What is the Mission?

[Frank Viola]

Thanks for all the nice "welcomes" to this site. How long has it been up? I just heard about it.

 

One of the things I predicted this year is that the question "what exactly is the Mission?" will define the missional conversation over the next 5 years.

 

Many Christians assume a common understanding of God's grand and ultimate mission. But there's quite a bit of diversity on it.

 

This is an important question, and one that begs for an answer.

 

So I leave the question for you to answer:

 

WHAT IS THE MISSION exactly?

 

fv

 

Psalm 115:1

 

Blog: Beyond Evangelical - http://www.frankviola.org

[James Nored]

Frank, the Missional Outreach Network (MON) was started in November of 2008.

[James Nored]

Also Mark, your folow-up question of what is God doing in our community, and how can I be part of it, is excellent. It falls very much in line with missional theology, which includes the idea that the Spirit of God has been sent into the world ahead of us, and we are following in his footsteps.

[James Nored]

Yes, Mark, for too long we have thought of mission as something that is only far away. We should be a sending church that sends out missionaries. However, we are also a sent church in our local context. This is part of what the authors of Missional Church (ed. Darrell Guder, et. al.) were trying to correct. The church is sent in North America too.

[James Nored]

Frank, we're thrilled to have you join! 

 

I'm glad that you asked such a simple, easy question. :) In his magnus opus, Transforming Mission, David Bosch gives eight different definitions of mission, and says that there is no settled definition of the term. 

 

This is, of course, the nature of language. Just look up any word in the dictionary and you will find multiple definitions. 

 

I would condense mission into three different types of definitions. First, mission can refer to God’s comprehensive movement towards achieving his redemptive goals and plans for all of creation—a movement in which the church participates. This is God’s “overall mission.” Christopher J. H. Wright, The Mission of God's People: A Biblical Theology of the Church's Mission (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2010), 25. Second, mission can refer to all that the church does to participate in God’s redemptive mission; however, “if everything is mission, nothing is mission.” Stephen Neill, Creative Tension (London: Edinburgh House, 1959). Third, mission can refer to the outward impulse and outward activities of the church that are directed towards the redemption of the world. The context would then determine the proper definition and use of mission.

 

Mission is a Latin form of missio, which means "to send," and any discussion mission must look at 1) the missio Dei (mission of God); 2) the overall narrative of Scripture, which is a missional document; 3) the overall narrative of Jesus' life and mission; and 4) seminal passages/statements of Jesus which deal with "sending" and why Jesus said that he came to earth.

 

David Bosch states that “we cannot, with integrity, reflect on what mission might mean today unless we turn to the Jesus of the New Testament, since our mission is ‘moored’ to Jesus’ person and ministry,’” (Transforming Mission, 74) There is indeed biblical warrant for Bosch’s assessment. In Matthew and Mark, Jesus begins his call, saying, “Come, follow me . . . and I will send you out to fish for people” (Mt. 4:19; Mk. 1:17). In these gospels, the disciples’ sending is from the beginning patterned after that of Jesus. John concludes his gospel with Jesus saying, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (Jn. 20:21). From these passages, it is clear that the disciples’ mission, and thus the church’s mission, is patterned after the mission of Christ.

 

Any study of mission, obviously, must go back to the narrative or it is reductionistic. But, for simplicity's sake, I have defined mission, or missional outreach (using the third use of mission as defined above), from three statements that Jesus made.

1) Seeking the lost from Lk. 19:10, where Jesus said that he came to seek and save the lost.

2) Serving others (the community) in their areas of brokenness from Mk. 10:45, where Jesus said that he came to serve and give his life as a ransom

3) Sharing the good news of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God, from Lk. 4:43, where Jesus said that he had to go and preach the kingdom of God as he was sent to do.

 

In this, I'm following a Hirsch formula (and others) of Christology informing missiology informing ecclessiology.

 

Your thoughts?