History of Missions

It's a wonderful Saturday afternoon as I sit down here after a great day at the TrueCity Conference. What a joy it is to worship among a group of Christians from various denominations as we pray, plan and encourage one another for the good of our city - Hamilton.

A friend sent me Chapter 1 of his "History of Missions and Development" textbook a few weeks ago and I've taken time today to reflect on it. Here are my thoughts:

"each Christian is one who is a missionary" -- I'd disagree with this statement. See my previous post on "Shooting Sacred Cows". All Christians are disciples, and all disciples are to evangelize; but the problem is that the more people we call missionaries the less we minimize the unique calling of going to the nations with the message of the gospel.

"A missionary means anyone who works to fulfill the church's mission. More usually it refers to those who cross cultural boundaries with the gospel, preaching and interpreting it in a way that is sensitive and relevant to the new context." --- I don't believe a missionary is "anyone who works to fulfill the church's mission"; that's too general of a definition. I'd prefer the definition to include "cross-cultural boundaries".

"The term "missions" on the other hand, refers to the specific task of making disciples of all nations, and thus refers to evangelism, discipleship, and church planting. It thus incorporates the work of mission agencies and organizations, churches, and missionaries around the world. By these definitions, missions would be a subset of mission: mission incorporates the entire task of the church and includes the traditional idea of missions." -- I agree with this one!! :)

In the hands of the World Council of Churches (WCC), since the 1960s, the understanding of the mission of God lies not in world evangelism and church planting, but in advancing the political and economic well-being of people. In this the WCC adopted an almost socio-political understanding of missio Dei. -- I do believe God's Mission "missio Dei" includes socio-political aspects BUT the Church must not water down it's passion for world evangelism and church planting. God's Kingdom will come complete with social change, political change, AND people from every tribe, tongue and nation responding in faith to the message of the gospel of Jesus!