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    10 views6 pages

    Chapter 1

    Uploaded by

    Davi Chile

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
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    of 6
    CHAPTER 1 WHO ARE WE AND WHAT ARE WE HERE FOR2 MISSION OR MISSIONS2 The tide ofthe book, The Mision of Gods Pepe immediacy senda a question x the top ofthe queue Iisa quston of dcniton: Whe pe aa a we ser ear the word “mission”? Perhaps we ae more ai a ne “missions which usually brings to mind all the crosecultunl merce eae the chuches we ae familiar wih. We hink of misionary ces ofsepieas and church-plantng missions, of long-term cae sions, and of global networks of such agencies snd na Movement sionaries or short-term mis viduals, like the Lausanne God's Sending Al ofthese images have in common the notion of sense, of course, lies at the Latin root of the word prize. And very biblical too, There is no doube thatthe Bible shows God hg many people “on a mission from God’, and the missionary movement ms che bon cof Acts begins with a church responding o that divine impulse by sending Paul and Barnabas out on their first missionary journey. But recognizing chat mission has ais heart a sense of sending and being sat only raises another question: sent to do what? The Bible tells us that God did send ‘many people. But the range of things for which people were sen is stagecringly broad. “Sending” language is used in ll che following stores. Joseph was vent lune tingly at first) to be in a position to save lives in a famine (Gen. 45:7). Moses was sent (unwillingly at firs) co deliver people from oppression and exploitation (Ex. 3:10). Elijah was Sent to influence the course of incrnational politics (1 Kings 19:15 ~18) Jeremiah was sent to proclaim God's Word (e.g, Jer. 1:7). Jesus claimed the words of Isaiah that he was sent to preach good news, to proclaim freedom, to give sight for the blind, and to offer release from oppression (Lk 4:16~19; Isa. 61:1). sending and being sent. That ‘mision itself and is very appeo- 23 CHAPTER 1 The disciples were 5 of the reign of Go% and teach (Matt er had sent hn 17:18; 20:21). P 11:27--30). Later they were sent or }6 24). Later he was sen power ciples, baptize same way that the Fath ‘and challenges Uo! (Acts 13-3). Titus tration (2 Cor. 8:1 (Titus 1:5). Apollos was 8). Many unnam 18:27. forthe sake ofthe truth of So, even if we agre’ ‘of mission, there sa broad range o be sent by God to do, inch lism, teaching, healing an and “missionaries”, we tet biblical theology have to say to that God's Purpose ‘nother common usage ofthe rion. Even in the sec sgoal-orient Is not so much the case that God hos ‘oc mission for his church in the world, os that God has a church for his mission in the wold. Mission wes not made forthe church; the church was made for mis: sion~God's mission Chis Wrigh?® se that the concept} he delivering and heal sent t© make di nd demonstrate §), As apostles they We +18 20), Jesus sent chem into the world in he am, which eases a lot of interesting question, al and Barnabas were sent with Famine reigg * evangelism and church planting (Acy, rahy and teansparent financial admin. ent to preach an xd (Matt. 10:5 «for competent church administr wea aklled Bible teacher for church murcure (Acty ers were sent out as itinerant teacher, ed brothers and sist john 5-8). ‘sending and being sent lies a the hear biblically sanctioned activities that people may faction for justice, preaching, evange. Fhe gospel lading famine reli dd adminisration. Yee when we use the words “missiong» advo chink mainly of evangelistic activity. What will up ‘2 We will think about this more in chapter 12, word “mission”, however, is a sense of purpose or far world we talk about organizations having 2 corporate mission”, which may well be summed up ina pithy “mission statement. Soro ask the question, “What Phe mission of God's people?” is really to ask, “For what purpose do those who call themselves the people of God ‘ctually exist? What are we here on earth for?” But to answer that we have to go one step further back and ask, Whose mission is it anyway? And of course, the answer to that has to be—it is the mission of God. God himself has a mission. God has a purpose and goal for his whole creation. Paul called this the “whole will (plan) of God? (Acts 20:27; f Eph. 1:9-10). And as part of that divine mission, God has called into existence a people to participate with God in the accomplishment of that mission, All our mission flows from the prior mission of God. And that, as sve will see, is broad indeed. “Mission arises from the heart of God himself, and is ‘communicated from his heart o ours. Mission is the global outreach of the global people of a global God."! 1 John Store, The Contemporary Christian: An Urgent Pes, Daina dace 2 Wiig The Minion of God, 62. WHO ARE WE ANO WHAT ABE vs singular and Plural Sad definition allows ws to include many difere af onon. Perhaps the easiest way 1 oo y Team explain che difference dh 00S ealkng about msion ngular) and minions ira bother human actives “7c ean speak about ince (ngs) nd we have eam como seapeaks ofthe challenge of covery, experimenation ae : 1 sPethod, an ethos, a system of vale, certain paradigms thar pnern sien Shauiry. 2 certain kind of faith and a strong kind of commitment. Science ‘Gimension of human life and civilization, ‘But chen there are sciences. When we use the word in the plural, we ate spe sofa whole vast range of activities which have scientific aims, methods, creer a ‘trols. There are physical sciences, with ms ctenta and contro Thess te By fh many subdivisions in the explora {he natural world and our universe, There q oo : ate socialsciences life sciences, and the like. And then there's the science of economics, And statistics. But let's not ino science fiction Fa ‘My point is, science is a generic word fora whol fh whole array of human endeavour that can be characterized as sciences. There isa multitude of activities thar cam be justly characterize as science, and from time to time scientists themselves argue like the parts in Paul's description of the body), one legitimate science eannox say co another, “because you are not physics, you are not eal science.” Nor can one legate ey about itself, “because I am not physics, I don't belong to the world of science.” There is a universal concept, broadly understood, and there isa multiplicity of embodiments of it in practical life. ms ee ‘One could build the same anal with regard to art andy: Teta eee eee ‘we mean when we use a generic concept like art or sport ‘multiplicity. = sport to include that variety and So when I speak of mission, 1 thi , 1 am thinking of all that God is doing in purpose for the whole of creation and all that he calls us to do in ae = = that purpose. Mission, like science, has a conceptual, generic breadth, and a word ie pau can be as broad in significance as “scientific”. And I would suggest at the word “missionary” should have the same kind of breadth of possibility 5 the word “scientist”. Like the latter, it is a word you have to fill with specific ae - pe mts than assume or imagine what the said person actually does. ae when I speak of missions, Tam thinking of the multitude of activities that ' people can engage in, by means of which they participate in God!’s mission. And it seems to me there are as many kinds of missions as there are kinds of sci- ‘ences probably far more in fact. And in the same way, in the variety of missions CHAPTER | z é asawhok itis unseemly for one kind of misigg complex, orto undervalue itself as “not real Jex. The body image as pone ance here y down line that sought © ring Fence ding of missionaries for evangelig 1 would seem more biblia! wo his church God has enerusted her out oF 8 super icy comp) the old knock- ral sen dismiss nod Sion” ourofan ini hati why abo dike the ol send nor specially cross-cultural sending ee j pinion, doa pate mio IE oe ot eo aathing is mission.” Clay, not everythin, say, “everything is mission « othe a ene mic, bu ceyhings Chien am Cian chug, a ed be misinal in conscious patpation In be ming of God in God's world. are Aces ee ve heard ofthis definition of mission? “World evangelizaring veque the bole church to sake te whole Gospel 10 te whole world." Tecomes fron ari anne Covenant? Iisa fine ringing slogan, which actually has even cari eel Bur each of is three phrases lads us iro a cluster of questions. It provide roe enien framework r0 se out some ofthe issues that our biblical theology o¢ 2 eetion will addressthough noc necessarily in ehis particular order. THE WHOLE WORLD The Whole World as the Goal of God's Mission {ye sometimes ask when things seem just t00 much beyond our understanding or control. Bu is a good question to ak when we are thinking sbout the mission of God's people ro, for ic pons us rowards 2 Farure thar lukimately lies in God's hands. As we said above, our mission flows from God's mi sion, and God's mission is forthe sake of his whole world indeed his whole creation, "So we have to start by seeing ourselves within the great flow of God's mission, and we must make sure that our own missional goals—long term and more imme- diate—are inline with God's. For that purpose, we need to know the story we are parc of the great story chat the Bible ells chat encompasses the past and che Future, But how many churches that are keen on mission, of how many mission agen. cies that pursue thei agendas with urgency and zeal pause to chink about chat great story--where it has come from so far, what shape it has from the whole Bible (not just afew missionary verses), and where i is going? And yet if our mission efforts Jose touch with thar story or set off on all kinds of tangents from it, we have to ask: ‘Whose mission are we on? Whose agenda are we pursuing? “What's the world coming to?” 3 Th Lamas Covenant was the rod of the fir Laure ‘was wed bythe World Counal af Churches in is New Camps on Word vunglzan,comened by Billy Crahem in Dh report in 1961 and even before tht in she Lamb Confer 1974 The Covenant mu dred by group ll by Jb Sto. tcan ence eport of 1958 be readin Falla: hsp/vere ante nghareaan. The phar (qeted above comes fom Paragraph 6 Eee WHO ARE WE ANO WHAT ARE WE HERE FOR jon to the story We are part of if we consider ourselves : jssion. That will be our focus in chapter 2, : be God's Got! The Whole World and the Scope of Our Mission God's mission, we will ind from the Bible, includes the whole of creation. But ere does that ruth lad us in terms of our mision on earth? Espeially, whos dows wtaply for our treatment of that par of craton entrusted tous planet Earth? et Fe generally accepted among Christians (and more widely) chat we ought to be good Be ofthe earth's resources, But do we havea mistnalesponsbiity beyond ‘hat level of moderately responsible living? We are all conscious ofthe ecological ‘hallenges that face the human race. We may righty feel confused in the weter of Stleged facts and scary projections, not knowing how much is objective reality and ow much is the result of media frenzy or political machination. Nobody can se susly doube that we face enormous global problems, but we may well differ widely ver the best way Forward from where we sem to have reached. F ‘Bur is chis a marter that should be on the agenda of Christian mission? How docs ou biblical theology help us address chat question? Ar the very least one might san if the goal of God's mission is the new creation that we eee < sc ofthe Bible's story, chen mission in the midst ofthe story ought to have some sjace for our response to creation as it is now. Traditionally, however, the concept ermission in Christian circles has been confined to the eee beings x frecological concern and action a biblically legitimate missional concern, or merely contemporary obsession driven by the world’s agenda? We will think aboue that question in chapter 3. The Whole World as the Arena of Our Mission Where does “missionary” work begin and end? We so easly fall into compart- mentalized thinking, splitting up our world into different zones. The very word mission” often comes along with the notion of “the mission field”, which normally ‘means “foreign countries out there, but not here at home.” This has been a Western way of lookingat the world, bu cis also found in other parts of the world that now have strong missionary-sending churches. The reality is, of course, a8 soon as you think seviously about it, that the mission field is everywhere, including your own street wherever there is ignorance or ejection of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Bur another equally damaging false dichotomy is becween the so-called sacred and secular realms, and “mission” is located firmly in che frst. So mission is some thing either that specially commissioned Christians manage todo full-time, ifthey can get enough “support” to do so, or something that other Christians (the vast majority) do in odd moments of time they have o spare from the necessity of having. Z {APTER | 28 ce fic°a mission trp” ito a vacation, he chey can fi mi me, so work fora ving. May oy aii” ove the weckend he rest ofthe “world ‘church mission Pe reat off? What about the rest of “he wong Butywhat abou Ce of business education politics, medicing, ye work, the public arena, That world the arena of the mission of God’ 5.0" lie! la ia 8 fait only the moments of evangelgg Pha, ae fh mission consist 2a he can out work isl pata in Go e To push the question further, do the people . icy to the rest of human soci yn So lism? What on™ cjpate in God's mission? seenos the company have any responsibil srr essay 10 the end oF the eral beyond the imperative of evant ‘of pilgrims nS vais of the ect ddo we put into biblical phrases like being a blessing 1g word ond the eno ewsie Newbigin® nations, or seeking the welfare of the city or being the. Of the earth or the light of the world, or doing goog ;! Paul and Peter)? Do these concepts figure,* in The Church must be ‘of the commonest expressions used by our biblical theology of mission? Pehaps this sounds ike che hoary and familiar debate about the relation, berneen evangelism and socal action, but hope thar our study of biblical theo traditional polarizing and ellowing chapters wll rake us beyond the traditional polarizing and priori ee nay aes epullsapart what God intended be held togeic® so distorts an So even a simple expression like “the whole world”, then, raises all kinds of sy, for us, I is geographical (all the earth), but i is also ecological, economic, soci and political And we remember roo that the Bible speaks about the “end of the world” though itis notso much an end as a new beginning, So “the whole worl» , The church needs to relate to both. We are sent 19 includes time as well as spac the ends of the earth, and we keep going till the end of the world. THE WHOLE CHURCH Who Are the People of God? “The Mission of God's People”, announces our title page. Could I noc have just used the book’s subtitle, “The Church’s Mission”? Well, yes perhaps, but only if we have ‘got our biblical theology of the church straight, and that is probably an optimistic assumption. For many Christians, the word “church” takes them back only to the supposed birthday of the church in the book of Acts on the day of Pentecost. Buc is that a valid perception? When and where did the people of God come into existence, and for what reason? How does the existence and mission of this people relate to ion of God in and for his world? When did their mission begin, and how the mii and when will it end? 5 Leslie Newbign, The Homsebold of God Lecares onthe Nature ofthe Charch (London, SCM, 1953). Orto put this 4 few Testament (that m he so-called Great Commis Ni with th cospel) relate to the identity and h oy of ag havea miso’, nd if, what wa nd . pcrance co Christian mission a all-other Isaiah and Jeremiah (so useful for missions Moses ara single reluctant missionary who was embarrassed (Jonah)? ‘How many sermons have you heard on a missionary Sun ‘ (Old Testament? How many times have you preached 1 mianeve the OMd Testament yourself, if you area pastor? Ifthe answer vlogs rove to hear from you to compare notes, since I power is “very Few” or “hardly ever’, then the poine gad when do we startin constructing a biblical theology ofthe w people, and what happens if we include the Old Testament? So we need to think carefully about what the Bible asa whole has ‘my question is che who exactly are “God's people”, and in what sense they are and always hare bew le with a mission. That is why I mak Brtorl ‘make no apology for including so mack exposition of Old Testament texts in the chapters that follow. Afier all. the New ‘Testament church did noc actually have a New Testament when they set our «ask of world mission. It was the Scriptures of the Old Testament that provided the for their missional practice, as well as the underlying motivation and justificacic theological assumptions and expectations that reassured them thes what they er doing was “biblical” (as we would say) What Kind of People Are We? What kind of person is your postman? The question hardly seems to matter at = functional level. Whoever delivers mail to your address has a job to do, and the point is to make sure that the job gets done, not to worry about the morals of the person who does it. The man may have been cheating on his wife the nighe before bur so long as you get the mail next morning, so long as the message gets delivered 0 you, that doesn’t matter (to you). Unforcunately, there isa danger that the expression “the whole church sating the whole gospel ro the whole world” turns the church into nothing more than a delivery ‘mechanism for the message. All that matters is “getting the job done” ~preferably as soon as possible. And sadly there are some forms of missionary strategy and chcworic that strongly give that impression. ‘The Bible, in stark contrast, is passionately concerned about what kind of people they are who claim to be the people of God. If our mission is to share good news, yr 5 unre) spe need ro be good neves people. If we preach a gospel of transformation, we 9 "formation looks like. So there isa range fo show some evidence of what tran dees oe whole church that have do with “ THE WHOLE GOspe| st chaaiies Teel eam low Bia Is Your Ge Hh imei a a of mil ety 0 fication. : gr the core of out acct weinclde etic in our understanding of sion in this way? Dy, Cris fo he Fenn atsg “works righteousness” and legalism? Surely we should concen redemption - de yon calling people o faith? Well, we may strugee with Sing atengog, coaecre does the word bel or have

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