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Well, here we are at Easter 2010, the time to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  

God loved the whole world that He sent His only Son on a Mission to rescue us all from our own sins. For many centuries, "mission" was a term aimed at God and his self-revelation to the world through Jesus Christ. It is His mission! He is the One Who so loves the world that He gave His only Son. It is true though that His church is missional. Since Christ's resurrection almost 2000 years ago, the church is "in-mission". We carry God's message of reconciliation in Jesus to the world. To remain here on earth means God still has good works for us. He still wants Jesus to shine through His church as light in the darkness that is over nations.

But the church is not the light, nor the fulness of the Kingdom of Jesus. She is, in the words of David Bosch,

"God's experimental garden on earth, a fragment of the reign of God, having 'the first-fruits of the Spirit' as a pledge of what is to come".

Before moving to England, with all its mixed heritage and maladies, my definition of mission was too narrow. I spent some years in a missional organization which espoused "church planting" as the means by which the gospel was to be propagated amongst the nations. This was done in good faith. Nevertheless, as a result, I was tempted subconsciously to view the church and her leaders more as the custodians of mission than God Himself. In this area I fear I became a little humanistic in my orthopraxy (although never holding Arminianism as orthodox!).

This narrow view of mission leaned me oftentimes towards an emphasis on responsibility in my preaching, at the expense of God's virtues in Christ. That is an embarrassing confession actually. It tipped me in subtle ways towards seeking out leaders and missionaries, rather than preaching, prayer and pastoring all people. What should have happened accidently crept into the realm of the deliberate - what I mean is that leaders and missionaries (all ministries, for that matter) emerge "accidently" as we preach the Word of God deliberately...

Even though God is sovereign in all matters human looking backwards, to this day I carry regret in the many who were hastened through spiritual adolescence because their own zeal, ambitions and giftedness reacted chemically with my perceptions of a dying and needy world.

There are much more horrible consequences to "missionalism" in full flight though. Christopher Wright speaks of the faulty logic of "looking for a biblical basis for mission rather than seeing the missional heart of God in the Bible". Of course, in many ways narrowly-defined missionalism introduces both discontent and potential disqualification into the wider ranks of the saints - if 'normal' husbands and wives and office workers are not somehow "engaged in the dramatic", then they could well conclude that they had surrendered themselves to a "lesser life". How tragic this is, and all the more when you see the sweeping "mission-mandate" in the word of God is not geographic nor gift-orientated, but local, normal, mundane, day-to-day. The Word commends every saint to "remain in the situation he was in when God called him" (1 Cor 7:20). We also see that both Paul and Jesus commended various churches for faithfulness in the local house; for abiding with each other; for holding onto truth in testing that comes to their city; in assembling together; in being salt and light; in being ready to give reason for the hope they have; in washing their wives with the Word; in hard work; in.....abiding! And for a few men and women, filled with and directed by the Spirit, they are moved to move beyond. The non-geographic outworks geographically.

In 1978, Johannes Verkuyl identified 4 impure mission motives that have beset the Christian church in her zeal to "go"... "(a) the imperialist motive - turning natives into docile subjects of colonial authorities; (b) the cultural motive - mission as the transfer of the missionary's "superior" culture; (c) the romantic motive - the desire to go to far-away and exotic countries and people's; (d) the motive of ecclesiastical colonialism - the urge to export one's own confession and church order to other territories".

The genius David Bosch expanded this further in his book, Transforming Mission, to include more adequate but still incomplete motives for mission: "(a) the conversion motive - emphasizing personal decision and commitment, but narrowing down the reign of God to the sum total of saved souls; (b) the eschatalogical motive - the eagerness to see the return of Christ which ignores the realities of life and its living in the here and now; (c) the "plantatio ecclesiae" (church planting) motive - prioritizing the gathering of communities of the committed but identifying the church with the Kingdom of God (they are not the same thing); and (d) the philanthropic motive - challenging the church to seek justice in the world but equating God's reign with an improved society".

In the face of these impure and inadequate motives, the best definition I have ever come across in my life to date is that of Bartholomew and Goheen, in their book The Drama of Scripture: "God’s mission is this: to restore the creation. Israel’s mission flows from this: God chose a people to again embody God’s creational purposes for humanity and so be a light to the nations, and the Old Testament narrates the history of Israel’s response to their divine calling. Jesus' mission: When Jesus comes on the scene, He takes upon Himself the missionary vocation which had been Israel's. He embodies God's purpose for humanity and accomplishes the victory over sin, opening the way to a new world. When His earthly ministry is over, He leaves His Church with the mandate to continue in that same mission. And so the Church's mission: in our time, standing as we do between Pentecost and the return of Jesus, our central task as the people of God is to witness to the rule of Jesus Christ over all of life".

God's mission - His unfinished work - is the reconciliation of the world to Himself in the self-revelation of Jesus Christ.

In His mission we find the meaningful life mandate for every single Christian. While it requires preachers, it is not all about preaching. While God moves through His church, it is not all about church planting. While he commends us assembling together, it cannot only be about meetings. While His rule can change society, it is not firstly about social justice. While Jesus is coming back soon, it is not merely about speeding His return.

It about nations being discipled into Christ, one person and family at a time. It is about incarnational belief - the Holy Spirit finding hearts to abide in, and in so doing, the salt becoming salty wherever it may fall. It is about healed marriages and healthy divorcees; it is about both blessings and tribulations suffered well; it is about both joy and perseverance; spiritual gifts and public politics; teaching and miracles; quiet times and shouting from the rooftops. It is God's mission where every saint has a place, and a profound one. We all so quickly look to this event or that outpouring, even though Christ warned us that "the Kingdom of God comes without our observation". One thing I do know, is that wherever mission truly brings in the Kingdom it is always a miracle of God - the unfathomable working of the Holy Ghost in impossible ways, deep within the people He inhabits. Possibly the two most haunting legacies of all from secularizing the Mission of God are the Holy Ghost becoming more a lever than the Lover; and the Word being more principles than the Person.

I trust this piece brings you peace. I trust you engage your mind on this matter. May God show you how small you are, and how much you matter to Him. May you find your place in obscurity; and in your success may God get the publicity. May we see churches arise where godly mums are championed as much as powerful evangelists; where Kingdom-minded businessmen are as much heroes as charity workers; where preachers are sacramental but not sacred cows; where every means of grace has meaning beyond its visible appearance and applause.

Hallelujah!

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