Now/today/getting closer = Go out and help others. Go make disciples.
Fine, chant the lyrics if that's your pre-game, but know the better message to spread before you get wherever it is that you're going. And I know you maybe don't know where that is yet. Trust me, I know firsthand. But that's ok. None of us do exactly right now - but we can know for sure where it is that we should want to end up later. Look at it as the lesser of two evils swarming around in your constantly conflicted brain: when has doing good for others ever made you feel worse about yourself?
As promised, more on the Christian Mission class for which I find myself reading for days on end and wanting to immediately pack up and move to Cambodia. Or, at least to the corner of Creighton and Hanna.
The first assignment was an open-ended "write your own personal theology of mission." No idea. But I turned it in on time nonetheless and received it back last Thursday, fully graded. Let's just say since I'm not at 100% right now, I have some work to do in order to do better...for others.
Side note: CliffsNotes version is don't wait to go anywhere other than where you already are in order to make a difference. In 27 minutes, that means RediMed for me. Happy Sunday.
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INTRODUCTION
Developing an inaugural theology of
mission can be and often is, the most overlooked component of Christianity for
the majority of best-intentioned Christ followers. While we purport to “being Christian” and
“doing God’s work” – what does that really mean? Do we even know what we are saying let alone doing?
The difference between the singular
“mission” and plural “missions” is notable.
The former is of a larger scale and scope, i.e. “God’s love for
redeeming the lost, encompassing God’s church in its entirety.”[1] The “mission” of theology, therefore, belongs
to God – just as those who carry out the requisite cross-cultural “missions”
work under its umbrella so find themselves.
Regardless of geography, while one without
the other can exist, it would be
futile for individuals to partake in missions work without the greater mission
in mind. Missions and [the] larger scale
mission neither are nor should be mutually exclusive.
Moreover, without the One to whom the
greater mission belongs guiding the way for those doing the missions, the work itself is pointless. It becomes nothing more than worker bees
ineffectively buzzing about, circularly swarming an increasingly more frustrated
global nest. God is a God of purpose; of
mission. Therefore, my personal theology
of mission begins with Him.
“THE” THEOLOGY OF MISSION
God had a mission in Creation. He is the original Creator of all; the Great
Artist, Draftsman, Architect and Builder.
Man is the pinnacle of His creation, made in His image and likeness
(Gen. 1:26-27). All of creation is for
God’s glory and as such, still finds itself in accordance to God’s
mission. Stated simply, while God had a mission in creation, so He still
has. According to Christopher Wright,
“Creation exists for the praise and glory of its Creator God, and for mutual
enjoyment between the Creator and the created.”[2]
God is on a mission to be loved and
worshipped by all people. Perhaps the
best way to summarily describe God’s purpose for [His] mission by
[His] created mission workers is as follows:
“For His Glory in global worship, God purposes to overcome evil by
redeeming a people who will love and obey Him within every people.”[3] Indubitably, God’s mission is seen in His
redemptive work.
THE REDEMPTION OF MISSION
Redemption is restoration through Jesus
Christ. Jesus has bought
[us/creation/missions workers] back what was stolen by Satan (Col. 1:13-14). Believers in Jesus Christ and His redemptive
work are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation in order that they
may proclaim the mighty acts of Him who called them out of darkness into his
marvelous light” (1Pet. 2:9; cf. Ex. 19:6).
God’s promise to Abraham then, becomes my/our individual precept for
missions, as in effect it was His promise to the world. God said he would not only bless Abram but
that Abram would become a blessing
(Gen. 12:2) and that “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Gen.
12:3).
This promise is fulfilled in Christ: “And if you belong to Christ, then you are
Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Gal 3:29). Paul declares, “Those who believe are the
descendants of Abraham. The Scripture
foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and announced the gospel
in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”
So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham the man of faith”
(Gal. 3:7-9). Thus, as Gallagher and
Hawthorne point out, “through Christ anyone on earth can inherit the full
family heritage of being blessed in order to be a blessing to the nations.”[4]
The reciprocity is profoundly
intentional. If God’s mission is seen in
His redemptive work, not only did he first do
(model) the work through Jesus in redeeming His creation, but it is exactly
those redeemed beneficiaries through whom His purpose continues, i.e. He saved
His people so that they could save others.
“The promise so clearly reveals God’s purpose that Christians rightly
consider it to convey God’s mandate to serve as His agents of blessing among
all the peoples of the earth. We are
blessed in Christ in order to bring forth the blessing of Christ among all the
nations.”[5]
As a disciple of Jesus, my personal mission
is to follow his example and commands.
He came from heaven to earth to show us the way; in turn, I am called to
show others the way. Jesus gave his
disciples a clear command: “Go into all
the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15). My assignment, therefore is to go into all the world, my task is to preach the gospel, and my target is all of creation. Blackaby and Willis rightly remind us that
“Jesus was on a mission with the Father, and He calls every one of His followers
to join Him in that relationship of love, power, and purpose. Nothing could be more precious than to follow
God on mission in the same way that Jesus did.”[6]
THE RELATIONSHIP OF MISSION
We are not called to exercise a
carbon-copy of Jesus’ ministry, but His practice of ministry is to be normative
for us: “our task is simply to imitate him” even though what He did was
“unique, climactic, decisive.”[7] Since a commitment to Jesus is also a
commitment to His mission, our missions must take a primary and inescapable
place in our lives. In considering
Jesus, the most important things to note are not what He said or what He did,
but who He was and the relationship He had with his Father. His entire ministry flowed from this
self-understanding and relationship.
Wright’s assessment of Jesus’ self-understanding as a key issue is
largely accepted, even by his critics.[8]
Yet it was not merely Jesus’ ministry that
demonstrated interconnection. The whole
of the New Testament is primarily about relationships. Doctrines matter because they affect how we
live; how we live matters because it affects our relationships. Jesus concisely summarizes the Law of Moses
in terms of two relationships: love God
and love your neighbors (Mark 12: 30-31).
Again, the redemption/atonement is paramount as it restores a broken
relationship: “you are no longer
strangers and aliens, but…of God’s household” (Eph. 2:19).
Perhaps most significantly, we see in John
20:21 that Jesus “makes his own relationship with the Father” the basic
paradigm for the disciples’ relationship with Jesus in pursuit of their
mission.[9] Jesus’ own ministry was about encountering
other people, even and especially the original disciples, and serving them in
appropriate ways. His focus was not
solely on His own spiritual life and health (although these things clearly
mattered significantly to Him) but on the concerns and needs of the people around
Him, including both His disciples and those who did not follow Him. Jesus saw His relational role as that of a
servant (Luke 22:27) and always put the needs of the people He happened upon
before his own agenda of teaching and demonstrating the Kingdom.
CONCLUSION
When a person claims to
be a Christian, the one component they cannot overlook is Jesus. A commitment to Jesus is a commitment to His
mission. This statement has major
implications for not only our doctrine of salvation, but our practice of
evangelism and what we mean when we say “mission.” Once we know what we are saying, it is then that we can begin to understand what we are doing.
Redemption and relationship are the
missional keys to unlocking the door of the main mission at hand, a Hand solely
responsible for our creation. Jesus
demonstrated His relationship to God; God’s primary relationship is to the
world.[10] And it is exactly that world for which we are
on a mission - one which God redeemed by sending His only Son, and the same one
He expects us henceforth to reject the deceit and pleasures of, in order that
we may continue to be effected by, and affective in, a completely transformed
community.
Works
Cited
Blackaby,
Henry T. and Avery T. Willis. “On Mission with God,” in Perspectives on the World
Christian
Movement: A Reader, eds. Ralph D.
Winters and Steven C. Hawthorne. Pasadena: William Carey Library, 2009.
Coleman,
Robert E., The Master Plan of Evangelism,
2nd ed. Grand Rapids:
Spire (By Revell), 2010.
Eby,
Kent. “Developing a Beginning Theology
of Mission.” The Chapel, Fort Wayne. 5 May, 2016.
Lecture.
Gallagher,
Sarita D. and Steven C. Hawthorne. “Blessings as Transformation,” in Perspectives on the World Christian
Movement: A Reader, eds. Ralph D. Winters and Steven C. Hawthorne. Pasadena: William Carey Library, 2009.
Hawthorne,
Steven C. Perspectives on the World
Christian Movement. Pasadena: William
Carey Library, 2009.
Hill,
Graham. Global Church: Reshaping Our
Conversations, Renewing our Mission, Revitalizing Our Churches. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2016.
Kostenberger,
A.J. and P.T. O’Brien. Salvation to the
Ends of the Earth. Leicester:
Apollos, 2001.
McNight,
Scot. Kingdom Conspiracy:Returning to the
Radical Mission of the Local Church. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2014.
Newmann,
CC (ed). Jesus & The Restoration of Israel. Carlisle: Paternoster, 1999.
Stott,
John and Christopher J.H. Wright. Christian
Mission in the Modern World. Downers
Grove: IVP Books, 2015.
Wright,
Christopher J.H. “Mission and God’s
Earth” in Perspectives on the World
Christian Movement: A Reader, eds.
Ralph D. Winters and Steven C. Hawthorne. Pasadena: William Carey Library, 2009.
Wright,
N.T. The
Challenge of Jesus. London: SPCK,
2000.
[1]
Eby, Kent. “Developing a Beginning
Theology of Mission.” The Chapel, Fort Wayne. 5 May, 2016. Lecture.
[2]
Wright, Christopher J.H. “Mission and
God’s Earth” in Perspectives on the World
Christian Movement: A Reader, eds.
Ralph D. Winters and Steven C. Hawthorne. Pasadena: William Carey Library, 2009. Page 28.
[3]
Hawthorne, Steven C. Perspectives on the
World Christian Movement. Pasadena:
William Carey Library, 2009. Page 4.
[4]
Gallagher, Sarita D. and Steven C. Hawthorne. “Blessings as Transformation,” in
Perspectives on the World Christian
Movement: A Reader, eds. Ralph D. Winters and Steven C. Hawthorne. Pasadena: William Carey Library, 2009. Page 38.
[5]
Ibid.
[6]
Blackaby, Henry T. and Avery T. Willlis. “On Mission with God,” in Perspectives on the World Christian
Movement: A Reader, eds. Ralph D.
Winters and Steven C. Hawthorne. Pasadena: William Carey Library, 2009. Page
77.
[7]
Wright, N.T. The Challenge of Jesus.
London: SPCK, 2000. Page 140.
[8]
Newmann, CC (ed). Jesus & The Restoration of Israel. Carlisle: Paternoster,
1999. Page 110.
[9]
Kostenberger, A.J. and P.T. O’Brien.
Salvation to the Ends of the Earth.
Leicester: Apollos, 2001. Page
260.
[10] Stott,
John and Christopher J.H. Wright. Christian
Mission in the Modern World. Downers
Grove: IVP Books, 2015. Page 18.
