Missions Should Be A Fundamental Priority

In regards to the historical-cultural context, one must be fully aware of this when reading Gods’ word. According to Duval & Hayes (2008), “Historical-cultural context relates to just about anything outside the text that will help you to understand the text itself (What is Historical-Cultural Context section, para 1).” When an individual approaches the Bible text without any concern for the historical-cultural context, it can lead to misinterpretation and misunderstanding of the text. If one is to fully understand the messages in the Biblical text, one must pay careful attention to the culture in that particular time in history, as well as the background of the author, relationships, etc… Not taking the time to gather the particulars, and gaining understanding of the entire context (cultural-historical), will ultimately lead misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the message God had intended.

Subsequently, the church has a mission which is to go into all the nations making disciples, baptizing them, and to teach them to observe the ways of Christ as noted in Matthew 28:19-20. When looking at the differences between the missional model and the attractional model is the missional goes out to win the lost, and the attractional seeks to bring the lost in not focusing the cultural boundaries. Stetzer and Hirsch state, “Missional represents a significant shift in the way we understand the church. As the people of a missionary God, we are entrusted to participate in the world the same way He does—by committing to be His ambassadors.” In retrospect, Hirsch cites that, “The attractional model, which has dominated the church in the West, seeks to reach out to the culture and draw people into the church—what I call outreach and in-grab. But this model only works where no significant cultural shift is required when moving from outside to inside the church.” Both have their uniqueness, however, they are designed to seek and make disciples.

One of the ongoing struggles for the church and Christianity is with culture. Questions have always surfaced about where we should stand on issues or whether it is permissible to isolate ourselves in all areas of life. Shaping A Christian Worldview suggests that hiding is not the preferred option, rather it is our duty to transform our modern culture.

Moreover, God calls us to make disciple. People should be far more important than task and project. Simply running around and get occupied by activities do not mean we are leading people to a deeper relationship with God. Spending quality time with our congregation and our neighbor is a must to build up a missional church. If we do not know how they struggle spiritually in the world, then how can we lead them with gospel wisdom? Gibbs states that the church leaders must have significant life experience in the secular world. We find it very true in our own ministry. Those who can only talk but fail to walk produce more trouble than good to the church. Ministry is disciple making not decision making. The church leaders must earn the trust from the congregation

Why is it important to understand the worldview of the person we are trying to reach with the gospel? It is important to understand the worldview of the person we are trying to reach with the gospel, because it is imperative to know how to strategically, and effectively reach them in a way they would receive it. To properly understand a person worldview, it is essential to know the definition. “Worldview, the deep level of culture, is the culturally structured set of assumptions (including values and commitments/allegiances) underlying how a people perceive and respond to reality.” (Kraft, 401) Without finding what a person’s worldview is there is room for potentially rejection of the gospel. The way people think, the way they interact, and their belief system, their moral and social values, are shape around

Whereas, in understanding the nature of mission as given to us in the New and Old Testament, it's reveal the that God is the author of mission is by laying much emphasis on what God rather than man does this reveal in the term Missio Dei, God's mission. This in term let it be known that it is insufficient to proclaim that the Church of God has a mission in the world. Rather, the God of mission has a Church in the world. In reading Introducing World Missions, one would come to understand that " mission theology must be at the core of theology - within the character and action of God Himself." This being a part of God show the need of God to be a part of His creation with Him being the source by which the characterizing of the worlds is seen in Him. When we look at the work of Jesus then we see the root cause of mission and the mean by which on

Rather than being seen as prescriptive categories with which to build a mission strategy, these five considerations can be used to evaluate and examine our presentation of the Gospel into a new people group or culture.

This purposeful elucidation proffered the need for the church to become missionaries within the context of their local community. Rethinking mission and ministry is required in breaking the missional code. Stetzer and Putnam stated that if a church does not regularly examine its culture, it ends up as a culture unto itself (Kindle Location 481). The one thing that appears to be certain in their exposition

Contextualization means translating and adapting communication in ministry of the gospel to a particular culture without compromising the essence and particular and the gospel itself. According to Keller the great missionary task is to express the gospel message to a new culture in a way that avoids making the message unnecessarily alien to that culture yet removing obscuring the scandal and offense of biblical truth. A contextualize gospel is marked by clarity and attractiveness and yet it still challenges sinner self’s sufficiency and cause them to repentance. It adapts and connects to the culture yet at the same time challenge and confront it. He continue to say that when we contextualize faithfully and skillfully, we show people how the

Piper’s book is said to be one of the most important books on missions and worship that is available today. The book covers multiple themes including the purpose and power of missions to the understanding of God’s love and compassion for all nations. From the start of the novel, the author shines a light toward missions and worship but also connects it to God’s desire to be praised among the nations. Although one, single book, the novel is divided up in three sections with the sole purpose to make evident that God is prime in missions.

In the four views on salvation readers are presented by major advocates of the following views: pluralist by John Hick, inclusivist by Clark Pinnock, particularist by Alister McGrath, and evidentialist by R. Douglas Geivett and W. Gary Phillips. The primary contention of the book is about if Jesus is the only Savior? And if that is true, then what happens with those who profess faith and salvation outside of Jesus Christ. The Four Views of Salvation are a single volume that introduced the reader to the “basic positions within evangelicalism” The editors stated that the term pluralism favors many religions with “salvific” norms, inclusivism relates to salvation in every cultural norm, and exclusivism and the restrictivism have a prejudicial connotation and prevent true dialogue and argument. Therefore they proposed the term particularism be used instead; however, all four contributors to the book used the term of their personal preference or the term that they felt best advanced their viewpoint. The primary questions are: Where is salvation found? What happens to sincere people of other faiths? What about those who never hear the gospel?

God has a plan to reconcile His relationship with man after sin entered the world. This plan revolves around making His name known throughout all tribes and nations. From the Old Testament to the New Testament, the Bible presents God’s missionary purpose for humanity. For this reason, Christians involved in missions will travel to dangerous places to proclaim God’s name and saving power.

That Christians are hypocrites, we do not practice what we preach. That Christianity is just another man made religion. Christians are judgmental and greedy. Nevertheless, God sees the heart and he knows who is true. Jeremiah 17:10 says, "I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve". However, because of sin people cannot see the truth. “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

Missionary expansion throughout the centuries has taken a hard, often violent road. The expansion of Christianity begins with the adherents of Jesus Christ and ended with the premature demise of many of the disciples. In the centuries following the disciples, many missionaries were faced with percussion and death as the gospel was proclaimed. As missionary expansion occurs throughout the centuries, often times facing trial and difficulty, the question comes up; is the capital cost of missionary expansion worth the monetary value? This paper will highlight many trials that have been faced by three missionaries in particular and explain often by the words of these missionaries why the enormous cost of missionary expansion is worth the cost. The thesis of this paper is: everyone is called to preach the gospel; the calling of the missionary is called to live by faith even when facing difficulty.

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