Mission Formation

We really do need a broader conception of mission.  Mission does not necessarily mean ‘missionary’ nor must it refer solely to the missionary enterprise.  Missionary is a vocational designation and the missionary enterprise is only one avenue through which we give witness.  Mission is much larger than any one vocation or a particular endeavor.  I prefer to think of mission as signifying a way of being or a lifestyle (as well as other things).  It denotes a way of being with God and in the world as a witness to His glory.  Therefore, mission formation is the particular process through which we are transformed into God’s people for witness to the people wherever we might encounter them.  This witness could take place in Waco, Dallas, New York, Ghana, or Tibet.  What is crucial to mission is not necessarily a particular place but formation into a particular kind person.  Formation to mission is crucial, and thus, we need clear thinking regarding what this looks like. 

1. Mission formation orients life toward the missio Dei, the mission of God.  God’s movement toward creation in redemptive and healing love is the focus, rather than a program of the church (ministry), or an organization of the denomination (mission board), or a vocation (missionary).  Mission formation pushes us beyond temporal emphases and programs and causes us to look for the activity of God.  By focusing on God, the primal missionary, we come closer to being party to what he is doing in the world.
2. Mission formation takes place within the realities of life.  Instead of retreating from life or disengaging from the realities of the world, mission formation engages the needs of the world and the lives of people.  In no way does this negate spiritual disciplines or an emphasis on the interior life.  Yet, outside of engagement with the world, formation is incomplete and can even be malformed. 
3. Mission formation must focus on the peoples of the world.  Because the Creator loves the world, he sends his Son, Jesus Christ.  As the Father sends his Son, the Triune God sends his followers (Jn. 20:21).  Formation exists for the preparation of followers for witness to the nations.  If formation becomes an end in itself, then the Christ life can become solely about our development or personal and national interests.  If election becomes about us, our families, and our nation, as it did for Israel, then we become disqualified as witnesses.

Talk is cheap, and thus, doing must be expensive.  Obeying what we know to do and what we know to be right is the hard work of any kind of formation but especially that which missional.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes,

You can only learn what obedience is by obeying. It is no use asking questions; for it only through obedience that you come to learn the truth. With our conscience distracted by sin, we are confronted by the call of Jesus to spontaneous obedience. (The Cost of Discipleship, 78)

The call to God’s mission does more than give us a new vocation, or relocate us outside the border of the U.S., or require us to learn a new language.  It is an expensive call to obedience, to know God’s truth.