The Mission of God

This is the second in a series of blog posts about Understanding our Mission. Click here to view Part 1.

Mission Begins with the Nature of the Triune God

Mission ultimately begins with the nature of the Triune God. God is a missionary God. This does not mean that God has been labeled based on what a human missionary looks like. Instead, it means human mission is modeled after the divine missionary nature. The doctrine of the missio Dei (Latin term meaning “the mission of God”) is rooted in the relational nature of the Trinity: God the Father sending the Son, God the Son with the Father sending the Spirit, and God the Father and Son sending the Church into the world in the power of the Spirit.(1) This movement is recorded in Scripture. The first epistle of John declares, “God...sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him” (1 John 4:9). In the Gospel of John, Jesus commissions his disciples by saying, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (John 20:21).

The missionary nature of God and the missionary mandate of the Church is not limited to a few select verses of Scripture (e.g. the Great Commission, Acts 1:8). It is the meta-narrative which runs throughout the Bible as a whole. God is one, and God has one mission. “The Bible…is covered with God’s purpose of blessing for all the nations. It is concerned with the completion of God’s purpose in the creation of the world and of man within the world.”(2) God acts in history to invite his creation to join in the divine life of the Trinity.(3) God is seen as Creator of all things, including human beings, who are created in His image and who become participants in the development of creation. After the fall, God’s missionary nature is expressed in the work of redemption, including saving Noah’s family from the flood, making a covenant with Abraham and his descendants, establishing of the nation of Israel, sending Jesus into the world, forming the early Church, and sending the apostles.

Adam, Abraham, Israel, Jesus, Paul, the early church, the church in history, and … churches today do not have separate missions, for there is only one mission – God’s mission. The various individuals and groups represented in Scripture resemble one another only to the extent that they participate fully in God’s redemptive activity in the world.(4)

To root mission in God’s nature is to acknowledge that when human means fail or face limitations or obstacles, God is “the initiator, missionary and fulfiller of mission.”(5)


The Mission of God and the Mission of the Church

The mission of the Church is rooted in the mission of God. The church’s mission cannot be separated from God’s mission, but it must participate in the mission which originates in the Triune nature of God. “Since mission begins with the declaration that God is Creator, it can be said that Christians are not evangelizing the world because of what the Bible says; they are evangelizing the world because of who God is.”(6)

The church’s mission is, therefore, participation in and an extension of this divine sending.(7) This means the origin for the Church’s role in mission is not human intention, but is a reaction by the Church to participate in God’s activity. “The missionary obligation of the Church is grounded in the outgoing activity of God, whereby, as Creator, Redeemer, Governor, and Guide, God establishes and includes the world and men within his fulfilling purposes and fellowship.”(8)

The role of the Church in the missio Dei must be carefully balanced between two extremes. The first extreme understands mission to be a product of the church. This view, prevalent throughout the church before the popularization of the concept of missio Dei in the 1960s, over-emphasized the contributions of the church to the extent that mission was understood to originate with human initiative and to be maintained by the church. If mission is mistakenly seen as a good work the church does based on human initiative, then it relies on human control rather than reliance upon the Spirit. “Mission does not start with human beings getting burdened about spreading the Good news, as laudable as that is. Mission starts with God....”(9) When we misplace the emphasis of mission from being about what God is doing to being primarily what we do of our own initiative, we distort the meaning of scripture. “On this view, it is we who must save the unbelievers from perishing. The emphasis of the New Testament... is otherwise.... It is the Spirit who will give the apostles power...”(10)

The second extreme – the polar opposite of the first – sees God as the sole subject of mission to the extent that the church’s role is entirely unnecessary. This position was developed by Dutchman J. C. Hoekendijk, who understood mission to be about what God did, to the exclusion of the church. Hoekendijk conceived that the actual missio Dei was God’s coming into the world, meaning the church is simply an “appendix” to God’s mission.(11) This position saw divine action being carried out through events in world history, independent even of the gospel, which “basically allows the missionary activity of the church to ‘dissolve’ in God’s universal activity in history.”(12)

A balanced understanding of missio Dei sees that as the Church participates in the missio Dei, it becomes one instrument God uses to bring about his mission. The missio Dei, however, is much broader than the Church; it includes everything God himself does in establishing His kingdom on earth. God, however, has chosen the Church as the means by which to fulfill His purposes. The Church, however, is not the only means, nor the end, of mission. “Mission is the singular work of God expressed and carried out in many forms not only by the church, but in all human institutions and actions.”(13) A biblically-based view of the Church’s mission sees it as flowing out of the identity of God and of Jesus Christ. “When you know who God is, when you know who Jesus is, witnessing mission is the unavoidable outcome.”(14)

1 David J. Bosch, Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission (New York: Orbis Books, 1991), 390.
2 Lesslie Newbigin, The Open Secret (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1995), 33-34.
3 Stephen B. Bevans and Roger P. Schroeder, Constants in Context: A Theology of Mission for Today (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2004), 286-288.
4 Eddie Gibbs and Ryan K. Bolger, Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Cultures (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2005), 50.
5 Theo Sundermeier, “Missio Dei Today: On the Identity of Christian Mission.” International Review of Mission. Vol. XCII, No. 367, 560.
6 Charles R. Gailey and Howard Culbertson, Discovering Missions (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, 2007), 12.
7 Christopher J. H. Wright, The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative (Downer’s Grove, Illinois: IVP Academic, 2006), 62.
8 Günther, Wolfgang. “The History and Significance of World Mission Conferences in the 20th Century.” International Review of Mission Vol. XCII No. 367: 521-537
9 Gailey and Culbertson, 12.
10 Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1989), 117.
11 Sundermeier, 560.
12 Wilhelm Richebächer, “Missio Dei: The Basis of Mission Theology or a Wrong Path?” International Review of Mission. Vol. XCII, No. 367: 593.
13 Terry C. Muck, “The Missiological Perspective: Is It Mission or Missions?” in Missiology: An International Review, Vol. XXXII, No. 4, (October 2004): 419-420.
14 Wright, 66-67.