Mission, By Charmaine Warford

In the book Let the Nations be Glad, Piper Explains the close relationship missions and worship share. Missions exist because of worship, and worship is a result of our Love of Christ in our hearts that drives us to glorify him, and naturally do missions. The nations are the focus of mission, and Piper explains why he believes that the Biblical mission includes evangelism with the nations in sight instead of only individuals. Piper systematically outlines the evidence that hell exists and what it is, he also outlines the reason that knowing Christ is the only way to be saved by trusting in him as your savior.

My personal view of mission revolves around Servant Leadership or what can be better called “Incarnational leadership”. This is rooted in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, as “He took a towel” (John 13:2-5) and washed Peter’s feet. He was efficient with people, had goals in sight, but was also relational over being task-driven. This kind of leadership produces new churches filled with real purpose and motivation as people are called, appreciated, loved, encouraged, discipled, involved by mentoring and discipleship before they are deployed in ministry (Prov. 27:23; Mark 10:35-45; Luke 22:26; John 13:2-17; 1 Cor. 3- 4; Eph. 4:1-16; Col. 3:13; 1 Thess. 5:13-14; 1 Peter 3:8;

Referring again to the Latin term Missio Dei, translates to “a sending God” or “God’s mission” that everything originates in God, including missions. We must realize that His character and attributes are who He is, and God’s mission everything He does to establish His kingdom on earth.9 The nature of God seem to be centered around 1) His law and righteousness and 2) His mercy and salvation through Jesus. His desire is to see people from every race and nation come to Him; this is where the church is challenged to help make this happen through missions.

Mission was very important in the development of the early church. The goal during this time was to spread the Christian Faith and to help those in need, just as Jesus did. The people that undertook this mission were sent out by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Jesus and God.

Jesus was the perfect missionary. Jesus went to different places and taught the word of God. Jesus drew people unto him. Jesus told his disciples, that if they follow him, he would make them fishermen of men. Jesus taught anywhere. Jesus delivered the word so profoundly.

Western Christians in global missions by Paul Borthwick is about the interdependence and unity of the global Church. The book starts at the conclusion of an era of missions where North America has taken the helm. As the global missions community changes, North America needs to reassess its role. There are 4 main integrated points that Borthwick makes that should change the perspective of the white American middle class missionary.

The overall purpose of the Roland Allen’s book is to convey the dramatic differences between the methods of modern day missionary organizations

Bosch shows that although the idea of mission was there among the Protestants, their involvement was limited. This was due to; (a) their primary task was to reform the church; (b) contact with non-Christians was little (c) they were struggling to survive; (d) denial of the monastic orders meant they denied themselves access to important services and (e) their own internal struggles.

Stephen Seamands proffers a Trinitarian description of Christian Ministry as the ministry of Jesus Christ, the Son, to the Father, through the Holy Spirit, for the sake of the church and the world. The author seems to presume that many in the Christian faith have not adequately observed or applied the doctrine of the Trinity significantly in the vocation of ministry. It is with this perception that he postulates a Trinitarian approach of ministry that emphasizes communion with God shaping our language about God to shape our heart so we might share in the life of God. In arriving at his conclusions, Seamands uses well-grounded Scriptural foundations, along with a descriptive of the Icon of the Holy Trinity painted in 1425 by a Russian Monk, Andrei Rublev, including the historical significance that is traced back to the Enlightenment, and the findings of renowned theologians beginning with Karl Barth. The preponderance of evidence provided supports the author’s contention that the grammar of the Christian faith and life is rooted in the doctrine of the Trinity having created the current Trinitarian renaissance.

In the first chapter of “Christianity Rediscovered” by Vincent J. Donovan he is introducing us to the idea that missionaries now have a poor reputation due to their history. He says “History has offered the opportunity to deflect and distort the meaning of missionary work in every age”. For a long time a missionary was a person spreading the word of God and after years of doing so we have diminished many different beliefs, practices, cultures and history. At the time it was thought to be the right thing, to spread out and share the gospel to help people find meaning and acceptance. In today’s age a missionary is a lot of different things, in many cases it is more focused on the health and physical wellbeing of the people. Many people still share the gospel through missionary work, but in other cases it is more of a material aid. Donovan introduces the book as a voyage of discovery he wants us to put our normal beliefs aside to see his perspective of living a missionaries life and struggling with the fact of if you are helping or hurting.

In this paper, I plan to discuss two topics from DeYoung and Gilbert’s book: the starting point of the church’s mission and the “end of the end of the story”. Even though, the subject of the Mission of the Church is profoundly deep and has enormous applications, it seems that both the essence of the mission (its starting point), and the ultimate goal of the mission, (its ending point), are extremely vital to the entire paradigm of the church’s mission.

Barth’s work is a testimony of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ that will enlighten

Regarded as one of the most influential theological thinkers of the twentieth century, Karl Barth spent a lifetime on taking a closer look at the values of the Christian Church and rewriting, quite literally, the flaws that he found. Karl Barth, a Protestant theologian, was born on May 10, 1886 in Basel, Switzerland. Notably, his father Fritz Barth was a New Testament and early church history professor at the university in Bern, which shows that he had an early exposure and close connection with religious studies. Barth was educated at “universities of Bern, Berlin, Tubingen, and Marburg.” (Torrance). His start in theology was sparked by liberal theologian Adolf von Harnack, whom he attended a seminar for. Others who inspired Barth include Wilhelm Herrmann and Friedrich Schleiermacher. After going through his education, he spent 10 years (Torrance) as “a Swiss Reformed pastor in the town of Safenwil” (Crownfield 29).

No matter what path God calls a missionary to, the initial goals are the same. These goals are: 1) Build and edify the church, 2) Meeting needs, and 3) Spread the Gospel. The task of utmost importance is that of building the church, a community of believers. It is through evangelizing that men come to hear, know, and accept the redemptive plan of God through Jesus Christ. This is done by preaching and teaching this message when opportunity arises. It is also done by living out your faith in the day to day of mission life. We are to make the book of Acts our living example in growing and edifying a body of believers (Warren 26-31) (Hodges 61-62)

First of all, any missional mental model should be derived from missio Dei itself, which is "the mission of God to bring about redemption of the world" (Sunquist 2013, 7). When we carry this mission out in suffering for God’s eternal glory, we need to imagine how in the future his goodness, his beauty, and his harmony will cover the entire creation. I think it’s necessary for us to have this vision of his glory and be aware that whatever we do is not our own ministry. The idea of us joining the ministry of Jesus Christ is