What is missions?
Our pastoral team at Overland Church has been preaching a 6-week topical series about Marks of a Healthy Church, and on Sunday I wrapped it up by teaching on missions from 3 John. In the process of my preparation, I attempted to set forth a definition of missions.
Through the years, I’ve stumbled upon a few definitions from others, and perhaps you will hear echos of those definitions in my own. But I wanted to put in my own words an answer to that basic question: What is missions?
So, here is what I came up with:
Missions is participating in God’s mission of glorifying himself by the proclamation of his Word in the power of his Spirit, resulting in the gathering of his people from all nations.
While I wanted to come up with something even more succinct, I couldn’t cut it down further than this. You’ll notice that there are five main components to my definition: Identity, Purpose, Result, Scope, and Means.
Identity: Participating in God’s Mission
This is Missiology 101. Missions begins with the person and character of our Trinitarian God. God has a mission that began before the foundation of the world—the missio Dei—and his mission is not merely a response to a problem, although it includes his plan of redemption. His mission has a deeper origin in his very nature—the Son is by nature begotten and the Spirit is by nature proceeding. Redemption merely displays who God is by giving expression to the eternal generation of the Son and the eternal procession of the Spirit.
Our role is to participate in, or partner with God in, his mission. We are the humbly willing instruments which he uses to accomplish his mission. We are, as Paul identifies his fellow apostles/missionaries in particular, the jars of clay in which God has stored his treasure (2 Cor 4:7). This partnership with God is referred to in the New Testament through the Greek noun koinōnia, which does not mean fellowship in the sense of community, but in the sense of partnership in a task (Phil 1:5).
Purpose: God’s Glory
The “why” is the most important aspect of anything we do, and the primary “why” of missions is the glory of God. God’s mission is ultimately to glorify himself. This was his purpose in creation, and it remains his purpose in redemption. All things exist and all events occur to glorify him (Rom 11:36).
As we participate with God, we possess several legitimate motivations: obedience to Christ, the gifting of the Spirit, the terrors of Hell, and love for our lost neighbors. But our greatest motivation should match God’s great purpose—God’s glory. I hope we never stop quoting John Piper, “Missions exists because worship doesn’t” (Let the Nations Be Glad!).
Result: The Gathering of God’s People
As we join God on his mission and pursue his glory, the result of our partnership with God will be the gathering of God’s people. To put it differently, while there are many good things that God’s people should do and will do in the world, our greatest task is the task of evangelism, discipleship, and church planting.
While some prominent missions authors and influencers air their disdain for the Great Commission texts such as Matthew 28:18–20 and Acts 1:8, I think these and other texts clearly issue the central command given to God’s churches in the last days between the ascension and parousia.
This is no mere proof-texting. Our biblical theology pushes us to this conclusion. The end of all things is the renewal of creation following God’s judgment—a new heaven and new earth where God’s people will dwell with him. In the first creation, God created the place and then filled it with his people. But God’s people rebelled against him, and therefore, the place was subjected to futility because of human sin. In the new creation, God has zeroed in on the problem—sin in humanity. To restore creation, God is now starting with the people and then will put them into a renewed place.
The logic of biblical theology pushes us toward a conclusion that the priority of the Christian church is evangelism, discipleship, and church planting. Of course, this prioritism is reflected in the entire New Testament, but especially in the book of Acts.
Christians are not called to change the world, because the world lies under judgment. We are called to make disciples in the world. This doesn’t mean that we do not show acts of mercy and love in the world, but we do not do so as an attempt to necessarily improve the world (although we are happy when that occurs). Our acts of mercy and love serve rather as identifying expressions that we belong to a different world, one which anyone can belong to through repentance and faith in the gospel we proclaim.
Scope: All Nations
Because God is the God of the heavens and the earth and the seas, because he is the Creator of all things and all people, the scope of his mission is the entire world: all people everywhere. All nations. Jesus, of course makes this point clearly when he says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matt 28:18–19).
So as we participate in God’s mission, we will seek to engage all nations with the gospel and plant churches among all the language groups in the world. We cannot submit to Western criticisms of missions as colonialist, extremist, or outdated. Love for God and for humanity compels us to seek to proclaim the gospel to the unreached and even the uncontacted peoples of the earth.
While I could not fit this in my definition of missions, I would define a missionary even more narrowly as someone who is gifted and called by the Spirit to cross physical boundaries or cultural barriers in order to proclaim the Word in the power of the Spirit, resulting in the gathering of God’s people from all nations.
Means: The Proclamation of the Word in the Power of the Spirit
How is God glorified and how are God’s people gathered from all nations? The means of God’s work is the proclamation of his Word in the power of the Spirit. Can I just cite the entire book of Acts here?
Jesus directed his disciples not to leave Jerusalem until they received “power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you” (Acts 1:8). The Holy Spirit actively guides, preserves, scatters, and sends Christians from Jerusalem to the end of the earth in the book. Acts 1:8 is not a command. It is a promise: “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Likewise, the expression Luke uses for the Spirit’s forward march is that “the word of God increased and multiplied” (Acts 12:24; cf. 6:7; 13:49; 19:20). The task of the church is to speak the word with boldness (Acts 4:29, 31; 8:4). God’s people are gathered when people hear and receive the word (Acts 2:41; 4:4; 11:1).
While there are different types of missionaries—church planters, translators, teachers, supporting servants, business as missions, etc.—all should contribute to a missions ecosystem that is pursuing the common task of proclaiming the Word in the power of the Spirit.
What would you add?
No definition can cover everything, but after thinking through this one for a while, I’m pretty satisfied with it. However, I’d be interested to hear what some of you would add to give greater clarity to the question: What is missions?
If you’d like to hear my entire sermon on missions, you can view it below or listen wherever you enjoy podcasts.