The BLB Blog

The official blog of Blue Letter Bible

The Joy of Mission

Posted on Posted by

Lesslie Newbigin:

“There has been a long tradition which sees the mission of the Church primarily as obedience to a command. It has been customary to speak of ‘the missionary mandate.’ This way of putting the matter is certainly not without justification, and yet it seems to me that is misses the point.

It tends to make mission a burden rather than a joy, to make it part of the law rather than part of the gospel. If one looks at the New Testament evidence one gets another impression. Mission begins with a kind of explosion of joy. The news that the rejected and crucified Jesus is alive is something that cannot possibly be suppressed. It must be told. Who could be silent about such a fact?

The mission of the Church in the pages of the New Testament is more like the fallout from a vast explosion, a radioactive fallout which is not lethal but life-giving. One searches in vain through the letters of St. Paul to find any suggestion that he anywhere lays it on the conscience of his readers that they ought to be active in mission.

For himself it is inconceivable that he should keep silent. ‘Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!’ (1 Cor. 9:16). But nowhere do we find him telling his readers that they have a duty to do so. It is a striking fact, moreover, that almost all the proclamations of the gospel which are described in Acts are in response to questions asked by those outside the Church.”

(from Lesslie Newbigin’s The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (1989), 116.

 

Comments

  1. For me I can see only one goal, to become like Christ. It’s not the sometimes silly “WWJD” thing, it’s building a real relationship with the Father through study and prayer. As you move more toward “Christ likeness” you will instinctively reach out to others as directed by the Spirit. Does this mean that we ought to stay put and not travel abroad? Absolutely not. I believe we grow the most when “on the road”. But, a “missionary mandate” is just ridiculous and sounds typical of what is found in the church. The Spirit of God lays a burden on someone’s heart for the lost someplace, and this person, who is in a position of authority, takes their personal call and forces it onto everyone else. My calling is not your calling, is not his calling, is not her calling. As for me, myself, I am not called to the “lost”. I am called to the “body”. This doesn’t mean that I don’t share Christ with people, it just means that it does not happen very often. God brings believers across my path that generally need a “course correction”. A word or two of encouragement. Prayer. A helping hand, if you will. And as I reach out in love and ministry, I grow. Unfortunately, so many people have been fed so much wrong information in the church, that on the rare occasion I may talk about the ministry I’ve been given, I will generally get a head tilt, like a dog that hears a new sound, it does not compute right away. But so many folks are incredibly hungry for the word and truth, it’s a true joy to hand them a tool or two and show them the path of discovery, after all, it is the Spirit of God that has been given to us to be our teacher and to lead us into all truth. Not men. I believe that is all I ought to share at this time. Thank you, and God bless you.

    • It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:11-12.)

      This seems to be clear direction for God’s purpose for our lives. Some of us ARE called to be missionaries to foreign lands, and some of us are called to various mission fields of different kinds, but ALL of us are gifted uniquely in accordance with the perfection in which we were created and to fulfill this purpose of contributing to the growth and maturity of the Body of Christ that is the church.

      There is a wonderful book that does an excellent job of clarifying the gifts of the spirit and God’s expectations for how we are to use our gifts to edify the church, and thereby to reflect the glory of God. The book is Body Life, by Ray Stedman. I recommend it highly!