What Is Missions?

In defining the term “mission” and “missions”, it is important to recognize that it is not found in the Bible, unlike covenant, justification, or gospel, for example. Mission comes from the Latin verb, mittere, which corresponds to the Greek verb apostellein (to send), but the word never occurs in a noun form that could be translated as “mission”. The definition of the term is therefore up for discussion.

It is also important to distinguish between the terms “mission” and “missions”. Modern theologians use mission to refer either to God’s mission in the world (i. e., His redemptive plans) and the church’s mission as received from the Lord and laid out in Scripture. Meanwhile, missions refers to various undertakings of the Church toward fulfilling its one mission.

There is significant disagreement even among conservative evangelicals on what the church’s mission is. According to authors Kevin DeYoung and Greg Gilbert,

From many conversations in print, online, and in person our sense is that this whole issue of mission (along with related issues like kingdom, social justice, shalom, cultural mandate, and caring for the poor) is the most confusing, most discussed, most energizing, and most potentially divisive issue in the evangelical church today. It is certainly a likely fault line in the so-called young, restless, and Reformed movement.

(Kevin DeYoung & Greg Gilbert, What Is the Mission of the Church?, p. 25.)

It is therefore important to have a biblically informed understanding of mission since this will have important implications on the secondary issue of missions.

Aside from having a correct understanding of the broad themes of Scripture, the most important step to developing a biblical definition of mission is to look at key passages, particularly the Great Commissions of the Gospels and Acts, as well as the example of the apostle Paul. Before this, however, it will help to consider some other passages that have been wrongly suggested as defining the mission of the church.

A. Misused Passages

Genesis 12:1-3. Some argue from this passage that the heart of God’s mission and ours is to be a blessing. However, such an interpretation is problematic because as this promise unfolds in the story of the patriarchs, it becomes clear that God was the one who blessed the patriarchs and those who treated them as friends. Abraham did not take his call in chapter 12 as a command to go find ways to bless the nations. In fact, from a broader biblical perspective, the promise to Abraham is not focused on him and his descendants bringing God’s blessing to the nations, but on his Seed, the Messiah, as being the blessing (cf. Gen 3:15 and Mat 1:2).

Exodus 19:5-6. Some argue that Israel’s identity as a “kingdom of priests” meant that they were to be intermediaries for God’s blessing to the world, and that therefore the church has the same role. But this view wrongly assumes that the mediatorial role of the Levitical priesthood was about incarnating God’s presence, when in fact, Scripture’s emphasis is on their responsibility to propitiate God’s wrath against sin (cf. Hebrews 4:14-5:10; 7:1-28; 10:1-18). If Israel was indeed responsible for going out to bless the nations, then why did the prophets never rebuke the nation for such negligence?

Luke 4:16-21. According to many, Luke 4 shows that Jesus’ mission was focused on good deeds toward the materially poor and oppressed. Sadly, this ignores the thrice-repeated verb, proclaim, which carries the force of the passage. Although Jesus healed, His primary ministry was to proclaim the good news. What DeYoung and Gilbert said of Jesus’ healing ministry can also be said of His ministry to the poor and oppressed:

Don’t miss this fact: there is not a single example of Jesus going into a town with the stated purpose of healing or casting out demons. He never ventured out on a healing and exorcism tour. He certainly did a lot of this along the way. He was moved with pity at human need (Mark 8:2). But the reason he “came out” was “that [he] may preach” (1:38).

(DeYoung-Gilbert, p. 5)

B. The Great Commission Passages

Some missiologists argue that we must define mission based only on imperatives from some isolated passages, but rather see the entire Bible as calling us to join in the mission of God. However, this requires an unbiblical assumption that our mission has the same scope as God’s. In fact, there are clearly aspects of God’s mission that we have nothing to do with, such as the slaying of the wicked, dying for the sins of the world, the inauguration and consummation of the kingdom, regenerating spiritually dead souls, and creating the new heaven and earth. Therefore, instead of adopting a hermeneutic that assumes a priori that all of God’s mission is to be our own, it is better to be directed by specific commands given to the church, ie, the “Great Commission” passages.

Matthew 28:16-20. This passage shows that the church’s primary mission is to make disciples, not simply to bless others in a general way. Because all of the apostles were Jewish, they would have clearly understood that nations referred to here were the Gentile nations. Therefore, this passage promotes work that crosses ehtnic, cultural, and geographical boundaries. The authority to do this comes from Christ, who in turn has received this authority from the Father.

Mark 13:10 and 14:9. Unlike the other Gospels, Mark does not include a post-resurrection Great Commission in his account (assuming, as most evangelical scholars do, that Mark really ends with 16:8.) Nevertheless, 13:10 and 14:9 contain implied imperatives that the disciples must proclaim the gospel to all nations throughout the whole world.

Luke 24:44-49. This Great Commission tells us that the primary content of the church’s message must be repentance and forgiveness of sins in the name of the crucified and resurrected Christ. The promised Holy Spirit will empower the church to fulfill this mission. Like Matthew, Luke records Christ’s emphasis on proclamation to all nations. But Luke adds that this will begin from Jerusalem.

Acts 1:8. The Great Commission in Acts is particularly important because what follows it is the history of precisely how the apostles and the New Testament church fulfilled their calling to be Christ’s witnesses. We see a church committed primarily to a mission of proclaiming the gospel and making disciples. Works of charity are explicitly said to be of subordinate importance to “prayer and the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4). This emphasis on disciple-making through gospel proclamation is carried out, first in Jerusalem (Acts 2-7), Judea and Samaria (8), and to the end of the earth (9-28).

C. Paul’s Missionary Example

Since Paul is the missionary par excellence of the Bible, his perspective on gospel ministry to the nations shows us how he applied Christ’s instructions in the Great Commissions.

The book of Acts includes two accounts of Christ’s commission to Paul. The first and more familiar one from Acts 9:15-16 is also the shorter one:

15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. 16 For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”

How was Paul to carry Christ’s name to others? What would this look like? We are only told here that it will be accompanied by suffering, but the means of fulfilling this commission is revealed more clearly in the second account in Acts 26:12-18.

16 But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, 17 delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you 18 to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

Paul was appointed as a servant of Christ, with the specific responsibility to witness to the gospel of Christ. Paul’s objective was, to open people’s eyes to their desperate situation and turn to God for forgiveness and sanctification. (The sanctification referred to here is definitive or positional rather than progressive.) Paul pursued this objective by declaring (ἀπαγγέλλω) to people that they should repent and turn to God (cf. verse 20). Paul did not go from city to city in order to heal the sick and uplift the materially poor, but to show people the way of salvation and form them into healthy congregations by preaching “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27).

This is further emphasized by the fact that Paul expected his congregations to be evangelistic communities: the Thessalonians (1 Thes 1:8; 2:13-16; and 3:1), the Philippians (Phil 1:12-18), the Ephesians (Eph 6:15, 19), the Corinthians (1 Cor 4:16; 7:12-16; 11:1; and 14:23-25), and Titus’ congregation (Tit 2:1-10).

D. What Is the Church’s Mission?

What is, therefore, the Church’s mission? We might put it this way: The Church’s mission is to make disciples of all nations by preaching repentance from sins and faith in Christ for salvation, and [gathering/grafting/establishing] these disciples into local churches that they may worship and obey the Lord as a people set apart for Him.

This would would call for every member of the church to participate in missions work in a way that is appropriate to their ability. Moreover, church should cultivate in each member a mindset of being an active and accountable partner in missions, not merely a passive supporter. (See Trevor Holloway, “From Spectators to Teammates: A Better Approach to Funding Missionaries”, <http://reachingandteaching.org/2017/06/spectators-teammates-better-approach-funding-missionaries.html>.)

E. Missions and Evangelism

What then is the relationship between “mission,” “missions,” and “evangelism”? This is illustrated in the diagram below.

Figure 1: Mission, Missions & Evangelism

As seen here, both missions and evangelism fall completely within the scope of the church’s mission. The two also overlap. However, not all evangelism will be considered missions, but only that which intentionally directs the evangelized into a local church for the purpose of discipleship.

By implication, any ministry that engages in evangelism without a long-term discipleship strategy will fall outside the purview of the Missions Program. This does exclude it from endorsement by the church, but it will not be considered a missions activity.