Thursday Theology: The Theology of Christian Missions – Part 1

Writing an article entitled, “The Theology of Christian Missions” is kind of like writing a leaflet entitled, “People Named John”. You can try, but it just won’t work. In this article, I’m not going to pretend to even give an overview of the topic, but will just skate over a few key points that I find personally important. I will continue in subsequent weeks.

First, a mission is not about numbers, or timeframes. Jesus said to, “…go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19, NIV) He didn’t say how long it would take, but it does suggest that whatever it is you’re doing on missions, the goal is a growing believer who has made a public profession of their faith by being baptized. I had a chance to spend some time this summer in the Middle East, and a number of people I spoke to mentioned the high turnover among Christian field workers in this region. Apparently, many people are becoming discouraged when they don’t find new disciples within the first few months or years of their ministry. Of course, making a public profession of Christian faith in that area of the world can be sometimes very dangerous. We would expect that a higher percentage of the baptisms would be sincere, but that the number would be much less. Many of those workers burn out, and end up either quitting altogether, or going to other areas of the world where the people are more “ripe for the harvest” (to borrow Jesus’ metaphor from John 4:35). Missions are not about forcing things, they’re about presenting things.

Let me explain by comparing two sayings of Jesus that are not usually examined side-by-side. In Matthew 5:14-16, Jesus says, “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” Sounds like a fairly decent Sunday school description of missions. Won’t everyone want to come to the light? Jesus in John 3:19-20, however, says, “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” So, the job of a Christian is to “be” the light and “shine” the light, but some people “will not come into the light”. That is not to say we should be passive in our “shining”, but it does mean that if we all leave an area because no one is coming to the light, there will be only darkness in that region.

For next week, I’ll discuss the modern church’s Gnostic tendencies concerning missions, and how the modern church likes to “boast” about how amazing their overseas efforts have been.