global South. Anglican cooperation continued at the 1998 Lambeth Conference, and we in the West began to learn of the amazing stories of evangelism among Anglicans in Nigeria and East Africa, and in Southeast Asia and South America (See my supplemental interview with a Ugandan evangelist).
From Proclamation to Teaching
From my observation, many North American Anglicans are hesitant today to engage in primary evangelism from the pulpit or through programs like Evangelism Explosion. This reluctance may stem from what Aaron Renn has called “life in the negative world” of post-Christian culture in the West. The ACNA’s principal evangelistic thrust has been church planting, which has led to steady, if undramatic, growth in churches and members.
This brings us to the second mark of mission: teaching, baptizing, and nurturing believers. Immediately following Peter’s sermon, the converts came together: “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). While Paul was a great evangelist and church planter, he continued to instruct his converts through coworkers, by letter and occasional visits, with this programmatic rationale: “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving” (Col 2:6-7).
Catechesis
Catechesis, often extending for months or years, became an important tool of the early church in preparing converts for baptism. In Reformation churches, catechisms prepared children for adult profession of faith. In recent years, as the contemporary church has encountered the Scylla and Charybdis of “moral therapeutic deism” and the “prosperity gospel,” Christian teachers like Dallas Willard (The Great Omission) have been challenging believers to adopt a discipleship of the soul and the mind along with spiritual disciplines of silence, solitude, and Bible memorization. North American Anglicans have produced a contemporary catechism (To Be a Christian) and recently received a grant to build an “Anglican Formation Network.” Anglican Compass has published an online “Rookie Anglican Guide” to introduce new Anglicans (and others) to the Prayer Book’s rich features and Anglican history.
Evangelizing and Discipling Believers in Africa
The spread of the Gospel in Africa has sometimes been characterized as “a mile wide and an inch deep.” To be sure, in Uganda many Anglicans combine Christianity with tribal culture or attend “miracle” churches and show up only when the bishop comes. On the other hand, Anglican catechists and evangelists have been active since colonial days, and the East African Revival encouraged Bible reading and “walking in the light” as part of its mission. Recognizing the need to reach the rising professional class, Uganda Christian University introduced a “foundations” series, required of students in all courses of study. To date, more than 25,000 students have taken courses in Old and New Testaments, “Forming a Christian Worldview,” and “Ethics from a Christian Perspective.” These courses complement the week-long university missions each semester, which call students to commit or recommit their lives to Christ.
In the commentary on clause 10, I shall consider how the “manner of life” of the church and its members is an essential fulfillment of the mission mandate.
Sources
- Alex Fogleman, Making Disciples: Catechesis in History, Theology and Practice (Eerdmans, 2025)
- Charles Hummel, Fire in the Fireplace: Charismatic Renewal in the Nineties (IVP, 1994).
- Stephen Noll, The Handwriting on the Wall: A Plea to the Anglican Communion (Latimer Press, 1998).
- Aaron Renn, Life in the Negative World: Confronting Challenges in an Anti-Christian Culture (Zondervan, 2024).
- Kevin Ward, A History of Global Anglicanism (Cambridge UP, 2006).
- Dallas Willard, The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’s Essential Teachings on Discipleship (Harper, 2006).
- Christopher Wright, The Great Story and the Great Commission: Participating in the Biblical Drama of Mission (Baker, 2023).
Image: Photo from GAFCON 2008 by the Rev. Peter Frank. Used with permission. Digitally edited by Jacob Davis.
The Standard of Prayer Book Worship (Jerusalem Declaration 6)
We rejoice in our Anglican sacramental and liturgical heritage as an expression of the gospel, and we uphold the 1662 Book of Common Prayer as a true and authoritative standard of worship and prayer, to be translated and locally adapted for each culture.
Discipleship: Submission to Christ the Lord (Jerusalem Declaration 5)
The phrase “we gladly proclaim and submit” is the retrospective boast of a person—and a church—that has come to know and follow Jesus as the Holy One of God.
