The Great Commission - Whose responsibility?

Matthew 28:19-20 - Then Jesus came to them and said, “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.”

Recently I came across comments that the Great Commission is only for a selected few, the ones with the gift of Evangelism. Others proclaim that we should not go out to the ends of the world without reaching our Jerusalem first. Evangelism your Jerusalem first, once that is done, then go out to the ends of the world.  These use Acts 1:8 to substantiate they claim as though that verse sets out a formula. Yet there are those who say, its only for those with a missionary calling.

I find no scriptural backing for the above claims. My reading of the scriptures tells me that the Great Commission is the responsibility of every believer, not just a selected few and you don't have to sit till your Jerusalem has been evangelised. If that has been the case, missionaries like Hudson Taylor, William Carey and David Livingston will never have set foot out of their own countries. Much of India, China and Africa may still be called the "dark continent". 

I am also of the opinion that reaching Jerusalem, and I by Jerusalem I mean your own country, and fulfilling the Great Commission are two sides of the same coin. We should not do one at the expand of the two. In fact both should be done concurrently. 

I am of the opinion that fulfilling the Great commission should be the number one priority of the church. Today we spent so much money on worship, fellowship, administration and other arms of ministry. Evangelism usually appears at the lower rung of the budget, and that do will a smaller portion. But we all know that evangelism is the only thing we will not do in heaven and don't you think it should occupy the number one ministry in the church?



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