MSPG 5 - Defining "Mission" and "Missions"
I don't pretend to be a missions expert, but the church has to start somewhere. The Lord has been teaching me more and more about missions since 2015, and I've spent a lot of time in the last two years exploring this important aspect of the church's life.
Since Elynne and I are planning to migrate soon to study at TMS, I don't have much time to share what I've been learning with others. So in the next five months, January to May, I'm holding a weekly "Missions Study & Prayer Group" (MSPG) to equip them to help in the church's developing missions program.
For overviews and links to all the lessons in this ongoing series, click here.
Therefore mission precedes missions, and it is important to have a biblically informed understanding of the first since this will have implications on our understanding of the second.
“Mission”
Wrong Definitions
There are several problematic ways that evangelicals have been defining mission.1. “Mission is everything that God is doing in the world.”
Some missiologists argue that we must not focus on imperatives from isolated passages, and rather see the entire Bible as calling us to join in the mission of God.(DeYoung-Gilbert, 41-42) “One of the biggest missteps in much of the newer mission literature is an assumption that whatever God is doing in the world, this too is our task. … But what if we are not called to partner with God in all he undertakes? What if the work of salvation, restoration, and re-creation are divine gifts to which we bear witness, rather than works in which we collaborate? What if our mission is not identical with God’s mission? What if we carry on Jesus’s mission but not in the same way he carried it out? Isn’t it better to locate our responsibility in the tasks we are given rather than in the work we see God accomplishing?”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, both the inauguration & consummation of the kingdom, regenerating spiritually dead souls, creation of the New Heaven & Earth.
Therefore, instead of adopting a hermeneutic that assumes a priori (and wrongly) 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.
2. “Mission is remaking the world.”
God will remake the world, in a sense, with the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and the establishing of His earthly kingdom. The final remaking of the world will be when the present creation is burned up and God makes the new heavens and earth (2 Peter 3:10-13).3. “Mission is being ‘incarnational’.”
(DeYoung-Gilbert, 54) “It is very popular to assume that missions is always incarnational. And of course on one level it is. We go and live among the people. We try to emulate the humility and sacrifice of Christ (Phil. 2:5–11). But incarnationalism in missions often means more than this. It means that we model our ministry on Jesus’s ministry. For Stott, and many others after him, this means the mission of the church is service. “Therefore,” says Stott, “our mission, like his, is to be one of service.” Evangelism and social action, therefore, are full partners in Christian mission.”Meeting physical needs has its place in the church’s work (Titus 2:15; Eph 2:10). But Jesus’ ministry was not focused on meeting physical needs, nor did he spend all, or even most, of his time with the impoverished and sick. He did spend a lot of time healing and casting out demons, but even more time teaching the people and teaching the disciples. Other times, He was alone.
(DeYoung-Gilbert, 55) “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).”
How Do We Develop A Biblical Definition?
Aside from having a correct understanding of the broad themes of Scripture, the most important step to developing a biblical definition is to look at the Great Commission passages of the Gospels and Acts. Also helpful is to look at the example of the apostle Paul.Why Emphasize the "Great Commission Passages"?
Some missiologists say we shouldn’t focus on imperatives from isolated passages, and 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.It’s also better to look to the NT rather than the OT for marching orders for God’s new covenant people. Although the Old Testament did anticipate the new covenant, it was primarily focused on OT Israel. Moreover, the incomplete, less clear revelation of the OT should be viewed in light of the complete, clearer revelation of the NT.
(DeYoung-Gilbert, 43) “Missions, in the sense of God’s people being actively sent out to other peoples with a task to accomplish, is as new as the New Testament.”The Great Commissions are of strategic importance in the Gospels. They are Jesus’ final words on earth, preserved in some form in three of the Gospels (and in Mark in a slightly different form) and again in Acts.
(DeYoung-Gilbert, 43) “The biblical authors and the early church understood Jesus’s final words to be among the most important sentences he ever uttered, and the most significant instructions he gave for shaping their missional identity.”In fact, literary analysis shows that the Great Commission passages are key to each of the Gospels.
(DeYoung-Gilbert, 45) “The Great Commissions... actually shape the whole story, either as the climax to which everything points or as the fountain from which everything flows.”
Paul's 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 is from Acts 9:15-16:
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.”The second passage is 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.’So we learn that Paul was appointed to as a witness to Christ. Paul’s objective was, to open their eyes, and the ultimate purpose was that people 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. How did Paul go about pursuing this objective? By declaring (ἀπαγγέλλω) to people that they should repent and turn to God (v. 20).
Therefore, Paul exemplifies a missions model that focuses the faithful proclamation of the gospel, even in the midst of much suffering.
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)
- Titus’ congregation (Tit 2:1-10)
A Biblical Definition
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 these disciples into local churches that they may worship and obey the Lord as His sanctified (ie, set apart) people.
“Missions”
Having laid out a working definition of the church’s mission, we can now discuss what missions is. As previously mentioned, missions refers to various undertakings of the Church toward fulfilling its one mission. But what might be included in such undertakings? In other words, what is the scope of missions? Let us consider a few options, from the narrowest to the broadest view.View #1 — Missions as Primarily to the Unreached People Groups
This is an extreme view that emphasizes the fact that the Christ’s Second Coming will occur only once “this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world” (Mat 24:14). Paul’s personal ambition to preach the gospel to those who have never heard of Christ (Romans 15:20-21) is applied to all missionary activity. Therefore, the argument is that missions ought to focus primarily on the Unreached People Groups, namely, those whose population has only 2% or less evangelicals and 5% or less Christians.View #2 — Missions Is Specifically “To the Nations”
This view emphasizes the fact that the church is to go to “all nations”.Missions is clearly distinguished from evangelism in that the latter is focused on the local community while the former is focused on disciple-making across geographical, cultural, and ethnic barriers.
The scope of missions is smaller than the scope of the Great Commission.
This is the historical view of missions, especially since William Carey began the modern Protestant missionary movement.
During his time, Protestant churches were eager to evangelize the unconverted within the “Christian” nations, but were uninterested in reaching “the heathen” nations. Missions, therefore, was seen as distinct from the evangelism that churches were already doing.
Many churches and missionary agencies adopt this view, probably due to practical reasons:
- Grace Community Church / GMI / TMS / TEA — John Macarthur
- Capitol Hill Baptist Church / 9Marks — Mark Dever
- Bethlehem Baptist Church — John Piper (formerly)
View #3 — Missions Involves both Local Evangelism and Foreign Missions
In this view, missions cover everything from local evangelism to foreign missions. It is sharing the gospel to anyone, anywhere.Emphasized here is the church’s “sentness”, that it is God’s representative to all unconverted people, whether they be in the local community or overseas.
Luke’s commission accounts (Luke 24:44-49 and Acts 1:8) seem to support this view, since they indicate that missions began with Jerusalem and spread outward. The scope of missions is said to be the same as the combined scope of all the Great Commissions.
Emphasis on the church’s “sentness” was popularized in the late 90s and early 2000s as part of the idea of the “missional” church.
The HRCC MANUAL also seems to lean toward this view:
(HRCC) “mission-sending work – e.g. establishing outreaches or daughter churches, engaging in short-term missions and other ministry opportunities.”
Recommendation: Views #1, 2
There are many practical reasons to adopt the second view:- It’s simpler. If you want to refer to CCO, all you have to say is “missions,” not “cross-cultural outreach”. Plus, this is the understanding of most evangelicals.
- It protects funds that should go to CCO.
- It has the strongest Scriptural support because of the New Testament use of the verb apostello (to send). While the New Testament never uses the noun form apostelein (ie, missions), the connection is close enough. Clearly, the Lord has sent the church to begin preaching the gospel locally and then proceed to the ends of the earth.
- It is also practical to see missions as involving both local evangelism and foreign missions because the Higher Rock Membership Manual seems to implicitly adopt this view. It speaks of “mission-sending work – e.g. establishing outreaches or daughter churches, engaging in short-term missions and other ministry opportunities.”
Things may change in the future, but that’s where we are right now.
Prayer Items
1. Ministry in India2. IGSL Friends - Eli & Sunita, Abaid & Lubna, Sunil & Nosheen
3. UPG - The Broq-pa of India
