Mission
Every group, business and organization in the USA seems to have a mission statement these days. It usually says something about what that organization is and what it does.
Since its beginning, the church has also had a sense of mission. Unfortunately, our understanding of mission has often not always been molded from the gospel, but from our greed for power. From the crusades, inquisition, and our desire to ‘convert the heathen’, the history of Christian mission is a painful one that has caused the church and the people of the world more harm than good. This is not the Good News!
Even today, mission is understood in different ways. To ask a Mormon or Jehovah’s Witness what mission is, they will say that it is knocking on doors and converting people. Many Pentecostal Christians understand it as seeing how many people you can ‘save’.
So what do we do with this word? Should we, as Lutherans, abandon the use of the word? Or should we stand up and reclaim it, in the way we feel called to do?
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has adopted an accompaniment model of mission. Having worked as a missionary with the ELCA, I was taught that we are not going just to ‘do’ something for someone less fortunate. Instead, we are going to be with others, to walk with God’s children as they face their daily struggles, engaging in a two way relationship where both teach and learn, give and receive.
Having done mission work abroad, my experience was maximized thanks to this model. Listening is a huge part of mission!
So, when someone asks if you have done mission work, even if you haven’t been on a ‘mission trip’, you should tell them yes. Tell them how you have volunteered, listened, or walked with others. Tell them about how you lived out the gospel without necessarily preaching with your mouth.
Michael and William both hinted at this. If the religion wants to curtail hyper- activity, the religion needs to change, not the people. The religion would still have a few hyper- actives, but then they would be the exception, not the rule. That’ s not to say that hyper- actives are the majority in the religion except among those who actually self- identify as Mormon and are active. Best estimates would put the inactives or non- identifiers at close to 6 million of the 12 million (see Rick Phillips’ s and…
Hey Ray,
There has been a lot of discussion about mission in my church (IECLB). Unfortunately, the Lutheran church has lost members recently in part due to its strong identification with German culture. As a result, most of Lutherans in Brazil are German descendants. (Of course I am not, but I am an “outlier”).
For sure it does not mean that we need to aggressively convert people. I agree in part with you that every time we are walking together, hearing and helping, it is a kind of missionary activity. However, I am afraid of this kind of perspective because it may lead us to some inertia on giving voice to the Gospel. Sometimes we have to talk about our faith, giving people an option in the midst of the many voices that people can follow if they want. I am NOT preaching here that we can do ANYTHING in order to convince people of Christ’s resurrection. But I think we need to be more active (in all dimensions: both acting and speaking) than we have been at least in Brazil. Probably the Lutherans are the most secularized Christians in Brazil and even in the world.
I am not going to talk about salvation. This is our Heavenly Father’s matter. But if we feel that Jesus loves us, why can’t we say it to people? Of course our actions must be coherent to what we say (at least we should try it).
I know there are many points of view about mission. I am open to hear different opinions.
Mission: Christ Centered.
I want to agree that mission has been hyped and agnostically misinterpreted and misreprepresnted in our churches today. And we have to acknowledge the vulnability of our churches in this as many of these mission ‘statements’ have been tailored to appear enticing without holding the substantial truth in themselves. Is mission in our church a man-made philosophy. You may not agree with me if I strongly state here that the word of God has been plyed for commercial purposes – and it sells like hot cakes!
The truth of the matter should be stated here without reservations that mission should be Christ oriented; nothing more, nothing less!
Mission: Christ Centered.
I want to agree that mission has been hyped and agnostically misinterpreted and misrepresented in our churches today. And we have to acknowledge the vulnability of our churches in this as many of these mission ‘statements’ have been tailored to appear enticing without holding the substantial truth in themselves. Is mission in our church a man-made philosophy. You may not agree with me if I strongly state here that the word of God has been plyed for commercial purposes – and it sells like hot cakes!
The truth of the matter should be stated here without reservations that mission should be Christ oriented; nothing more, nothing less!