Introduction
The twentieth-century explosion of the advancement of global mission is unprecedented. However, an important question to consider is the specific basis for global mission for today’s Christians. The purpose of this paper is to articulate a biblical and theological basis for global mission. This paper will prove that the Bible, nature of God, and mission theology provide a basis for global mission. The research provides support for the assertion that the Bible is a mission document, God is a missionary God, and several theological concepts, motifs, and practices support the basis for global mission.
Biblical Perspective
The Bible is a mission document. To support this bold claim, Christopher Wright asserts, “We could as meaningfully talk of the missional basis of the Bible as of the biblical basis of mission.”[1] Two important Old Testament texts that relate to mission are Genesis 12:1-3 and Psalm 67:1-2. First, the author of Genesis states:
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed (Genesis 12:1-3).”[2]
Scott Moreau, Gary R. Corwin, and Gary B. McGee identify three blessings of God in the passage, which include God blessing Abraham by making him a great nation, making his name great, and blessing all the people on the earth through him.[3] Importantly, Wright highlights the global context of Genesis 12 by observing that its literary context counters the Babel experience, where all the nations of the earth in Genesis 10 were scattered in Genesis 11.[4] Michael Heiser then concludes that the remainder of the Old Testament is the story of God and Israel’s missional partnership to reclaim the scattered and “disinherited nations.”[5] Psalm 67:1-2 also highlights the missional aspect of reaching all nations stating, “May God be gracious to us and bless usand make his face to shine upon us, that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations.” Wright explains that the Psalmist is referencing a priestly blessing from Numbers 6, which conveys Israel’s missional role as a priest among all the nations.[6] Importantly, it is God’s mission of redemption that is accomplished through man.
Two important New Testament texts that relate to mission are Matthew 28:19-20 and Acts 1:8. It is difficult to overestimate the missional importance of Matthew 28:19-20, which states, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Moreau, Corwin, and McGee highlight the word all that is used four times and the phrase “all nations,” which coincide well with the Old Testament verses identified above.[7] The missional nature and corresponding directives of verses 28-29 are quite clear; followers of Christ are to make disciples by going, baptizing, and teaching all nations.[8] Additionally, Acts 1:8, which powerfully unifies the Old Testament passages with Matthew 28, states, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8 provides both the power Source behind the directives of the Great Commission and the resolution to the Babel experience. Through the death and resurrection of Christ, the Spirit was released to provide the power to make disciple of all nations. Furthermore, Heiser explains that the literary context of Acts 1:8 hearkens back to the Table of Nations as the language of verse 8, “to the ends of the earth,” reflects the nations in Acts 2:5-12, whereby the dispersed disinherited nations of Babel “would again be His.”[9] God’s mission begins in Genesis, partially culminates in the New Testament, and will fully reveal itself in Revelation, which clearly supports the claim that the Bible is a mission document. Thus, regarding Scripture, Wright can appropriately assert that mission is “what it’s all about.”[10]
Nature of God
A biblical perspective of mission attests to the nature or attributes of God as a sending and caring God, which integrally connects God’s nature with mission. First, God’s sending activity is clearly seen in the Gospel of John where God sent John the Baptist (John 1:6-8), sent Jesus (John 4:34), sent the Holy Spirit (John 15:26), and sent the disciples (John 17:18). Accordingly, Moreau, Corwin, and McGee explain that the term missio Dei, the sending of God, has gained traction as scholars recognize that “mission originates in God, not in the church or in people.”[11] Second, the relationship of God’s nature to mission extends beyond the attribute of sending. God is also a caring God. God is love (1 John 4:8), God is light (1 John 1:5), and God is life (John 14:6). George Peters connects God’s nature to mission by recognizing that, because of these qualities, God “wills the benevolence of mankind and ever seeks to impart Himself to man.”[12] Without question, God’s nature as a sending, loving, light and life-giving God supports the fact that God is a missionary God, who not only originates, but also consummates the advancement of mission.
Mission Theology: Trinity and Ecclesiology
The nature of God also links mission to two other aspects of theology: Trinity and ecclesiology. Regarding the Trinity, all three Persons of the Godhead contribute to mission. First, Craig Ott, Stephen Strauss, and Timothy Tennent explain that throughout Israel’s history, God sent messengers to further His initiatives.[13] For example, according to Jeremiah, the God of Israel stated, “From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day” (Jeremiah 25:7). Second, Ott, Strauss, and Tennent note that God sent Jesus as His representative on earth to further His initiatives.[14] Matthew records Jesus’s words to highlight His representative status stating, “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me” (Matt 10:40). Finally, God sent the Holy Spirit (John 14:25). Peters observes the unique role of the Holy Spirit’s relationship to mission as the One who preserves, prepares, and prompts the world, which creates the potential for high-impact mission advancement.[15] The Gospel of John supports George’s assertion by explaining that when the Spirit comes, “He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness, and judgment” (John 16:7-8). Accordingly, Lesslie Newbigin correctly asserts, “The mission of the church is to be understood, can only be rightly understood, in terms of the trinitarian model.”[16]
The Missionary Nature Of The Church A Survey Of The Biblical Theology Of Mission
Ultimately, the triune God sends the apostle Paul (Acts 26:1-18) to propel God’s initiatives forward through the mechanism of the church. Mission theology relates to ecclesiology in three specific ways. First, as Johannes Blauw points out, the interrelationship between a theology of mission and ecclesiology is unmistakable in salvation history, for God repeatedly calls people out of the world, places them back in the world, and then sends them to the world (Gen 12:3; Exod 19:4-6; Mark 3:14-15; 1 Pet 2:9-10).[17] Second, Ott, Strauss, and Tennent rightly assert that the church is the agent God chose to further His mission in the current age.[18] As God’s agent of mission, the church is the “pillar and buttress of the truth” (1 Tim 3:15), and a royal priesthood to “proclaim the excellencies” of God to those in the dark (1 Pet 2:9). Third, Blauw asserts that the church manifests and proclaims the mission of Christ’s Lordship.[19] In other words, the church manifests the kingdom of God as it broke into human history through Jesus. Based on salvation history, agency relationship, and kingdom establishment, J. Andrew Kirk appropriately concludes, “The Church is by nature missionary to the extent that, if it ceases to be missionary, it has not just failed in one of its tasks, it has ceased to be the Church.”[20]
Mission Theology Motifs
The intersection of ecclesiology and mission theology that propels God’s kingdom forward provides the impetus to explore the first of two key motifs of mission theology. Ott, Strauss, and Tennent explain that the kingdom of God motif broadly encompasses God’s divine rule over all thing by reconciling and restoring humanity to Himself by overthrowing the enemy.[21] Peters elaborates on the definition by suggesting that the kingdom of God qualitatively includes the rule of God in the heart of man, the church, and in the world, and quantitatively implies a universalistic objective reality that includes all nations.[22] The Old Testament attests to the kingdom of God by specifically referencing God as the King of Israel, and more generally as the King of all nations.[23] However, the kingdom of God motif does not end with the Old Testament. Ott, Strauss, and Tennent explain that the kingdom of God is uniquely inaugurated into the world through the coming of Christ where God’s kingdom is established within believers through faith.[24] Moreau, Corwin, and McGee assert that mission and kingdom are “inextricably intertwined” as the kingdom of God is both now and not yet, the current center of gravity and the goal of mission, the location of all Christian participation and enemy attacks (Eph 6:12-13).[25] Certainly, the kingdom of God motif resides at the very core of mission theology.
The kingdom of God motif sets the stage for the second key motif of mission theology. If the kingdom of God pertains the rule of God, shalom pertains to how God’s people live under His Lordship. Glasser et al. note that the Old Testament term, shalom (שָׁלוֹם), refers to a gift of Yahweh, which means victory in war or “harmony within the community.”[26] The term is recontextualized in the New Testament where the word, shalom or peace (εἰρήνη), pertains to God’s gift of reconciling believers with God through Christ.[27] However, Moreau, Corwin, and McGee recognize that the shalom motif extends beyond personal salvation to the rest of the world.[28] Specifically, Christians have been freed from the bondage of Satan and are now called to “participate in the kingdom conflict of setting others free by calling them to bond to Christ.”[29] Finally, Ott, Strauss, and Tennent suggest that shalom extends holistically to the practical outworking of God, which includes caring for the sick, poor, and oppressed.[30] Believers living life under God’s rule by extending shalom to the rest of the world through salvific and physical means also provide a central motif of mission theology.
Mission Praxis
Mission theology provides several practical implications for all participants involved in mission activity, which including missionaries, church, leaders, and lay people. First and foremost, the concept of missio Dei highlights the fact that God is a sending God, thus all mission activity originates from God. Mission participants are invited to join the triune God in His activity of reconciling all people to Himself through the Son’s obedience to the Father by the power of the Spirit. Second, when participants recognize the interrelationship between ecclesiology and mission, a practical dialogue regarding exactly how each local body will participate in joining God in His activity can ensue. Third, if the kingdom of God pertains broadly to God’s rule, then mission participants must lead the way in submitting to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in their own lives, as well as extending God’s rule in their churches and into all parts of the world. Finally, the method to extend the kingdom of God and His rule is not through coercion or force, but through shalom. The concept of shalom aligns well with Augusto Rodríguez’s observation that the ecclesiology of the mission-oriented New Apostolic Paradigm supports a relational, rather than a positional approach to authority, where leaders lead by serving rather than by coercion.[31] As peacemakers, mission participants must not only proclaim the gospel, but also live the gospel of reconciliation by defending the poor, exploited, and oppressed with the heart of a servant. Whether mission participants are full-time missionaries, church leaders, or lay people, all are called to join God in His mission activity of reconciling humanity to Himself through the local church by extending His kingdom to all nations via shalom.
Conclusion
The limited scope of this paper precludes a comprehensive basis for global mission. However, based on the biblical evidence, the nature of God’s mission activity, as well as the numerous interrelationships between mission and the theological concepts of the trinity, the church, the kingdom of God, and shalom, it appears that a theological basis for global mission clearly exists. Furthermore, the result of mission theology has several practical implications, which include the participation in God’s ongoing mission activity, the extension of church activity beyond the Sunday morning walls, and the direct involvement in kingdom expansion to all people through proclamation and service.
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[1] Christopher J. H. Wright, The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2006), 29.
[2] Unless otherwise noted, all biblical passages referenced are in the English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2001).
[3] A. Scott Moreau, Gary R. Corwin, and Gary B. McGee, Introducing World Missions: A Biblical, Historical, and Practical Survey, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2015), 32–33.
[4] Wright, The Mission of God, 202–3.
[5] Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham, 2015), 113–15. Heiser’s perspective is based on a Deuteronomy 32:8-9 worldview whereby the nations in Genesis 10 were disinherited by God
[6] Wright, The Mission of God, 477.
[7] Moreau, Corwin, and McGee, Introducing World Missions, 43–44.
[8] Ibid., 45.
[9] Heiser, The Unseen Realm, 298–302.
[10] Christopher J. H. Wright, “Truth with a Mission: Reading All Scripture Missiologically,” The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 15, no. 2 (Summer 2011): 6.
[11] Moreau, Corwin, and McGee, Introducing World Missions, 71.
[12] George W. Peters, A Biblical Theology of Missions (Chicago: Moody Press, 1972), 60.
[13] Craig Ott, Stephen J. Strauss, and Timothy C. Tennent, Encountering Theology of Mission: Biblical Foundations, Historical Developments, and Contemporary Issues, ed. A. Scott Moreau (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2010), 66.
[14] Ibid., 68.
[15] Peters, A Biblical Theology, 81.
[16] Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989), 118.
[17] Johannes Blauw, The Missionary Nature of the Church: A Survey of Biblical Theology of Mission (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1962), 194.
[18] Ott, Strauss, and Tennent, Encountering Theology of Mission, 195.
[19] Blauw, The Missionary Nature, 84.
[20] J. Andrew Kirk, What Is Mission?: Theological Exploration (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2000), 30.
[21] Ott, Strauss, and Tennent, Encountering Theology of Mission, 86.
[22] Peters, A Biblical Theology, 40–42.
[23] Ibid., 40.
[24] Ott, Strauss, and Tennent, Encountering Theology of Mission, 87.
[25] Moreau, Corwin, and McGee, Introducing World Missions, 77–78.
[26] Arthur F. Glasser et al., Announcing the Kingdom: The Story of God’s Mission in the Bible (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2003), 130.
[27] Ibid.
[28]Moreau, Corwin, and McGee, Introducing World Missions, 80–81.
[29] Ibid., 81.
[30] Ott, Strauss, and Tennent, Encountering Theology of Mission, 131–32.
[31] Augusto Rodríguez, Paradigms of the Church in Mission: A Historical Survey of the Church’s Self-Understanding of Being the Church and of Mission (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2012), 59–60.
Bibliography
- Blauw, Johannes. The Missionary Nature of the Church: A Survey of Biblical Theology of Mission. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1962.
- Glasser, Arthur F., Charles E. Van Engen, Dean S. Gilliland, Shawn B. Redford, and Paul Hiebert. Announcing the Kingdom: The Story of God’s Mission in the Bible. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2003.
- Heiser, Michael S. The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible. Bellingham, WA: Lexham, 2015.
- Kirk, J. Andrew. What Is Mission?: Theological Exploration. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2000.
- Moreau, A. Scott, Gary R. Corwin, and Gary B. McGee. Introducing World Missions: A Biblical, Historical, and Practical Survey. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2015.
- Newbigin, Lesslie. The Gospel in a Pluralist Society. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989.
- Ott, Craig, Stephen J. Strauss, and Timothy C. Tennent. Encountering Theology of Mission: Biblical Foundations, Historical Developments, and Contemporary Issues. Edited by A. Scott Moreau. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2010.
- Peters, George W. A Biblical Theology of Missions. Chicago: Moody Press, 1972.
- Rodríguez, Augusto. Paradigms of the Church in Mission: A Historical Survey of the Church’s Self-Understanding of Being the Church and of Mission. Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2012.
- Wright, Christopher J. H. The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2006.
- ———. “Truth with a Mission: Reading All Scripture Missiologically.” The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 15, no. 2 (Summer 2011): 4–15.
