Category — Mission

For the majority of Christians, church and missions operate in separate and distinct realms.  The church nurtures and instructs the ’saved’, and missionaries cross cultures and evangelize the ‘heathen’.  Church is here and familiar, missions is over there and foreign.  The points at which church and missions usually connect are money and recruitment.  Because the work of missions requires money and fresh recruits and since the church is where both can be found, mission organizations and agencies find it necessary to relate to the church.  Likewise, since people within the church have full-time, secular jobs, they ‘do missions’ by providing finances for those who do the work of ‘fulltime’ missions.

The place where missions and the church have traditionally converged is mission education.  The church’s role has been to educate its adults toward their obligation to give and its children and young adults toward the possibility of joining the ranks of the missionary professionals.  In short, the promotion of offerings and the recruitment of individuals is the function of mission education.

However, a revolution in the church’s understanding of missions is underway.  One of the seeds of this revolution is found in a theological re-framing of missions as missio Dei.  God is a missionary God, who moves toward his creation to reconcile and restore.  Thus, God is the one who initiates and sustains the mission - it is his mission.  He sends the Son, and the Father and Son together with the Spirit sends the church.  Because missions is part of the intent and activity of the Triune God, it should not be a side issue or auxiliary to the essence and purpose of the church.  To participate in God is to be party to his mission.  It is not that the church has missions as one of its activities; rather God has a church for his mission.

This new understanding of the church and mission calls for a similar revolution in mission education.  If missions is central to the church’s purpose, then mission education must be about more than raising money for the mission of denominational or para-church organizations and their projects, and it must pertain to a wider audience than just potential mission personnel.  Because mission is a whole church affair, mission education must be a critical component in the nurture, formation and life of the people God.

In order for the church to be faithful to the new understanding of missions, mission education must be renovated in several ways.  Mission education must be …

Formative.  Rather than just educating people in what they need to do, they must also be formed into who they are to be.  Rather than training people for a missionary vocation or mission activity, they should be equipped with missionary character and lifestyle.  Instead of just idealizing the missionary vocation or highlighting human need in far-away places, mission education must address one’s love of God and love of neighbor, the way one relates to family, friends, and enemies, truth-telling, consumerism - the habits of hands and heart.

Imaginative.  Rather than teaching that the mission of God finds expression in only certain activities and a specific vocation, mission education should open a wide array of avenues in which God is at work.  The emphasis should be on assisting people, especially young people, to think creatively about how their skills, interests, work and leisure activities are part of the mission of God - not in how these are means to an end, but how they are mission.

Integrative.  Rather than isolating mission education into a corner of church life or to specific hours of the church week, it must be integrated into the whole.  Thus, every aspect of church life and every dimension of the church calendar must be seen as missional.  Discipleship, worship, Sunday School, Awanas, prayer meeting, choir - everything - must be viewed through a missional lens.  We must ask questions like - ‘If the church exists for the mission of God, then how do we prepare, equip, position ourselves for God’s mission through our worship?’  Worship does not have to be overtly missionary, as much as it needs to be intrinsically missional. Worship should lead people to see God as the Creator of all peoples, as the one worthy of praise by the whole of creation.  Worship must be seen as more than a private affair between me and God but a public event before the world.  Similar questions must be asked about Sunday School, children programs, choir, etc.

Collaborative.  Rather than the professional missionaries or ‘mission-minded’ people in the church being viewed as the sole mission educators, people across the spectrum of church life must see themselves as contributing to the education / formation of children, youth and adults for the mission of God.  If mission education is the formation of the person and not just specialized training for the professional, then the skills, experiences, and gifts of the whole body must be employed.  Collaboration around mission takes place when the mission of God is not the specialty of a few but the concern of the whole.

Prescriptive. Rather than just providing facts about mission activities elsewhere and images of exotic and far-away places and people, mission education must challenge people to faithfully participate in God’s mission in their homes, workplace, and relationships.  Mission education must lead to obeying what we learn of God and his mission rather than just being amused and amazed by mission stories and missionary lives far away.

Expansive.  Rather than leaving us in places of comfort and convenience, mission education should pull us toward the ends of the earth (literally), challenge us to live beyond our human capacities, and to ask ‘what could God do’!  Mission education should lead to see God’s universal concern for all the peoples of the earth and humble us that he invites us to participate with him in his mission.

Transformative. Rather than the goal being missions as a cognitive understanding gained via classroom instruction (teacher, students, books), the goal should be life transformation that leads to missional lifestyle.  Life transformation occurs for most people through involvement that is whole life - hands, feet, eyes, ears, nose, and mind.  Therefore, a two-week trip to Brazil can be part of missional formation leading to life transformation.  People see, smell, hear, touch, feel, and embrace what God is doing and thereby their view of God and the world is transformed.

Mission education has a place in the local church if it is retooled to be formative, imaginative, integrative, collaborative, prescriptive, expansive and transformative.  This does not necessarily mean that existing programs or structures have to be discarded.  Nor is it a matter of mission education becoming more relevant, or having better or more attractive literature.  Mission education will serve its purpose if sharply focused on forming the whole church for its chief purpose - the mission of God.

A revolution is taking place right before our eyes - a mission revolution.  Some might mistake it to be a rebellion against power and authority, but such a characterization would be wrong.  A rebellion is an attempt to overthrow and unseat, while a revolution is the act of re-creating or re-forming from the bottom up.  Rebellion takes place in the halls of power, revolution takes to the streets.  Over coffee at Starbuck, on airplanes returning from Niger, in church offices, and at small gatherings, ‘like-hearted’ pastors and church folk are joining passions and resources into mission collectives.

In simplest terms, a mission collective is a group of people and churches united around the proclamation of Jesus Christ in word and deed.  This means they are, above all, pursuing collaborative mission activity and contributing resources to the common witness of the collective.  In its essence, collectivism honors the contribution of each church and every individual, trusts the work of the Spirit in each, and seeks involvement in the diversity of God’s mission.  Absent are organizational enormity, top-down control, forced uniformity, and politicized, single-issue missions.  Front and center is the mission of God - it is the sinew and muscle holding the collective together, the electricity empowering collaboration, and the nerve center providing coordination and direction.  It is the singular reason for diverse, autonomous congregations and unique individuals to unite in trust and respect for mission.

In practical terms, a mission collective translates into churches giving people and money to joint mission endeavors, sharing ideas and materials, working across demographic and doctrinal lines to create and hold in common needed training materials, systems, procedures, strategies, and encouraging each other to do more and be the best possible witness to Jesus Christ.  A concrete example of a mission collective is Global Connection Partnership Network.  GCPN is “a community of churches committed to a direct global witness.”  It connects, partners, resources, provides material, trains, collaborates, and supports in order for “God’s glory to be realized throughout the earth.”

While the traditional, hierarchical mission paradigm will not cease to exist, growing numbers of young students, adults, and pastors are looking for something different - something more organic, relational, and participatory.  For them, mission involvement no longer rises or falls on promotion or mobilization originating from a distant place or a famous people.  They see and hear mission all around them - in their churches, from fellow students, among friends and in their pastor.  Mission is bubbling up from the bottom.  The revolution is underway as collectives in Waco, Arlington, Oklahoma City, Atlanta, etc., form, grow, and encounter the world.  Long Live the revolution!

There are a number of questions that I continue to ask, that still drive me.  Some of you will wonder what is wrong with me.  You ask - Why are you still asking questions?  Don’t you have things figured out yet?  Well, I keep asking because the given answers just don’t fit or are no longer clear.  For example …

What is conversion? … What does it look like when one steps across the line to be a committed follower of Jesus?  When does this happen?  Is it at a point in time? Through a long process?  Is it continual?  Does it ever end?

What is the gospel? … What part of religion (my religion) is Christian and what is culture?  I ask this because I am afraid that extras I have added to the Jesus message confuse those who do not know Christ and create pseudo-barriers.

What is community? … Community has become the new cool word and thus co-opted to mean whatever one wishes.  I want to know and experience real community.

Who are the people of God? … What is the essence and purpose and mission of the local church? What marks as being God’s people in the world?

How are we to do missions? … Structures, means, and pathways that we once used for mission involvement are quickly fading.  What is the new mission paradigm?  What does it mean for the church to encounter the world?

Am I authentic? … What does authentic living look like?  How do I get there?  Am I willing to do what it will take to be there?  What does transformation look like in my life?  Why am I so afraid of living an open life?

Am I still living? … Not am I still alive, but am I living?  Am I on cruise control, asleep at the wheel?  Am I passionate about something (someone)?

These are some of my questions … not all.  I remind myself often that the questions are not my enemies but necessary friends. It is only through asking, owning, and living into these questions that I can grow and hope.

A culture of abuse and slander swirls around us and seeks to poison our view of the world.  Via the internet, television, printed materials - from politicians, talk show hosts, good ole boys, and even well-meaning people - we are told that Muslims, Democrats, homosexuals, illegal aliens, and others are less than human, represent the dregs of society, and are not worthy to live.  In shrill tones, these voices shout - Fear! Protect! Attack!

As disciples of Jesus Christ, we must resist these voices and hold fast to an alternative vision.  Instead, the voice of Jesus must order our words and actions - “whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also” … “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Mt 5:40, 44).  Jesus did more than speak these words, he lived them by touching lepers, speaking to women, embracing Samaritans, loving those on the margins, and suffering death on the cross.

The Jesus way confronted Peter.  A lifetime of religious instruction and cultural reinforcement had taught him to hate, despise, and dismiss the Romans.  And yet, God revealed to Peter another way - love and inclusion.  Peter is confronted with a choice - either abandon his prejudice or deny God’s acceptance of Cornelius (Acts 10).  In the end, Peter declares, “Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality!”

I can disagree with another and even be on the opposite side of an issue, but the gospel does not allow me to slander, curse, strike or kill another human being.  If I slander or demonize another person, be they Republican or Democrat, Jew or Muslims, black or white, poor or immigrant (legal or illegal), homosexual or disabled, then I deny the gospel.  For the gospel of Jesus Christ …

• is powerful enough to transform anyone - “it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” (Rom 1:16)
• is for the whole world - “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (Jn 3:16)
• unifies people - “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male or female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal. 3:28)
• creates a new humanity - “a multitude which no one could count, from every nation, all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, … and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb” (Rev. 7:9, 10)

The gospel destroys the walls that separate the people.  As the people of God, we are called to join him in the ministry of wall-demolition.  For you see, while we were enemies of God, Christ showed no partiality toward us; rather he died for our sins and made a way for us to know him, his love and grace.  We serve his mission not through venom, hate, exclusion, slander, curses or self-preservation but by laying down our lives for the other.  This is the gospel - may we have courage to speak and live it in the midst of a polarized and uncivil society!

It’s Sunday morning.  A man rises and reads the following text:

This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come (Matt. 24:14).

The speaker then exhorts his hearers to do missions in order that they might hasten the return of the Lord. They are told that through missionary activity they can actually accelerate or speed up Christ’s return.  Since every sincere Christian wants to see Christ return as quickly as possible, it makes logical sense that they should be involved in missions.  In fact, they are told that one of them could possibly be the actual person who preaches the gospel to the last people group and thus initiate the Second Coming.

While this may be a popular interpretation of Jesus’ words and seems to be a persuasive reason for missionary service, several questions need to be raised …

Will we actually cause Christ to return? The implication is that in some logical, mechanistic manner we trigger or force God to bring human history to a close.  Rather than merely living in the expectation of his coming and being acted upon by his return, we stand above this event in a controlling, initiating manner.  On the contrary, Jesus is not issuing a command or prescribing a strategy.  He is stating a fact - “the gospel of the kingdom shall be preached.”  God will return when he decides to do so and will conclude human history for reasons that are far beyond our comprehension or control.  Thus, it seems unwise for any of us to obligate God to a timetable conditioned by our actions.

Doesn’t such an interpretation encourage escapism? The message is - the world is evil, you want to get out of it as soon as you can, and therefore, do yourself a favor by doing missions.  And yet, in the preceding verses, Jesus encourages his disciples to do just the opposite.  Even though things will become harder and harder before the end, Jesus tells them to remain firm and faithful in the present, evil age.  It seems that an appeal to do missions in order to bring about the end may have more to do with our desire to escape suffering than the redemption of the world.

What constitutes ‘the whole world’? It seems the speaker makes clear what Jesus has left unclear.  Does ‘the whole world’ mean all geo-political entities (nations), ethno-linguistic groups, dialects, cultures, provinces, cities, or villages?  Must these be 25%, 45%, or 65% evangelized or Christianized?  Do each of these portions of the world have to have one or two churches, a group of churches, or a ‘church planting movement’ before Jesus returns?  Do these churches have to be self-supporting, self-governing, and self-propagating?  In my lifetime, I have seen various definitions of ‘the whole world’ come and go.  What is now in vogue will surely be replaced with a fresh explanation.  Jesus does not give specifics at this point, and thus, it seems unwise for any of us to speak in quantifiable absolutes about what will precipitate his return.

What does it mean that the gospel of the kingdom will be preached? The speaker implies that proclaiming the kingdom is a verbal sermon about personal salvation.  Could it be that the gospel of the kingdom encompasses much more than people merely hearing a message or even giving intellectual or emotional assent to it?  It seems that the Kingdom of God that Jesus proclaimed was a call to lordship and discipleship (Matt. 5-7) - the transformation of life, family, clan, and village.  We may be proclaiming less than the gospel of the kingdom, if all we are doing is preaching evangelistic sermons in hopes of representative converts from people groups.

I confidently expect the gospel of the kingdom to be proclaimed in the whole world, and I fervently desire to see the whole church involved in this mission.  At the same time, I believe that our motivation should flow from interpretation that is true to the historical context, as well as the intent and aims of Jesus’ life and ministry.  Rather than appealing to a desire to escape this world, or a desire to make our actions significant, or to fulfill some nebulous aim, shouldn’t we base our motives for mission on Jesus’ summon to love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind and to love our neighbors as ourselves?  May you and I be found loving well when the end does come!

‘Throwing the baby out with the bath water’ is a way of saying that in an attempt to rid ourselves of the dirty, bad, or undesirable, we toss out that which is essential or prized.  The idiom is quite graphic.  Imagine a mother lovingly washing her daughter’s face, arms, and hair.  She is careful not to rub too hard but thoroughly washes between fingers, behind ears, and around eyes and mouth.  All the while, she softly reassures the child that she loves her.  Once the mother is done, she takes the tub full of water and baby to back door and toss both into the yard!  We get the message - you don’t throw out something or someone of value just because it sits in that which of no value.  Besides being mentally unstable or out of touch with reality, a mother might throw her child out with bath water because she thinks (wrongly) that the only way to dispose of the nasty water is throw it and its contents into the yard.  The problem is that she cannot differentiate between the value of the child and the filth of the water.

A surprising number of people inside the church feel that the only way to deal with the ugly past of missions is to throw it out with the bath water.  They want to “own up” to the fact that missions was party to some of the ugliest episodes of human history - colonial aggression, slavery, cultural genocide, and power grabs.  For its distractors, missions belongs to an era of unenlightened and even brutish abuse and disregard, motivated by religious naiveté and simplicity.  They insist that in order to be free from this unsavory past, we must distance ourselves from every part of it.  And yet, such an opinion is itself too simplistic and, frankly, is an over-reaction motivated by an attempt to resolve an uncomfortable past.

We must differentiate between value and filth.  Missions is too valuable to throw out for at least three reasons. First, the value of missions can be seen in the myriad of good done by men and women on mission.  In fact, I would say that far more good has been done in the name of missions than bad.  We must not allow ourselves to be blinded to the vast amount of good and noble by dark and unsavory exceptions.

Second, missions is valuable because it is an enactment of the mission of God.  Missions is a human endeavor, carried out by culturally bound and sinful men and women, and thus, it will always be in need of a bath - repentance, refinement and humility.  And yet, in some miraculous way God demonstrates his love, grace, and glory through the human means of missions.

And third, without missions the church becomes too established and secure in itself.  Much of the reason for rejecting missions is that it is not respectable, or it is unsophisticated.  Missions is an embarrassment.  The church needs missions because of its embarrassment and offense.  Through participation in missions, we are reminded that we are a pilgrim people, exiles, sojourners, and witnesses of someone far greater than ourselves.

Who am I to dismiss, vilify, or reject missions?  I am merely a broken, and yet redeemed, man invited to participate in God’s movement toward humanity.  God’s mission uses me - my dirty bath water and all - to reveal his love, grace and glory to the world.

Wilbert Shenk asserts …

Without mission the church dies.  Although what we ordinarily call the church may continue to exist as a religious group, a missionless church is no long an authentic church.  The proof of its missionary character will be demonstrated by its response to the world. (“New Wineskins for New Wine: Toward a Post-Christendom Ecclesiology,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research, April 2005, 75)

Shenk’s point is that church renewal and outreach must accompany each other.  Both dimensions must be addressed, if the church is to do more than just exist as organization, as religious entity.  The church exists to give witness to the glory and purposes of God … without this mission it betrays its charter and constitution.

The irony is that as the contemporary church feverishly seeks to renew itself via a focus on its growth, health, services to members, branding, worship styles, etc., it is in fact doing the opposite-destroying itself.  Jesus said, “unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds” (Jn 12:24).  Unless the church gives itself away in witness to, care of, and justice for the neighbor nearby and those at the ends of the earth, it will die.  Mission rhetoric and seasonal participation in mission emphases are not substitutes for giving ourselves away.  Mission means we give ourselves to the world, go ourselves to the world, and love the world more than ourselves.  This is the mission of and hope for the church.

Alan Hirsch seeks to provide clarity in the midst of mounting confusion over the word missional.  After stating that missional does not mean emerging or seeker-sensitive, and is more than social justice and church growth, he offers his understanding of missional.

A proper understanding of missional begins with recovering a missionary understanding of God.  By his very nature God is a “sent one” who take the initiative to redeem his creation. This doctrine, known as missio Dei-the sending of God-is causing many to redefine their understanding of the church.  Because we are the “sent” people of God, the church is the instrument of God’s mission in the world.  As things stand, many people see it the other way around.  They believe mission is an instrument of the church; a means by which the church is grown.  Although we frequently say “the church has a mission,” according to missional theology a more correct statement would be “the mission has a church” (Leadership, Fall 2008, 22).

I completely agree.  Missional has been co-opted and turned into the next emphasis, a new technique, or some slick program.  Instead, missional has to do with theology - our understanding of God; who he is, what he does, and his ultimate purpose.  A clear understanding and use of missional is essential, if the church is to be God’s church.  The church needs to hear anew that God is a sending God, and thus, the church is a missional people.  She exists for God’s mission.

Why do missions?  Is it merely because Christ commands us to ‘go’, and thus we must obey?  Is it because we are under orders of a sovereign God, so we must do as we are told?  Roland Allen, missionary thinker and prophet of a previous era, answers the why question in the following manner … 

Had the Lord not given any such command, had the Scriptures never contained such a form of words, … the obligation to preach the Gospel to all nations would not have been diminished by a single iota.  For the obligation depends not upon the letter, but upon the Spirit of Christ; not upon what He orders, but upon what He is, and the Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of Divine love and compassion and desire for souls astray from God (Missionary Principles, 1968, 31).

Almost the entirety of my mission formation centered around one text, Matthew 28:19-20, and thus, mission for me was one-dimensional and narrow.  The ‘Great Commission’ is certainly important, but it is not the whole.  Missions runs throughout Scripture from beginning to end, and it is at the heart of who God is.  We do missions not for one simple, narrow reason but for multiple reasons that are as broad as both testaments and as big as God.  We do missions because God through “divine love and compassion and desire” sought and redeemed humanity, and as those reconciled we now participate by grace in the same ministry of reconciliation.

I have been thinking the last couple of days about identity and purpose.  I think both are tied up in what it means to be witnesses.

Witness is Our Identity 
Like the early Christ followers, once we know God, we become witnesses of His glory and love.  Witness is more than a task that must be done, an obligation that must be fulfilled, or a job that we are paid to do.  It is who we are.  Even in baptism, we verbally and physically confess Christ and identify ourselves with His community, and thus, we are witnesses of Him.  Witness is the identity Jesus gives His followers: “… you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses…” (Acts 1:8).  A few days after these words are spoken, the Spirit falls on the disciples, and they boldly tell “of the mighty deeds of God” (2:11).  They become what Jesus said they would be - witnesses.  Peter, speaking for the group, gives an account of the death and resurrection of Jesus, of which they had witnessed (2:32).  Even though they are fishermen, tax collectors, and common people, they are above all else witnesses. 

The role of witness is much larger than any vocation or cause.  Most of us have been taught from an early age to interpret the witness of Paul in terms of a vocation.  This way of seeing Paul is so engrained in us that without a second thought we explain Paul’s passionate witness with a profession - missionary.  Thus, we give Paul a vocational designation that he never uses of himself.  Paul refers to himself as “an apostle” (Col. 1:1), “a bond servant” (Rom. 1:1), “a prisoner” (Eph. 3:1), and “a witness” (Acts 22:15), but never does he use the term missionary to define himself.  And though Paul supports himself through making tents, this vocation does not define him.  Vocation is a secondary issue.  Witness is primary and gives him identity.  His ambition (Rom. 15:20), hope (Phil. 1:20), longing (Rom. 15:23), and passion is that he might bear witness to Jesus.  Just like Paul, no matter what our vocational choice or gifting is -engineer, teacher, social worker, student, or computer programmer -our identity is first and foremost that of a witness. 

Witness is Our Purpose
God’s purpose in sending the Son is the glory of His name.  As holy and eternal God, He becomes man and empties Himself in sacrificial love and thereby reveals “the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6).  Jesus’ prayer in John 12 anticipates the means through which God’s glory is to be realized.  With the prospect of death before Him, Jesus yields Himself to God’s purposes.  He finally prays, “Father, glorify Your name.”  A voice from heaven responds, “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again” (v. 28).  Jesus’ purpose was to reveal God’s glorious love and mercy.  Likewise, He commissions His followers for the same purpose.  He exhorts those who would be His followers to “let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Mt. 5:16).  Paul states the same purpose in a different way: “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31).  Because God’s love through Jesus Christ is His glory on earth, we glorify Him as our lives reflect and tell of this love.  Our purpose is to give witness to His glory.

Much of the confusion about purpose stems from two misunderstandings.  First, if we believe we must work for our salvation, then we will feel compelled to do something for God.  Witness is too simple of an act or not substantial enough, so we want to do something more tangible or grand, such as build a church, raise money for a cause, or do something heroic.  We forget that salvation is by grace alone, so that we might not boast in ourselves.  Rather, the best we can do is boast of God and point to what God has done and who Jesus is.  In fact, witness to God is our declaration of His unmerited love and grace toward us. 

Second, because we do not trust the power of a simple witness to change lives or change the world, we give ourselves to other activities that either supplement witness or are in place of it.  This is clearly seen in missionaries who think that the ‘natives’ have to be ‘civilized’ before they can receive a proper witness.  In the end, schools and hospitals become the purpose of missions.  Education and health care are certainly part of our response to the problems of our world and expressions of love for others, but these need to be accompanied by a verbal confession of our transformation in Jesus.

In order to maintain a clear understanding of our purpose, we need to continually remind ourselves that the Holy Spirit is the fundamental witness.  He Himself bears witness of Jesus (Jn. 15:26), and He empowers the believer for witness (Acts 1:8; Lk 24:49).  Through the work of the Spirit, our pale and faulty words become brilliant and true words of witness.  Not only our words, but our lives are transformed into true witnesses, by the mysterious work of the Spirit.

Be who you are - witnesses!  Do what is ultimate - witness!