See the latest post at the ABTS blog: A Movemental Turn in Missions: Thoughts on New Eras and New Wineskins.
We are in a new era of missions and we cannot expect to deal with 21st century complexities using 19th century exemplars. The four most prominent shifts in this new era include:
Read the whole thing.
Here is the latest discussion on global statistics from Justin Long in his post COUNTING MISSIONARIES published on June 3, 2020:
Globally: 425,000 missionaries (Anglican, Independent, Orthodox, Protestant and Roman Catholic)
Total in World A countries: 11,940 (3%) [World A: <50% evangelized)]
Total in World B countries: 87,000 (20%) [World B: >=50% evangelized, <60% Christian]
Total in World C countries: 326,060 (77%) [World C: >=60% Christian, of any tradition]
From the summary:
2,000 years after Christ, somewhere around 3% or less of all missionary workers are deployed amongst those who have very little chance to hear (a factor in why they have little chance to hear), while three-quarters of missionaries work in places that are over-saturated Christian countries (albeit perhaps of a different tradition than the missionaries in question). While I do not doubt that places like Germany and England and France likely need evangelistic effort, this “out of balance” situation seems to me to continue to be one in need of reformation.
Read the whole thing.
As someone who is involved in missions leadership, I understand the challenges facing evangelical sending agencies today in communicating vision, purpose, branding, and management. We all want to be unique, relevant, and Biblical.
I also understand that there are certain trends that rise and fall in the missions scene. Church planting was all the rage a few years ago. And now it’s movements. Other trends include the rise of the term ‘transformation’ and the emphasis off the church and onto the kingdom. This is related with holistic or integrated mission and on caring for the poor. Other long-lasting trends include the unreached or least-reached, and the use of metrics to evaluate our effectiveness. Of course every trend and emphasis has a way of highlighting only part of the nature of Biblical mission.
But is there a way for sending agencies to tie all of this together in a way that is not reductionistic?
Maybe. How about “discipleship?”
I’m interested all the talk these days on disciple-making movements. It might just be trend as well, but somehow I think that, as a necessary sound bite used in communication, it comes closer to recapturing the essence of what we’re doing across ALL contexts, more than church planting or integrated development or peace-making or proclamation or compassionate evangelism.
I want to commend Melanie McNeil’s Mission Paradigms: Is Discipleship Important? to you. It’s not an eloquent article (she’s a better writer than I am!), and I don’t agree with everything the says, but she makes a case of discipleship to be a key metaphor to reclaim Biblical mission in our world today (of course, discipleship has to be properly defined!). From the conclusion:
We have explored the way the task of mission is described today by modern mission agencies, and I have argued that the reductionism of modern missions has resulted in a narrow definition of God’s commission. I have shown that the definitions of the task being used today fail to embrace the whole of God’s vision for the world he created. Whole life discipleship, the radical journey into relationship, and maturity of relationship with God is the core of God making his name known in the nations. God invites us to participate with His mission, and this will require a radical shift in the mission paradigms of today.
I have sought to demonstrate that such a shift opens up paths of radical transformation that impact both lives and communities, but it will come at a cost. The question is whether we in missions, and the Church, are prepared to count the cost and move into new things together with God, and with each other.
The review of methods and vision and mission statements here is not a judgment on any individual agency or strategy. It is a call for all of us who are disciples of Jesus Christ to embrace whole life discipleship and the radical rule of God in our lives and organisations.
Related Post: The Purpose (Vision) and Task (Mission) of Missions
The below is a gospel presentation that attempts to paint a big picture of the work of Jesus, primarily for a Muslim audience. It was developed by a friend of mine, Christopher Johnson. Feel free to discuss its strengths and weaknesses in the comments below.
Victorious Jesus, by Christopher Johnson
Why I Came up With This
My friend and I went to coffee with a couple Muslim-background college students in order to share the gospel. We successfully steered the conversation to spiritual things and were able to share a little of our testimony and then went on to share the good news of Jesus Christ’s forgiveness for our sins and the gift of eternal life. When we got to the end, we looked at our friends hoping for some kind of response and one of the guys said with deep interest, “So are cars really cheaper in America?” This was our first indication that they didn’t care at all about what we’d said to them.
I shared the gift of forgiveness of sins and eternal life with a lot of people, but in my experience, people were uninterested in what I had to say. They didn’t understand why what I was saying was relevant to their lives, and they had their own theoretical theological systems that had other answers for the problems of our sins and the afterlife.
My friend and I shared about how nobody in our city seemed interested in the gospel with a man who was visiting us to do some consulting on church planting. He said, “Well, maybe you’re sharing the wrong gospel.” This was a man who is firmly committed to the Word of God and to Jesus, so I knew he wasn’t saying that we should make up something unbiblical just to give people what they want to hear, but in his statement I understood that we were not describing Jesus in a way that people would feel compelled to come into relationship with Him.
Jesus said the kingdom is like a merchant looking for pearls (Matt 13:45). When the man found a pearl of value, he sold everything he had and bought it. If we don’t show people the value of Jesus in a way they can understand, they will never be willing to give up all that people have to give up in order to follow Him. After reflecting on this truth, I realized that I would need to go on a journey to understand how to communicate Jesus to people so that they could know his ultimate and supreme value.
A Doorway into Greater Revelation
As I reflected on what the gospel is and how people come to know Jesus, I realized that nobody gets the fullness of the Gospel the first time.
For example, we know that it is important at some point to understand the image of Christ as the bridegroom and the church as his bride. But rarely do we share the importance of this image with people who do not yet know Jesus. It is something that is later revealed as we grow deeper in our relationship with God.
I see Gospel-sharing as a room with Jesus standing in the center. There are many doors to enter the room, and there is an old-fashioned knocker in the shape of a cross on every door. But every door has different designs and different colors and is more or less interesting to people from different cultures and backgrounds.
Thus, the cross is the center of all conversion. You cannot get to Jesus without understanding what he did for you on the cross, repenting of your sins, and believing and trusting in Him. But Jesus accomplished many things at the cross. He died to bring us into deeper relationship with God, to forgive us for our sins, to set us free from addictions, to bring us emotional and physical healing, to set us free from the devil, to deliver us from an eternity in hell, to restore our relationships with our neighbors, to restore the glory of God on earth, to identify with and show his victory over injustice, and to demonstrate love to a world that had never experienced such deep, sacrificial love.
Every presenter of the Gospel chooses a few of these benefits of the cross and emphasizes them as the Gospel is presented. Ultimately, we want people to understand all these things. But when people first hear about Jesus, they always hear only a portion of all that he did.
So I began to explore the heartfelt needs of people who are in more non-Western cultures. I started asking questions like, “What drives them? What is important to them? What are they seeking?” Because I believe Jesus is the answer to every problem, I began to use answers to those questions to shape the way I would help them understand Jesus.
Today, Not Tomorrow
There is a saying in the culture where I lived that Muslims pays for their sins after death, and a person of that local people group pays for her sins during this life. This statement sets forth a fundamental conflict that most of Islam has with animistic types of cultures: Islam offers a solution for your afterlife but has little power to affect the life you are living today.
Most people in animistic cultures are just surviving. They are trying to pull enough money together to pay for their food and necessities, and they are consumed with the basic problems of life such as the health of their children and the ability to keep their families safe from evil spirits. These are not future problems. They are today problems. And typical people aren’t thinking about eternal consequences. They’re thinking about current issues in their lives.
When a Westerner comes in and tries to communicate the Gospel, we typically emphasize the future. “Do you know what would happen to you if you died today?” Then we spend the next 30 minutes trying to convince them why this question is important and why they have a problem.
The problem of what happens to us after we die is a legitimate problem and it must be presented as a part of what Jesus has to offer us. But if it’s the only thing we present to people, we miss out on all the other kingdom benefits that Jesus wants to present to people, and we also present a gospel that doesn’t meet the real-life needs of people that we encounter.
As I began to think about this problem about the future nature of most methods of gospel-sharing, I realized that I wanted to develop a model that would emphasize the presence of the Kingdom while continuing to demonstrate how important it is that Jesus offers us a free invitation into eternity with the Father.
Christ the Victor—A Model for Sharing the Gospel
Many people have heard of Christ the Victor as a model for gospel sharing. It’s the idea that Jesus is victorious over sin, the devil, and death, and that he paved the way for us to be freed from sin, the devil, and death through his death and resurrection. I had heard that this form of the Gospel was effective with people from animistic backgrounds.
But why use a model in the first place? I decided to create a model for sharing the Gospel based on Christ the Victor for several reasons. Initially, I created it for myself. I wanted an easy way to share with people that I could use over and over again so that I wouldn’t leave out something important. I made it visual because I had seen the power of tools such as the bridge diagram and the pictures that are found in four spiritual law tracts.
I also wanted a model to help train my disciples. As a foreign worker whose longevity in the field is subject to many unforeseen variables, I want to be certain that locals are effectively able to share the Gospel. If I can’t train others to evangelize, then my work is only as effective as how much time I have. If I can train others to share the Gospel with their friends and family simply and in a way that is relevant to them, then I can move away from simple addition and move into the realms of multiplication and movements.
A Note About Power
If we’re going to proclaim that Jesus has power over sin, the devil, and death, then we must walk in that power ourselves. Theoretically, every believer has this kind of power. But the reality is that some people do not understand its importance in Gospel-sharing and so rarely ask God to do things that are outside of what they could accomplish without His help. The purpose of this manual isn’t to talk about power and authority in the Spirit, but I would encourage you to pick up this method of sharing the Gospel with a deep hunger to see God demonstrate His power through you.
God gave me this model for sharing the Gospel when I was thirsty and hungry for breakthrough, and I have shared it often in the context of praying for others. Paul said, “And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God” (1 Cor 2:4-5 NASB). May the same be true of our ministry as we strive to clearly communicate the word of God accompanied by confirming signs and wonders.
One of the main reasons I came up with this method is that I wanted a way to explain to people what Jesus could do for them so that they weren’t just interested in the power that God would minister through me. Oftentimes, before I am about to pray for somebody I will say, “I would love to pray for you for healing. But before I do, would you mind if I showed you something? I want to share something with you that is much more important than anything that I could ever pray for you. I would like to show you why I think the world is so messed up and how these problems came about in the first place.”
Most people say yes, as they are at least willing to sit through what I have to say so that they can receive the prayer. Everybody wants prayer, but not everybody initially wants to hear the gospel. But many people, after hearing the gospel, want all of what Jesus has to offer and not just the healing.
God Is the King of the Universe
God is the King of the entire universe (Psalm 47:7). When He originally created the earth, He created people to represent Him here and to rule over the earth. He blessed Adam and Eve and he commanded them to subdue the earth and rule over it (Genesis 1:28). The destiny of every human being originally was to live a life of authority and to be in a perfect love relationship with God.
Originally, people were supposed to walk in authority over the devil. The devil was here on the earth when they were created, but God’s intention was for Adam and Eve to subdue him as they were to subdue the whole earth. Write the word “Devil” in the top box.
There also was no sin here in the earth. People were created never to sin. They weren’t supposed to struggle with sin or constantly do bad things. They were supposed to have power over sin. Write the word “Sin” in the middle box.
Finally, God’s original intention was for there to be no sickness or death. Adam and Eve didn’t know what sickness was, and they weren’t supposed to die. Write the word “Death” in the bottom box.
All the problems we see in the world that are caused by the devil, by sin, and by disease and death were never supposed to exist.
The Covenant
But the devil tempted Adam and Eve, and they sinned, and all of a sudden everything changed (Genesis 3). Flip the page.
Whereas before they lived in power over the devil, now the devil had power over them. Write the word “Devil” in the bottom box. It says in the Bible that the whole world lies in the power of the devil (1 John 5:19). The devil now rules here in this earth. (Eph 2:2) We see the results of this everywhere. For example, many people experience the results of curses. Other people hear voices in the night. Still others have unexplained fear or panic attacks and encounters with demons. Apart from these more supernatural occurrences, most people give in regularly to the temptations that the devil brings. This is because the devil has ownership over that person. Every person has given into him and thus made a covenant with him so that he has the right to cause all kinds of problems in that person’s life.
It is possible to tell specific stories here of people that you know who have been bothered by the devil or curses
But it’s more than that. Adam and Eve, when they gave into sin, also gave the right for sin to come and reign in the world (Romans 5:12)). Write the word “Sin” in the middle box. Sin isn’t just a decision of whether to do good or bad. It’s something that owns you, like a master and a slave (Romans 6:16). Even if people want to change, everyone has a hard time doing what is right. And so we see the results of sin everywhere in our world, whether it’s alcohol or drug addiction, adultery, greed, or selfishness. What makes things worse is that the Bible talks about sins not just being external but internal. Even people who appear to be good people on the outside are often consumed by lust or anger or hatred and jealousy towards others. Many people desire a way out of these patterns of behavior and thinking, but sin has been allowed to have power over people in this world. They are hopelessly enslaved.
It’s helpful to use sins that are relevant in whatever culture where you are located. Also, notice here that I talk about sin’s current impact on our life without trying to argue that you were a sinner from birth. At some point they need to know that their sinfulness started before they ever had the power to make a decision, but it is challenging to convince people of what is really more of a theoretical concept. It’s easier to convince people that sin reigns in their lives today.
The result of the devil and sin’s entry into the world is that sickness and death also came too. Write the word “Death” in the top box. In the Bible, it says that the result of our sin is death (Romans 6:23, Romans 5:12). This manifests itself in all kinds of diseases and physical death. But it also has an eternal component. Death reigns eternally over all who have fallen victim to the sin and devil, and they are made to live eternally separated from God and subject to death in a place called hell.
People do all kinds of things to try to solve this problem. To overcome the devil, they go to witch doctors or tarot card readers in order to get free of curses or to help people who are bothered by demons. But this generally doesn’t help and often makes the problem worse. People do all kinds of rituals in order to protect themselves from evil spirits, but most of the time people end up living in fear and not seeing any victory. People also do all kinds of things to change themselves and try to be better people, but even if they can come to a place where it appears that they are a good person, they can’t deal with the sins that they have on the inside.
Emphasize specific rituals or things that people do in your culture in order to try and be free from the devil
The power of the devil, sin, and death in people’s lives is like a heavy weight that people carry around and they are unable to do anything to become free. This heavy burden keeps people from having a good relationship with God and with other people.
Jesus
God loves us like a parent loves his children, except he loves us much, much more than a parent could ever love a child here on earth. Good parents, when they see their children struggling, will do everything that is in their power to help them overcome the situation. God sees this problem that we brought upon ourselves, and he didn’t leave us without a solution. He loved us enough to send Jesus (John 3:16). Flip the page.
When Jesus came to earth, he had complete victory over the devil, sin, and death. Write “Devil” in the left box. Any time somebody came to Jesus who was possessed by a demon, he would cast the demon out with a simple command. One time Jesus approached a boy who was living in a graveyard who had gone completely insane due to the presence of a demon. Nobody was able to help this boy, but Jesus cast out the demon and after that, he was found completely in his right mind (Mark 5:1-17). When the devil came to tempt Jesus, unlike any person before or after him, he resisted the devil and did not give into his temptations (Mattew 4:1-11).
Jesus also had complete authority over sin. Write the word “Sin” in the middle box. He never sinned and lived a completely holy and clean life (Hebrews 4:15).
Jesus walked in complete authority over death and disease. Write the word “Death” in the right box. He healed people with all kinds of diseases (Matthew 4:23). He even raised three people from the dead (Luke 7:11-15, 8:49-55, 24:5,6).
You can choose a healing story from Jesus’ life here in order to emphasize his power to heal.
Jesus demonstrated to us that he has authority over the devil, sin, and death. Flip the page.
Death and Resurrection
When Jesus died on the cross, he took upon himself all the consequences of our sin and our covenant with the devil.
The devil had the right to curse us because of the covenant we made with him. But when Jesus died, he took that curse upon himself so that the devil’s power was destroyed (Gal 3:13, Col 2:15, Hebrews 2:14-15). Write the word “Devil” in the bottom box.
Jesus also took our sin upon himself when he died upon the cross, thereby breaking sin’s power in the world (1 Peter 2:24). Write the word “Sin” in the middle box.
Most importantly, he took our death upon himself. He died for us (Romans 5:8). Write the word “Death” in the top box.
When he rose from the dead, he showed that even the power of the devil, sin, and death could not hold him down. Flip the page. He rose in victory and now is in heaven where he reigns over our enemies: the devil, sin and death. Write the word “Devil” in the top box, “Sin” in the middle box, and “Death” in the bottom box.
Two Steps
Jesus changed things in the world so that we could live differently and have a right relationship with God. Any person who does two things can live a different life.
1. Repent – Every person has to make a decision to turn away from the devil and from sin, to break the power of the curse and the covenant that was made with the devil. You must ask forgiveness for your sins and for all the ways that you have given yourself to sin (Mark 1:15).
2. Believe – Believe in Jesus and what he did for you on the cross. Accept the gift of his death for you and what he accomplished for you there. Trust in Jesus and obey His commands for Your life (Romans 10:9).
If you repent and believe in Jesus, you are restored to that place of authority over the devil, sin and death, and you are restored back into relationship with God. Flip the page.
Restoration
The first thing we receive is authority over the devil. Write the word “Authority” in the top box. Jesus promised that if we pray in His name, that we will see victory over the devil (Mark 16:17). I have experienced many battles with the devil, but time and time again, through Jesus, I have seen victory over the devil. I have prayed for many people who have suffered from problems with the devil, and by praying in Jesus’ name, I have seen people set free from many kinds of problems.
It’s important here to share testimonies of times when you or someone you know has overcome the devil.
Jesus also provides us with forgiveness for our sins. Write the word “Forgiveness” in the middle box. The worst feeling is to feel shame before God, to feel that we can’t look up at Him when we pray to Him. Because Jesus died for all our sins, when we confess our sins to Him, we experience a type of cleansing that takes away the shame that we were feeling before (1 John 1:7-10). We can worship God without feeling guilty because we know we stand completely cleansed before Him.
Jesus also gives us freedom from our sins. Write the word “Freedom” in the middle box. Because he broke sin’s power, we have the ability now to make decisions that are honoring to Him (Romans 6:6-7). It doesn’t mean that we will never sin again, but it means that we are no longer victims to whatever sin wants to do in our lives. I have many times prayed to be set free from a sin and seen Jesus bring deliverance.
It’s important to have stories of times when Jesus has given you freedom from a feeling of guilt or from a specific sin.
Because Jesus broke the power of death, he can release life into us, which includes healing in our emotions and in our physical bodies (Mark 16:17, James 5:14-15). Write the word “Healing” in the bottom box. I have experienced many times where Jesus has healed me specifically of something and has even healed others through me.
Tell stories of being healed emotionally or physically or seeing somebody else healed.
The most important thing Jesus does is to give us eternal life (Romans 6:23). Write the words “Eternal Life” in the bottom box. Because he has the power over life and death, when we believe in what He did for us, we receive eternal life in heaven with God. When we die, we know we will be in heaven with God.
Pray with Me
There is a simple prayer that anyone can pray. If they pray this prayer with a sincere heart, God honors that and He gives them all these things: authority, forgiveness, freedom, and eternal life. God comes and breaks the root of the problem, so we can begin to live differently. It doesn’t mean a perfect life with no battles, but we begin a process of living like we were intended to live. The prayer goes like this:
“God, forgive me for my sins. I know that I have turned away from You and haven’t followed you and have allowed the devil to rule in my life. I place my faith in Jesus, I receive what he did for me on the cross, that he broke the power of the devil, sin, and death for me. I receive your love and forgiveness and blessing in my life. I receive the authority that you give me now over the devil, sin, and death. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”
Everyone I pray this prayer with who prays with a genuine heart feels a sense of relief—a lightness—because they go from a place of being burdened by the weight of all these things into a place of victorious living.
Would you like to pray this prayer with me and receive forgiveness for your sins and authority over the devil and eternal life?
Put this on your list of must-reads: A Wind in the House of Islam, by David Garrison. (http://windinthehouse.org/) Here is some text from the press release:
For the past three years, Dr. David Garrison, PhD University of Chicago, has been traveling throughout the Muslim world exploring the recent turning of Muslims to faith in Jesus Christ. What he discovered is the largest turning of Muslims to Christ in history.
A 25‐year veteran of ministry to Muslims, David Garrison ventured into every corner of the Muslim world gathering more than a thousand interviews from Muslim‐background followers of Jesus Christ to hear in their own words the answer to his fundamental question: What did God use to bring you to faith in Jesus Christ? Tell me your story. The result is an unprecedented insight into God's work in the Muslim world.
A Wind in the House of Islam provides us with a historic look at how God is drawing more Muslims to Christ today than at any time in the 14‐century interchange between Christianity and Islam.
Kindle edition to be released later this spring, unfortunately.
Here is a review from Marti Wade:
In more than 14 centuries of Muslim-Christian relations, tens of millions of Christians have been assimilated into the Muslim religion. During this same time period, we can document only 82 Muslim movements to Christ.
What’s most remarkable about this, says researcher and strategist David Garrison, is that 69 of history’s 82 movements have occurred in the past two decades alone. “We are living in the midst of the greatest turning of Muslims to Christ in history.”
To better understand and respond to this phenomenon, Garrison and his collaborators traveled to each corner of the Muslim world (which Garrison calls the nine rooms in the house of Islam) and conducted interviews with more than 1,000 former Muslims who have come to faith in Jesus within 45 of these movements. Garrison’s definition of a movement is a fairly modest one: at least 1,000 baptisms or 100 church starts among a Muslim people over a two-decade period.
The book includes a strong emphasis on context. It includes an extensive introduction and explanation of research methods and a historic survey of Christian outreach and Muslim response to the gospel both globally and in each of nine world regions. Details of each region’s history, peoples, religion, and political dynamics provide a backdrop for the stories of the Muslim-background believers who emerged from such contexts.
The book concludes with a tentative but insightful list of ten “bridges of God” (ways God is working among Muslims today) and five barriers to seeing movements like these flourish, along with five practical steps we can take right now that will align us with God’s redemptive activity among Muslims.
I finished this book somewhat disappointed, primarily because though the history was helpful, I was left wanting more: more quotes and contemporary stories, analysis of what God is using to reach Muslims today, and suggestions for the response of the global church. If the movements Garrison describes continue to grow and multiply, however, this will certainly not be the last we hear of them.
This was a huge project, and Garrison is just getting started. I’m told there are two more phases to reporting on the 1,000 interviews. The first might be a “In Their Own Words” which includes more of the actual interviews. And a second project would be a deeper missiological reflection. In any case, this is one of the largest missiological projects on mission in the Muslim world ever undertaken, and I’m sure it’ll be talked about for years to come.
Middle East Experience is dedicated to providing an open-source forum for all the varied voices from today’s Middle East. Whether the voice is Sunni Muslim or Shia Muslim, Christian or Jewish, religious or non-religious, all these distinct voices can be found in one place. From war, oil, economics, the environment, to religious extremism; what happens in the Middle East today affects everyone.The contributing editors read like a who's who among prominent voices "in the know" on a wide range of issues in the contemporary Middle East. Continuously updated with numerous videos, book reviews, blogs, and articles, it is a one-stop source for those of you who want an unbiased and open discussion about the region and its many fascinating peoples and places.
Very interesting post: click here to read the various answers. It’s very similar to ask what is the gospel or what is mission. As you read, notice three issues:
How would you answer the question? Sound off in the comments below.
Related Posts:
What is the purpose and task of missions? Perhaps no question is more important for those seeking to bless Muslims (or anybody!) in Jesus’ name. Answering this question would serve as a guide for almost everything we think and do.
Here are a couple quotes from Encountering Theology of Mission that are well worth chewing on. Here they define purpose of mission (formatting mine):
Doxology is the highest purpose of mission: God is drawing people from every nation to himself who declare his glory and become his worshippers. This worship will endure for all eternity.
Redemption is the foundation of mission in that God himself has reached out in grace to fallen humans by the sending of his Son, Jesus Christ. The work of redemption through his death and resurrection was at the heart of Christ's coming to earth. He thereby provided the way of forgiveness and restoration of the God-human relationship. This was at the heart of the gospel message and the core of the apostolic preaching.
The kingdom of God is at the center of mission in that the work of redemption results not only in personal salvation but in the restoration of God's reign over his redeemed people and through the redeemed community. The new kingdom people, the church, become a living sign of the kingdom in this age as they live under Christ's lordship and work for the cause of holiness, righteousness, and justice in all their relationships and in the world.
Eschatology is the hope of mission because we know that the kingdom will one day come in fullness when Christ returns. In this age the church lives in anticipation of that kingdom by bringing the gospel of the kingdom to the nations. This is done in the confidence that the promise of the Lord will be fulfilled: not only will the gospel be preached to every nation, but from every nation there will be those who embrace the Savior and enter the kingdom.
For this reason the nations are the scope of mission. As revealed in the scriptures, God has a plan to draw the nations to himself. Mission cannot rest until the gospel of the kingdom has been brought to people of every nation, ethnic group, language, and social standing.
Reconciliation is the fruit of mission because mission brings the message of reconciliation to an alienated world. This reconciliation begins with the restored relationship with God and moves outward to restore human relationships, becoming one of the most fundamental signs of the kingdom and evidencing genuine shalom. This too is in anticipation of the fullness of the restoration of all things upon Christ's return.
Finally, the incarnation is the character of mission. Everything the church undertakes in the cause of mission must be characterized by a spirit of humility, selflessness, and sacrifice, for these traits characterized Christ's sending. This is the fruit of the Holy Spirit, who both empowers and transforms for mission.
We conclude by defining mission in this way: Mission is the sending activity of God with the purpose of reconciling to himself and bringing into his kingdom fallen men and women from every people and nation to his glory. Mission is a sign of the kingdom and an invitation to the nations to enter the kingdom and share the hope of the kingdom promised in Christ's return. (Chapter 4)
The purpose of mission should be distinguished and united with the task of mission. No “vision statement” (purpose) is complete without a corresponding “mission statement” (task). Why are we here and what are we supposed to do about it? Something must happen in order for the vision to be realized. The task of missions is thus summarized in Chapter 6 (formatting mine):
Mission is God’s sending of Christians, the church, into the world as messengers of reconciliation and renewal to bring men and women of every nation into God’s kingdom. They are to live as salt and light in their communities as a sign of the coming kingdom when all things will be restored under God’s rule. However, the church has not fulfilled its mission by merely being such a community wherever it finds itself, as great a challenge as that is. Rather such communities must be multiplied among the diverse peoples of the world, and this is the task of missions.
Thus the task of missions is the sending activity of the church to create and expand such kingdom communities among every people of the earth. This will be done through evangelism and church planting that is not satisfied with superficial conversion or institutional advancement. Rather, these new communities must be nurtured and challenged to manifest the reign of God in word and deed, impacting all areas of life – spiritual, social, mental, and physical – thus furthering God’s mission in the world.
I like these definitions because they integrate holistic service with evangelism and church planting while emphasizing that mission is actually God’s undertaking to redeem his creation back to himself.
So could we synthesize and summarize? Here’s my stab at it… for the biblical mission (purpose and task) of the church:
What would be your biblical vision and mission statements be for the purpose of God through the church (there is more than one way to say it)? You got a problem with mine?
From Lesslie Newbigin in The Gospel in a Pluralistic Society:
There has been a long tradition which sees the mission of the Church primarily as obedience to a command. It has been customary to speak of "the missionary mandate." This way of putting the matter is certainly not without justification, and yet it seems to me that it misses the point. It tends to make mission a burden rather than a joy, to make it part of the law rather than part of the gospel.
If one looks at the New Testament evidence one gets another impression. Mission begins with a kind of explosion of joy. The news that the rejected and crucified Jesus is alive is something that cannot possibly be suppressed. It must be told. Who could be silent about such a fact?
The mission of the Church in the pages of the New Testament is more like a fallout which is not lethal but life-giving. One searches in vain through the letters of St. Paul to find any suggestion that he anywhere lays it on the conscience of his reader that they ought to be active in mission. For himself it is inconceivable that he should keep silent. "Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!" (1 Corinthians 9:16). But nowhere do we find him telling his readers that they have a duty to do so. . . .
At the heart of mission is thanksgiving and praise. . . . When it is true to its nature, it is so to the end. Mission is an acted out doxology. That is its deepest secret. Its purpose is that God may be glorified.
HT: Jonathan Parnell
Reflections on the death of Osama bin Laden By Timothy C. Tennent
The death of Osama bin Laden has reminded me of the recent discussion surrounding Rob Bell’s book, Love Wins, about who might end up in hell. It is interesting that modern discussions about such matters invariably find a way to put ourselves in the category of the “righteous” and hell is reserved for Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin and Osama bin Laden. The Scriptures point us in a different direction. Paul is determined to silence the endless self-righteous talk which ends in self-justification, whether stemming from Jews who live under the Law or Gentiles who do not know the Law, but only have their own conscience. Paul finally bluntly declares that God’s righteousness is being revealed “so that every mouth may be silenced” (Rom. 3:19).
This is important because as Christians we must recognize that the evil which we so often want to identity in the “other” is actually in us as well. We are capable of all the atrocities which we find so unimaginable, such is the depth of human depravity. Osama bin Laden was, through his death, sent to a higher court for final judgement. Someday we will stand at that same bar of judgement. Paul declares that “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Cor. 5:10). The only hope for any of us is in the grace which God has revealed in Jesus Christ. He is the only one truly righteous. Death, floods, earthquakes and tornadoes are all regular reminders of human frailty and that the whole of creation is “not right.” We must cast ourselves on the grace of God in Jesus Christ. Let Osama bin Laden’s death be a reminder not of the wickedness in the “other” who has “finally gotten what is due him,” but rather a sobering and humbling reminder of the nature of the human race to which we all belong. Augustine wisely said that we are sinners by birth and by choice. The whole human race is in rebellion against God. We are “in Adam” and we are willful participants in that seminal rebellion. The fundamental struggle of our time – or any time – is not about the West versus radical Islam. The struggle is between the righteousness of God and the rebellion of the human race against God’s righteousness. We are all part of that rebellion, right along with bin Laden and Pol Pot. Until we see ourselves in the Cambodian killing fields, the falling Twin Towers and Nazi concentration camps we really haven’t fully grasped the depth of our own human fallenness, nor the height of God’s amazing grace in Christ.
Hermeneutics is the art and science of interpretation. It provides a map that guides the reader to a meaning of a text. All maps aim to simplify and represent reality, and there will necessarily be limitations in any map. But a good map is essential if you want to accurately understand where you are and where you are going.
In The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible's Grand Narrative, Chris Wright demonstrates how a “missional hermeneutic” is a map that approaches the whole Bible from the perspective of mission. This is the perspective which enables us to grasp the driving dynamic of the Bible’s grand narrative.
According to Wright, it is not enough to recognize the Christological focus of the Bible. (And also not enough to recognize the plain, historical, and grammatical hermeneutic.) Of course Jesus is the central interpretative key by which we understand the overall significance of the Old and New Testaments, but we must also recognize the missiological focus of the Bible because God in Christ is on a mission.
A key text in biblical hermeneutics says, “Then [Jesus] opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations”” (Luke 24:45-47). Wright comments that Jesus “seems to be saying that the whole of Scripture… finds its focus and fulfillment both in the life and death and resurrection of Israel’s Messiah, and in the mission to the nations, which flows out from that event… he was setting their hermeneutical orientation and agenda. The proper way for disciples of the crucified and risen Jesus to read their Scriptures, is messianically and missionally” (30).
Here’s the point- it is fundamentally inaccurate to attempt to find a biblical basis for mission. Let that sink in for a bit…! Instead, it is more appropriate to speak of a missiological basis for the Bible. “The whole Bible itself is a missional phenomenon” (22). The Bible is a product of the mission of God and thus guides and empowers his people to their participation in his mission. Mission is what the Bible is all about. This perspective brings clarity and richness to its story. For me, re-reading the Bible in light of the missional hermeneutic has been fun and enlightening.
From Keith Ferdinando, Mission: A Problem of Definition:
At the risk of massive oversimplification, four principal contemporary understandings of mission may be identified. They can be visualised as concentric circles, ranging from approaches which are broad and inclusive, to those which are increasingly narrow in definition.
Because “mission” is over-used and used differently by so many people, Ferdinando asks, “It must by now be questionable whether the word "mission" retains any residual value for missiology.” He concludes with this:
The great theme of Scripture is God's redemptive mission to call a people for his own glory among whom he will dwell; and those he calls are in their turn to engage in mission as his co-workers by making disciples of Jesus Christ. Definitional ambiguities must not be allowed to obscure the absolute centrality of that vital task.
Read the whole thing.