Question:  I had a new thought just now about the Creation, Cultural Mandate.  God gave those instructions, knowing clearly that the Fall was about to occur.  This fact would seem to give tremendous impetuous to that mandate.  It would make salvation an instrument to attain that mandate because it came prior to the Fall which necessitated salvation.  This position would make evangelism secondary, or rather a means to the original end.  Thus, almost all Christians and churches have their priorities wrong.  Evangelism is the means, not the end.  The end is the Creation Mandate, Christ’s dominion through man over the earth.  Jesus is not coming back until that mandate is fulfilled or else He will accept man’s failure to achieve it.  And, the Great Commission becomes the means to the Creation Mandate, not an end in itself!

Answer: Well, yes, as far as you have taken it, which is farther than most Christians take their commission.  Get them saved, and into the church, after which you mobilize these new ones to get others saved and into the church, etc.  Anything else which takes place in the church today is much like caulking between the tiles.  That is, there are times when you have to entertain the evangelization teams, or socialize a bit, but it is regarded as extraneous and a bit of a distraction.  The worship of the church has received somewhat more emphasis recently, but even it succumbs to the evangelical thrust.  As I read Paul, he cautioned that things in the gathering of the church be done decently and in order so that if an unbeliever happened to be present he would be impressed.  Today, we orient the entire worship service toward evangelization, most especially including the sermon.  Pulpits pour forth the milk of salvation and withhold the m eat of sanctification.

The ultimate end of the Great Commission is the glory of God.  He created all things to His glory.  The creation was perfect, but in some sense undeveloped or incomplete.  It was humankind’s job to develop and complete it.  We fell into sin and cannot adequately perform the creation mandate until the salvation and discipling is completed to whatever degree God has decided.