The purpose of blood is to bring oxygen, vitamins, food energy, repair materials, hormones, and much else to provide what is needed for health. In the Christian church this corresponds partly to what has been called mission, though the term mission has been too restricted. In this chapter and the next we shall look at the bloodstream functions illustrated in the New Testament. At the outset it should be clear that this is no distinction between home and foreign, privileged and underprivileged. The bloodstream goes wherever the body is.
Mission is what moves to give life to the church everywhere.
To these we must also add the seminaries and Bible colleges, Christian writers and radio programs, the Bible societies and translators, as well as most of what is usually called missions. All these can be distinguished clearly from local congregations, which have their own responsibility and are in fact the front line of the church. The laymen of these congregations are touching the world at every point. They are the infantry in close contact, and they occupy the ground that is captured. The bloodstream brings them the ammunition and supplies, the materials needed to repair the breaches, and the trained specialists to assist them in their task.