As I travel around the UK, I hear views expressed which concern me because they reveal some basic misconceptions about world mission. In this series I want to address some of these ‘missiological myths’.

Myth 2: We, the Church, do mission because of ‘The Great Commission’

At first sight there is nothing particularly wrong with this ‘missiological myth’. My contention, however, is that this myth is responsible for much of the weakness of mission in so many local churches and needs to be robustly challenged.

Let me explain what I mean. It goes without saying, of course, that one of the very clearest of statements about the challenge to and responsibility of the church of Christ as far as world mission is concerned is to be found in those verses at the end of Matthew 28. Indeed, it would be foolish to underestimate the importance of those words for they are repeated, in one form or another, four times: once each in the Gospels of Mark and John; and by Luke twice, once in his Gospel and once the Acts of the Apostles. As the Teacher par exemple Jesus was repeating his lesson, drumming it in and reinforcing it in the hearts and minds of his disciples.

FRINGE ACTIVITY 

Given that mission is at the very heart of God, it should come as no surprise to find that the great theme of his book, the Bible, is mission. The problem, though, comes in the perception of so many of today’s Christians and churches that these verses somehow stand alone in the teaching of Scripture and therefore are seen as little more than rather isolated proof texts on which those with a particular interest in mission have built a great emphasis. If indeed the call to mission is only to be found in a few verses in the Gospels then we might be justified in treating world mission as a fringe activity or optional extra for the people of God.

The truth could hardly be more different. Far from being restricted to a few verses at the close of Jesus’ earthly ministry, world mission is the great theme of the whole of God’s word, running from Genesis right through to the close of Revelation, and being found explicitly or implicitly on almost every page of Scripture.

Given that mission is at the very heart of God, it should come as no surprise to find that the great theme of his book, the Bible, is mission. Indeed, you cannot begin to understand the person of God, or read the Bible without thinking of world mission. Yet, I sometimes come across Bible teachers and preachers who have studied at theological colleges for several years and even earned degrees and doctorates but have done so without considering the whole question of mission. If you can do that – study Scripture in that depth and not discover mission – then you deserve an award because it’s a very difficult thing to do!

Of the 1,185 chapters in the Bible there are just four where sin is not present – the first two chapters of Genesis and the last two of Revelation. With the fall, recorded in Genesis 3, and the entrance of sin into the world, alienation becomes the hallmark of the human race – alienation both horizontally and vertically. By the end of Revelation, redeemed mankind is once more reconciled to their God and enjoying a sin-free eternity with him. The intervening 1,181 chapters of Scripture tell what is sometimes called ‘The Master’s Plan’, God’s sovereign and universal plan to rescue fallen men and women and reconcile them to himself. The whole record of history could be summarised in the words of 2 Corinthians 5: “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ”.

GOD OF MISSION

Unless we understand Scripture in that way we fail to understand it. Mission is not peripheral to Scripture, nor is it a subject that merely recurs from time to time. It is the whole thrust and theme of Scripture.

“Missionary theology is not an appendix to biblical theology; it belongs at its very core. No doctrine of God, Christ or the Holy Spirit has been expounded completely according to the Bible until it has established the triune God as the outgoing God of mission, the God of saving purpose and relationship to mankind who undertakes a programme for the progressive realisation of His purpose.”

David Howard, one of the people behind the US mission conference, Urbana, rightly points out, “The missionary enterprise of the church is not a pyramid built upside down with its point on one isolated text in the New Testament, out of which we have built a huge structure known as ‘missions’. Rather, the missionary enterprise of the church is a great pyramid built right side up with its base running from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22. All of Scripture forms the foundation for the outreach of the gospel to the whole world.”

Dr Chris Wright of Langham Ministries forcefully makes the point when he says that instead of speaking of the biblical basis of mission we should refer to the missional basis of Scripture.
The record of Scripture is that of the unfolding drama of salvation – the plan of God to bring the message of the salvation accomplished through Christ to the very ends of the earth by means of human messengers.

While churches and individuals fail to see this emphasis of the Bible, the task of world mission will, I fear, continue to be a marginal activity, a spectator sport for God’s people – something engaged in by the passionate few but largely ignored by the majority.

Once our hearts are gripped by this dominant theme of God’s word and, through it, catch the heartbeat of God who longs for the blessing of all the nations, then we will begin to give world mission the attention it merits.