There are theological themes that each generation has to study anew and define based on the permanent testimony of the Holy Scriptures, and in response to the needs of the contemporary world. One of those themes is the mission of the church. As a working instrument, we suggest the following tentative definition.
According to the divine purpose revealed in the Scriptures, the mission of the church is to be present in the world as the community of the Kingdom of God, to communicate the Gospel by word and deed, in the power of the Holy Spirit, for of the integral salvation of the human being through Jesus Christ, so that He may be glorified.
This definition, in addition to being biblical and Trinitarian, aspires to be integral and integrative of the work that the church has been called to do.
The origin of the mission
The mission is not a product of human invention; It has its origin in the mind and heart of God; it belongs to the sphere of his sovereign, infallible and immutable purpose. God takes the initiative for the salvation of human beings before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:3-7).
The revelation regarding the mission
We know the missionary purpose of the Lord because He Himself has revealed it to us in the pages written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We know what to expect based on the objective testimony of the Holy Scriptures. There is no reason to confuse ourselves with our own missiological ideas, nor to get lost in the labyrinth of others’ theories regarding the Christian mission.
The divine design has come to our hands in the pages of the Bible, which is the foundation for mission, the primary source for missionary theology, the supreme standard for the fulfillment of our task in the church and in the world today. .
The mission special agent
According to the divine design for the mission, those who have experienced the love of God will publish the saving Good News. Among the created beings, they – not the angels – are the main agents of the mission. The church was chosen to fulfill the mission (1 Pet. 2:9-10). The divine agent is the Holy Spirit.
The church is already born missionary; It has to manifest itself to the world with a mission. Mission belongs to the very essence of the church. Its missionary character is inherent to the church. Consequently, the so-called “missionary challenge” should not surprise us Christians as if something entirely new were coming upon us. The privilege of fulfilling the Christian mission is the vocation of the church, its reason for being, its goal in the world.
The mission methodology
We have seen from whom the mission comes and who must fulfill it. We will now discuss the how of the mission.
As the special agent of the mission, the church must be present in the world, in imitation of its Lord and Master who lived among men (pitched his tent among them), full of grace and truth (John 1:14). . Jesus walked among his contemporaries proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom and doing good. He lived at the center of the social whirlwind. The best theology regarding the church and the world is offered by the Lord Jesus in his high-priestly prayer (John 17). The presence of the church in the world is essential for the fulfillment of its mission.
As a special agent of mission, the church must live in the world according to the values of the Kingdom of God. The church is the community of the Kingdom of God. This kingdom is an announcement of salvation (“the good news of the Kingdom”) and a demand for repentance (“repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”). The kingdom is the gift and demand of the Lord. The kingdom is the exercise of his sovereignty.
There will be a future kingdom and there is a present kingdom of the Messiah. The present kingdom burst into history when the Messiah came into the world. Jesus said that the Kingdom had come near, that it had reached his contemporaries, that it was in their midst (Mt. 4:17; 12:28; Luke 17:21). The signs of the Kingdom’s presence were undeniable.
Jesus taught that it is imperative to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (Mt. 6:33). This justice is greater than that of the Pharisees and is indispensable in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ so that people may see them and glorify the Father who is in heaven (Mt. 5:11-16). Salvation is not by works, but for good works (Eph. 2:8-10). These good works are not only liturgical in nature; They also have to do with doing good to those who are in need, as Paul and James teach (Gal. 6:10, Titus 1:3 and James 2). It is essential that people hear the Gospel, but also see it in our way of being and acting in the civil community.
Especially since 1966, there has been a recovery of the social implications of the Gospel among the so-called conservative evangelicals, who had not given emphasis to this dimension of their faith, among other reasons perhaps due to their fear of the Protestant liberalism of the beginning of the century. and his proclamation of the “social gospel.” The change in attitude of evangelicals towards their social responsibility can be seen in documents such as the Declaration of Wheaton, Illinois, 1966; the Lausanne Pact, Switzerland, 1974; the statements of Grand Rapids, Michigan (1982), Wheaton, Illinois (1983), and Panama, 1983.
The Lausanne and Grand Rapids documents go beyond the mere concept of social assistance to that of political action as part of Christian duty. They point out guidelines for such action, seeking to safeguard the identity and autonomy of the local church in case its members become involved in tasks of social transformation. The document produced at the Wheaton, Illinois, 1983 Consultation, entitled “The Church in Response to Human Needs,” says that it is the duty of the Christian to participate in social transformation by different means, depending on the circumstances. But it warns that Christians “must carefully consider the issues and form of protest so that the identity and message of the church is not tarnished or suffocated.”
There is no problem in the world evangelical community regarding social assistance as part of the Christian mission, and the number of evangelical Christians who accept that Christian duty also includes concern for social change in favor of the majorities seems to be growing. That the Gospel has great potential for social changes is undeniable. But the way in which the Christian is going to get involved in the process of social transformation is a matter that has to do with his vocation in the world. The growth of the evangelical community will bring with it a greater number of evangelical Christians, who will feel called to enter the political arena to compete for elected positions without renouncing their faith.
It is in the interest of the church as an institution not to submit to any of the ideologies that fight for power in our midst. The church must never lose its Christian identity; he must not forget the hallmarks of her mission; She should not sanctify a political system forgetting that the absolute is found only in God. Following the example of its Master, the church must be willing to suffer violence, not produce it. The Son of God did not come “to destroy the souls of men, but to save them” (Luke 9:52-56).
For the purposes of our reflection, what we are most interested in reaffirming is that according to the New Testament the church must fulfill its mission by word and deed.
Power for mission
The Christian mission is fulfilled in the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8). Writing to the believers in Thessalonica, the apostle Paul says that the gospel came to them not in words alone, “but also in power, in the Holy Spirit, and in full assurance” (1 Thes. 1:5). The same is said, fundamentally, of his preaching among the Corinthians, to whom he announced the Gospel “with demonstration of the Spirit and power” (1 Cor. 2: 3-5).
The Holy Spirit is the divine agent of mission. Without Him there is no authentically Christian mission; With Him the mission becomes possible for the blessing of the church and the world.
The benefits of the mission
The church must fulfill its mission for the blessing of itself. There is an ad intra (inward) aspect and an ad extra (outward) aspect of the Christian mission. There are those who suggest that the survival of the church should not worry us, as long as social transformation takes place. It is not right to underestimate the church as if it had no importance to the Lord. See Eph. 5:22-23; Titus 2:14; 1 Pet. 2:9-10; Mt. 16:18-19.
The mission “inward” is very broad and multifaceted. It includes the integral growth of all members as individuals and of the church as a whole. Numeracy is only one aspect of this growth. Increased membership alone does not guarantee greater zeal for service and holiness on the part of the church.
The church must fulfill its mission by reaching “outsiders” with the Gospel of Christ. It is evident that from the point of view of the mission ad extra (outward), the church is not an end in itself, but an instrument in the hands of the Holy Spirit to reach with the Gospel those who walk without God, without Christ and without hope. There is a close and indissoluble relationship between the integral growth of the church and the fulfillment of its mission towards “those outside.” In this sense the church should not live for itself, but for others. The church grows integrally when it opens to the service of others. Integral growth does not occur apart from this missionary openness. The “ecclesiocentrism” of those who magnify the church as an institution, forgetting those who do not know Christ, has no place in the divine design for the Christian mission. However, a church that does not take care of itself cannot faithfully fulfill that mission. Nor can the church that withdraws into itself, without concern for those outside of it, fulfill it.
Without evangelization there is no authentically Christian mission. This is the ad extra aspect of the mission. In its strictest sense the word mission means, in this context, that someone is sent by someone to someone. It comes from the Latin missio (the action of sending), which may correspond to the Greek apostello (send). The church has been commanded to go in search of those who still walk far from God, whether in the vicinity of the local congregation or at the ends of the world.
We see the missionary model par excellence in the Son of God, who was sent (pesteilas) by the Father from the glory of heaven to identify with us and die for us on Calvary. Jesus says to his Heavenly Father: “As you sent me (stink them) into the world” (Jn. 17:18. VM).
In the great missionary biblical texts the idea of going in search of those who have not received the Gospel is prominent (Mt. 28:18-20; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:47). Without a doubt, these biblical passages speak of a world mission. The mission territory is the entire globe; The people who must be reached with the Gospel are all…