The church in the twenty-first century needs to keep the “sending” element of Christian mission in the foreground. Biblical mission is God’s mission. Mission is participation in the mission of Jesus Christ, the Lord of the Church, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Mission is not merely church extension, nor is it merely doing good works of compassion. Mission is not to be determined by a mission agency’s particular bias or agenda. Today, as many cross-cultural missionaries are sent from and supported by churches and mission agencies in Asia, Africa, and Latin America as the total sent from Europe and North America. yet in the final analysis the “senders” are not the denomination, not the mission agency, not the mega-church or its senior pastor, not a nongovernmental relief agency, self-proclaimed apostle, large relief agency, or a more advanced culture. The Sender is Jesus Christ whose authority defines, circumscribes, limits and propels Christian mission.
Charles Van Engen in MissionShift.
30 replies on “Sending”
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Yes, and you and I both know what that means – at least, I think I do. But I feel we need as concise a way to tell the man on the Clapham omnibus what mission actually is. Telling people about John 3:16, feeding the poor, changing political structures, building a replica Ark in Kentucky? Gods mission is… finish the sentence in a way my folks will understand.
I agree, Dave. But I don’t think that this quote (from a fairly academic book) was aiming at the man on the Clapham omnibus.
Fairy snuff!
Here’s my sixpenn’orth: ‘Gods mission is to restore his rule and reign on earth and thereby renew the whole of creation. Your salvation is part of that, but it is not the whole story’ Marks out of ten?
I’m feeling picky, so you only get nine and a half.
OK, better luck next time!
I will have a look at your poet’s link at home – I can’t get sound here in the office
Of course, this begs the question as to what the mission of the church (or an individual church) is within God’s overall mission.
It’s a little bugbear of mine, actually. I love the fact that we now talk of mission where we used to talk of evangelism; mission being the big task, evangelism being a sub-task (am I getting this right?) but I think a lot of Christian vocabulary of mission is opaque to many ordinary Christians. Hence the question.
Again, I agree with you. One of my bugbears is that too much of talk about mission takes human activity, rather than God’s work, as its starting point.
I’ve just started to read ‘The Mission of God’ so it is on my mind right now.
that’ll keep you going for a while!
Yeah, smal print and no pictures – not my kind of thing at all
Incidentally, that book you sent by Osvaldo Padilla is proving very useful right now – his ch on Stephen’s speech in Acts 7 is mint. I’m working on that right now.
Brilliant; I really enjoyed it. I’m working on Acts at the moment myself – writing something on how Paul made decisions.
I think he used a dream catcher, didn’t he?
That and a magic belt
There you are, article written!
Just have to spin it out to a thousand words and I’m done.
Chuck in a few jokes, mate!
Why did the Apostle cross the road?
???
dunno either; I can’t think of many Acts jokes!
Try these for starters: The apostle crossed the road so that the other side could be reached. The apostle’s action reflected cross-cultural lifestyle. The apostle had had a vision in which someone he hadn’t met pleaded “come over and help us”. The apostle crossed the road because the church on his side of the road had commissioned him to do so.
(OK, two feeble puns, and two one-liners in the spirit of the list that circulated on the internet about 20 years ago of why famous historical and present-day figures crossed the road.)
PS. Please do not share your marks out of ten.
If I find any…
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