I have been benefiting this summer from studying the writings of missionary and church leader Lesslie Newbigin. From my early days with Christian Reformed World Missions I remember focusing on the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20) as an important scripture passage influencing my call to missions.
Newbigin points out that there are actually three Great Commissions. Along with the Matthaean passage there is also a Lukan version, Acts 1:6-8: “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit is come upon you and you shall be my witnesses.” Then there is the Johannine version (20:19-23). After promising that he would be present where two or three are gathered, Jesus then commands his followers, “Open the doors, go out into the world. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
One of the things I appreciate about Newbigin is that he was very aware of changes in our world and in the mission of the church over his ministry. He begin as a missionary in south India in the last six years of Great Britain’s colonial rule over India. He was seen as part of the British raj, as someone to be obeyed and looked up to. He points out that sometimes we have used the Matthaean version of the Great Commission in a triumphalist way; that the mission of the church is about extending the power of the church. Focusing on these other two great commissions helps us in two ways.
To follow the Lukan passage in Acts is to see the Great Commission as an overflowing of the Holy Spirit. It is less a command and more of a gift, a blessing to the church. The mission of the church is no longer something we have to do, but something that flows naturally out of the work of the Spirit in our midst. Out of the abundance of God’s grace and the power of His Spirit flows naturally our witness to our neighbor.
To follow the Johannine passage is to see the Great Commission as a mission similar to the one the Father gave to the Son. We know that that mission is one of suffering. The Father gave the Son a mission to die on a cross, and the Son obediently carried it out. As the church suffers today along with the marginalized and those suffering injustice we enter into mission. Evangelism and social justice become equal partners. Our witness only becomes effective as our suffering becomes evident. In a changing world, where Christianity itself is marginalized, and where many Christians are persecuted for their faith, the mission of the Church comes alive.
Our church is in many ways a suffering church – losing influence in an increasingly secular society, still feeling the painful effects of the discussions about women in office, losing members to other denominations, divided by our particular theologies. Yet if we remember that there are three Great Commissions and that includes our witness today in the midst of a suffering church and world, and that the mission of the church is a gift of the Holy Spirit, I think we can be encouraged.
Comments
Hi Greg, thanks for this post. It raises the question of why the CRC has separated mission work from social justice work. Should mission work and social justice work be one ministry of the church?
Good question Larry. Given our current structure I wouldn't recommend merging but we do need to coordinate more, and as a church see social justice as part of the mission of the church. So the Office of Social Justice is part of that, as is World Renew, and Resonate as we minister to the marginalized. That is what I take from the Johannine passage and from Newbigin's reflections on it. To quote him, "The Church is recognizable as the bearer of the Kingdom, the presence of the Kingdom, in so far as it is marked by the scars of the Passion. And the Passion of Jesus is not passive submission to evil, but the price paid for an active challenge to evil." Newbigin was also critical of the church growth movement of Donald McGavran. For Newbigin the purpose of the church was not simply to add new members, but to be the present reality of the reign of God in our local context.
Christian forefathers laid the path to the Gospel centuries ago.
Translating the Bible and songs of the faith many non-European churches are established.
Yet the undercurrent message we send out today is the Believers of Faith somehow need our “help” to spread the Gospel.
I pray we can mature in Christ to equal partnership.
Thank you for the comment. We are actively working at partnerships and collaborative work with our brothers and sisters all over the world and trying to avoid the paternalistic approaches of the past. This is a work in progress that needs continued missiological humility and reflection. A true sign of a changing world and church is the reality that missionaries from S. America and Africa are being sent to North America.
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