David Bosch ends his magisterial study of missions by concluding …
“Throughout most of the church’s history [mission's] empirical state has been deplorable. This was already true of Jesus’ first circle of disciples and has not really changed since. We may have been fairly good at orthodoxy, at ‘faith’, but we have been poor in respect to orthopraxis, of love.” (Transforming Mission, 519)
Bosch’s words are a reminder that the kingdom of God comes via the feeble witness of weak, broken, and flawed individuals who even though they find it hard to love as they should continue in the hope that God’s love will be found in every word spoken and each act of kindness. The hope of missions remains – God is love and his love reigns despite our imperfect motivations and deplorable means.