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Missions is a modern term used to convey the idea of spreading Christianity but more specifically mission describes the effort to effect passage over the boundary between faith in Jesus Christ and its absence. Mission calls for a personal faith commitment, which grows out of a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. It begins with God’s mission; what God wants accomplished. It embraces the different dimensions of church life; faith-building, proclamation, worship, compassion, encouragement, and holiness.

Individual ministries belonging to missions will be shaped through human relationships, personal gifts, need, and occasion. One who engages in ministry may be a servant, a teacher of Scripture, an equipper, and a delegator. The nature and function of the church define missions. In turn, the scope of missions shapes what tasks a missionary undertakes and how they will accomplish these tasks. Any adaptations of the gospel to modern society must be in keeping with the principles of the gospel and teachings of the New Testament.

From the time of the apostles, Christians have struggled with the relationship of the gospel to culture. The Old Testament is filled with examples of how the people of Israel adapted to the culture and were, in turn, taken over by the culture. They accepted the gods of their neighbors and thought like their neighbors. Through the prophets, God continually called them back to covenant loyalty. From time to time, God sent afflictions to induce them to consider the fruits of their faithlessness. Eventually, he executed judgment upon his covenant people by allowing Israel and Judah to fall into the hands of conquerors.

Perhaps church history and missions history should be reviewed in a similar light. We can surmise that God keeps calling his church to covenant loyalty. But the larger questions remain: At what points does the presentation of the gospel assail the culture? At what points does it accommodate itself to the culture? A related issue pertains to cooperation with other Christian communities. The gospel does not obligate us to full cooperation with all groups that call themselves Christian, especially where their theology is out of harmony with that of the Bible.

Christians live in the world. They are called to present the gospel of Jesus Christ to those who do not know him. The question at hand is not intended to ask to what extent Christians can compromise with the world. Rather, it asks how the Christian can reach the world.

The Christian mission is always defined by scripture, as is the face of the church. The prevailing culture becomes the environment in which the mission takes place. Culture itself is neither good nor bad or friend nor foe. The universality of the gospel suggests that the gospel is not inherently an enemy of culture. It is what that culture embraces that determines how the Christian should work within it. Cultural forms can expedite missions through its established rules for human routines. However, the nature of the gospel may dictate confrontation with culture as was the case with Jesus and as circumstances in Crete (Titus 1) and Ephesus (Acts 19) suggest.

The standard for measuring culture is the gospel itself. At those points where culture does not violate the prescriptions of the gospel it is no threat to ministry. It may even enhance ministry. For example, in a society where people generally retire to sleep at an early hour, it would be improper for a Christian to ignore this cultural form and attempt to visit during one’s sleep period. Ministry is enhanced by defining accepted norms for routine behavior, opportune times for worship and the like. But at those points where the culture upholds concepts that can lead to a compromised gospel, then these should be either confronted or ignored. For example, the church cannot run a brothel for the support of its mission program just because it may be legal within that society and neither can it become a totally democratic institution where all members vote on what is right and what is wrong, as they do within democratic societies.

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Even the church culture can have an effect on the Christian mission. The culture can play a role in determining ministry’s priorities. As was the case in Corinth, the church culture was exerting a bad influence. Circumstances generated within that culture set the agenda for what became a priority for Paul when he wrote the church at Corinth. The gospel may be permissive even beyond the local church culture, as Paul pointed out to his Jewish friends about the keeping of days (Romans 14; Colossians 2). Paul found freedom to adapt to different cultural forms, when he deemed it expedient to do so in the interest of preaching the gospel (1 Cor. 9:19-23).

Globalization, which began with the European exploration of the Western hemisphere, is today a rapidly expanding phenomenon. The world today is a very eclectic place. Christians are not immune to its subtle influence. In our pursuit of life, each of us should be reminded of Israel’s relations with her pagan neighbors. When they failed to allow Yahweh an exclusive place in their lives and teachings, they wandered from the true path. Is there more reason to believe that the revelation of God in Jesus Christ yields less exclusiveness? Not all positions held by individuals or fellowship groups can be right. Some attitudes may be correct and others may be either wholly or partially wrong. We need to broaden our horizons and become enlightenment as to representative thinkers.

Living in a global society brings us increasingly into contact with people of different worldviews. How shall we act as we seek relationship with people of the global community? It has now become more important than ever to be able to state our own faith in relation to the faith of others. But how can this be done if we do not understand the content and assumptions of non-Christian religions? We need some way to compare and contrast the Christian faith systems with other faith systems. This is where comparative religion can play a role. Comparative religion has been used to develop a theology of religions out of a sense of need to examine the historical development of one’s own religious tradition as well as the traditions of others. Perhaps the greatest crisis facing Christian missions is uncertainty within the Christian community about what to make of religious world circumstances. The most widely employed typological distinction in the debate over a Christian theology of religions centers around three positions: exclusivism, inclusivism, and pluralism.

Over the centuries, the church has faced challenges from other ideologies. Justin Martyr wrote his apologies for the Christian faith. Others have entered into debate. Still others have taken up military arms to defend the faith and subdue unbelievers. What form should the encounter in the 21st century take?

Christians often assume a stance relative to missions that reflects their upbringing or their reaction to that upbringing. An uncritical approach leads us to accept the status quo. A critical approach leads us to question the status quo. The standard by which we judge any position should be Scripture. So, the major question to be resolved is: What is the task and scope of missions from a biblical perspective? To this point, we might expect all those who proclaim a religious faith to feel compelled to convert others. But just what do believers think about missions? The definition of mission is one of continuing debate and affects the way churches and individuals engage in mission activity. If the concept of Christians in mission is defined as being Christian in the presence of others, then it follows that evangelism will mean basically responding, when asked, why Christians believe and act as they do. Three modern answers have been proposed to the question, “Where do we do missions?” These are (1) to the ends of the earth, (2) only within the local context, and (3) only where we are specifically invited by indigenous partner churches.

Four contrasting views of missions may be found: the Roman Catholic Church understands missionary activity consisting of proclaiming Christ as the only Savior and working toward the establishment of the church in all parts of the world, for evangelicals the key to mission is individual salvation, the ecumenical community calls people to look towards Jesus and commit their life to him, and Pentecostals base missions on a literal biblicism with a strong emphasis upon experiencing God through the power of the Holy Spirit; while on the surface, these positions have a similar tone, they can be very different in implementation.

Numerous issues face both the church and modern missionary. The way these issues are handled will determine one’s faithfulness to the mission task. Of importance is the absolute claim of Christianity, the need for dialogue and mission, the relationship between mission and money, and the necessity for contextualization from a world perspective.

Dialogue can be productive as it can build relationships and improve communications. Dialogue assumes the best in intentions and motives between the two parties. Dialogue if pursued cautiously can create an improved climate for eventual evangelization but we should be aware of: dialogue can be both time consuming and it can sap the spirit of evangelism and while dialogue is healthy and desirable evangelism will always bring confrontation and resistance. Therefore, four options lie before the Christian: ignore others who hold different beliefs, embrace uncritically those who espouse different beliefs, find points of cooperation with persons holding different beliefs, and attack those who oppose your views. Setting the parameters of dialogue will benefit all parties concerned for dialogue provides a means to a satisfactory end. Both parties should be comfortable with each other and honest with one’s own faith and agenda. One should represent the other’s point of view correctly and deal with inherent principles rather than with personal or skewed interpretations of practices.

One may have a good grasp of the Bible’s content and reflect an adequate understanding of a particular culture, but still lack the skill of ministry. While ministry may not wholly depend upon the servant, the skills which the servant brings to ministry can have far-reaching consequences. Among the skills needed for effective ministry are the tools of communication. Basic to the skill of communication is the interfacing of the gospel message with a living culture.

A critical issue in missions is the place of planning and strategy. The work of the church belongs to God and disciples should look to God for guidance. They should pursue their work with faith expecting God to acts in and through them but they must not sit down and wait as slothful servants. We must do more than think about missions, we must do more than pray about missions; we must do missions.

In some parts of the world, carelessness can lead to expulsion of the missionary or closure of the mission effort. Often methods which were once effective in another time or another culture are carried into a new environment. Without critical analysis, time, health, and financial resources can be wasted. Adjustments are nearly always needed when one moves across cultural lines. Mission work may be hindered by faulty plans and inept workers. On the other hand, the mission of Christ is so important that it leads us all to give our best effort to the glorification of God.

Ministry in the context of missionary activity exists for a reason. It does not exist for its own ends. Neither does it justify its own existence. Both missions and ministry arise out of the acts of God and serve his ends. Through the proclamation of the gospel, God’s will is made known. Through the compassionate touch of human ministry, God’s love is demonstrated to the world.

The divine quality that underlies missions is compassion. Out of compassion flows the passion that produces witnesses, who sometimes are called upon to lay down their lives for their cause. The task of the missionary is actually to fulfill God’s mission. God’s mission involves an extension of the ministry of Jesus. That is, the message of Jesus is to be preached to the entire world in perpetuity.

Theological foundations are those propositions which define one’s faith. They under gird both missions and ministry. This is why it is important for us to understand the Bible correctly. How we understand the task of missions and the function of ministry will define our goals for a particular activity. Fidelity to the task properly understood will render faithful ministry. That task is defined by the biblical text. Our own ministerial involvement grows out of that understanding.

No matter how well read or skilled we may be, unless we are equipped spiritually, out ministry will be flawed. The modern world presents strong challenges to spiritual formation. On the one hand, the allurements of the world provide distractions and on the other hand, the call for righteousness makes the unrighteous uncomfortable. Satan will find out weak spots and exploits them so the desire to engage in missions must be accompanied by prayer, concentration, and perseverance. Wherever we choose to live, the constancy of temptation will require vigilance.

Mission strategies are a combination of divine and human plans. The gospel itself contains a framework for Christian work. The essential message of the gospel and the nature of the church broadly define ministry strategies. There may even be a sense in which the Scriptures provide a pattern for the church to perform its mission. However, within the divine limitations of Scripture exists the place for human schemes and plans.

The work of missions belong to God and people are his instruments and bear responsibility for mission activity. Good stewardship means that believers develop strategies and execute them and God chooses how to bless those efforts. More often than not, mission strategy is culturally and historically conditioned. We need to review those strategies in light of the gospel and in view of desired objectives. Human plans and strategies must remain true to guiding principles. Any mission strategy should include: a plan for identifying people for evangelization, a plan for presenting the gospel to these people, a plan for baptizing them, a plan for bringing them into community with other believers, a plan for maturing them spiritually, a plan for helping them develop as a church that is a believing, proclaiming, worshiping, holy, encouraging, and compassionate community. We need to think biblically and think strategically.

As a part of strategy the missionary must make an initial commitment, get general training, go through a process of field selection, receive focused training, make initial adjustments, and put in long-term missionary service. The omission of one or more of these steps can hinder the mission and inflict unnecessary financial costs. Yet, even with the best training and intentions, health problems, politics, change in the support base, and other unexpected developments can still disrupt the mission effort.

Missions rest upon a foundation of scripture. But mission endeavor also must take into account the process of interfacing with modern cultures. Culture is in itself a neutral concept being, neither right nor wrong, good nor evil. But elements embraced by various cultures may be either a blessing to the Christian witness or a hindrance. The gospel is unique. It fits all people in all time periods and in all cultures. The problem in preaching cross-culturally lies in the preacher and not in gospel content. The basic task of missions is to preach the gospel. Despite the fact that cultures often oppose the gospel, the gospel can speak within culture. Indigenization and contextualization become means to that end. When entering a different culture than our own we will need to comprehend the character of that culture and the stages of the missionary acculturation process. The actual process of doing missions across cultures is a rather difficult task. The human experience tends to confirm us within our culture which is used as a standard for evaluating the merits of another.

Culture enables the smooth flow of social, political, and economic life. When working within a foreign culture where that flow of life is dictated by another set of experiences the Christian must seek ways to present the gospel as a culture-less message. Some would propose a new gospel and a church structure in order to reach people of the 21^st century which is incorrect as gospel is timeless or not time-bound.

What is at issue is the matter of adapting the gospel to a culture without changing the gospel. Whenever human interpretation is invited human contamination is certain to follow. Nevertheless, the missionary must also be aware that certain applications are purely cultural adaptations and are not biblical precepts.

Questions

1. What does the term ‘missions’ mean?
2. How are individual ministries shaped?
3. What have Christians struggled with since the time of the apostles?
4. What are Christians called to do?
5. What is the relationship between Christian mission and culture?
6. What is the standard for measuring culture?
7. How can the Christian faith be stated in relation to the faith of others?
8. What are contrasting views of missions?
9. Detail some of the issues facing both the church and modern missionary movement.
10. What are some of the most important skills needed for effective ministry?
11. What is the divine quality that underlies missions?
12. What are mission strategies?
13. What must the missionary accomplish as part of the aforementioned strategy?

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