Smither Christian Mission

A Concise, Global History
1. Auflage 2019
ISBN: 978-1-68359-241-9
Verlag: Lexham Press
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 384 Seiten

A deeper understanding of the grand history of mission leads to a faithful expression of God's mission today. From the beginning, God's mission has been carried out by people sent around the world. From Abraham to Jesus, the thread that weaves its way throughout Scripture is a God who sends his people across the world, proclaiming his kingdom. As the world has evolved, Christian mission continues to be a foundational tradition in the church. In this one-volume textbook, Edward Smither weaves together a comprehensive history of Christian mission, from the apostles to the modern church. In each era, he focuses on the people sent by God to the ends of the earth, while also describing the cultural context they encountered. Smither highlights the continuity and development across thousands of years of global mission.

Edward L. Smither (PhD, University of Wales--Trinity Saint David; PhD, University of Pretoria) is professor and dean of intercultural studies at Columbia International University. He spent 14 years in intercultural ministry in North Africa, France, and the USA. His previous books include Missionary Monks, Mission in the Early Church, and Augustine as Mentor.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Smither, Edward L.

Leseproben

Introduction

George Liele (c. 1750–1820) was America’s first cross-cultural missionary. He arrived on the shores of Jamaica in 1783 to live, work, and ultimately pioneer Baptist mission work on the island. Born a slave in Virginia, Liele received his freedom and began to pursue ministry, planting churches in South Carolina and Georgia. Fearing that he would be enslaved again, Liele sold himself as an indentured servant to Jamaica. After paying off this debt, he farmed and worked in Jamaica’s transportation industry. He never received a salary for pastoral ministry or mission work. The Jamaican Baptist Union, which today consists of 337 congregations and forty thousand believers, is indebted to the work of this bivocational church planter who came to their land as a missionary because he was fleeing slavery in his own.

This book is about the George Lieles in history—innovators in mission who sacrificially went to the nations to make known the gospel of Christ. I will narrate a global history of Christian mission by examining the geographic, political, and social contexts of mission and highlighting the key people, strategies, and outcomes of global mission. I emphasize global. The gospel has never been possessed by just one culture or region of the world; throughout history it has flowed from everywhere to everyone.

MISSION IS ABOUT SENDING

The word mission is used today in a plethora of contexts. Diplomats, fighter pilots, and some elementary school teachers refer to their work as a mission. Virtually every business, from auto-parts distributors to fast-food restaurants, possesses an articulated mission statement. When a word is used so often, fatigue can set in and obscure its meaning altogether. Christian mission is no exception. Stephen Neill, a twentieth-century Anglican bishop and historian of mission, warned, “If everything is mission, nothing is mission.”1

So what do we mean by Christian mission? Mission simply means sending. The first instance of sending in Scripture occurs just after the fall when the living God, acting as the first responder, moves toward the fallen couple and poses the haunting question, “Where are you?” (Gen 3:9). From there, God covers their nakedness and shame with animal skins—a sacrifice that prefigured the redeeming work that Christ would accomplish at the cross. God is a missionary God. Unsurprisingly, the narrative of Scripture abounds with God’s initiative to send people and groups of people—Abraham, Israel, prophets, Jesus, and the church—to announce his ways, his Messiah, and his message of redemption and reconciliation. Thus, evangelical theologians and missiologists correctly refer to mission as the mission of God.2

What then distinguishes Christian mission from the good work of the Red Cross or the United Nations? One aspect is motivation. Since humankind’s greatest needs are spiritual, the central task in mission is proclaiming Christ—his death, burial, and resurrection. The Lord commanded the church to make disciples, and this involves proclaiming Jesus and inviting sinners to follow him (evangelism), teaching new believers all that Jesus commanded about faith and practice (discipleship), and gathering believers into worshiping communities (church planting). From the Scriptures, we see that mission occurs not only in word (proclaiming the gospel, teaching, starting churches) but also in deed (caring for real human needs). In the midst of an earthly mission largely composed of preaching and teaching, Jesus took time to heal the sick, feed the poor, and denounce social injustice. So while a Red Cross worker and a Christian missionary might work side by side in disaster relief, the missionary’s work must involve sharing the gospel.

Growing up, I assumed that mission work occurred in Haiti or Africa because that’s where the missionaries I knew lived. Going to make disciples of all nations meant getting a passport, a visa, and shots before boarding a plane to travel far away to minister in Jesus’ name. While mission definitely involves crossing borders, the greatest boundary that a missionary navigates is the one between faith and nonfaith. This is true of my encounter with a Muslim friend in Tunisia, a Chinese doctoral student in my North American city, and with my North American next-door neighbor.

While mission can be a monocultural experience, Scripture resounds with the admonition to “Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples” (Ps 96:3). The scope or arena of God’s mission is the whole earth and among all cultural groups. The mission of God in Scripture is framed by God blessing Abram to be a blessing in order that all of the families of the earth would be blessed (Gen 12:1–3). In Galatians, Paul interpreted this blessing as the gospel itself: “Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: ‘All nations will be blessed through you’ ” (Gal 3:8). In Christian mission we must cross boundaries of faith and nonfaith and go to the nations. While a Brazilian pastor faithfully ministers in his church and engages in mission in his community, he still has a responsibility to go about his work in light of the nations—to lead his church in praying for the nations, to send members of his church as missionaries, or to minister to immigrants from the nations in his community.

Finally, is mission just the work of missionaries? Of course, this assumes we know who a missionary is and what they do! Though I’ll more thoroughly define the identity and activity of missionaries through the historical narrative in this book, for now we can affirm that all believers in Christ have some role to play in God’s mission. Many will go in an official capacity as full-time vocational missionaries. Others will immigrate abroad for work, study, or even because of displacement and will make disciples and start churches in the process. Some will welcome the nations—international students, immigrants, refugees—and minister in word and in deed in their own communities. Finally, others will pray, give financially, and serve as advocates for unevangelized peoples. God is a missionary God and invites his people to participate in his mission. No one is off the hook.

THE VALUE OF MISSION HISTORY

What value do we find in studying the history of mission? First, examining history in general enriches the human experience as we gain an accurate understanding of the past by grasping contexts, causes, changes, and complex developments.3 Second, historian Justo González correctly says that church history is in fact mission history. To appreciate the church’s story through the ages—beyond the history of buildings, traditions, and doctrine—we must evaluate how the gospel has spread across social and cultural boundaries and how the church has taken root among people groups. Grasping the history of Christianity shapes the global church’s consciousness and contributes to a healthy Christian memory. Although a faithful appraisal of mission history will reveal the weaknesses and mistakes of missionaries and even embarrassing developments, it ultimately points to the faithfulness of a missionary God. Finally, practically speaking, modern mission practitioners who evaluate mission history can learn from the mistakes and the innovations of the past—practices that ought to be rightly abandoned as well as other approaches that might be recovered or emulated today.

LITERATURE

A number of authors have written surveys on mission history.4 I am indebted to their work, and my project builds on their scholarship. Some scholars have strongly emphasized the period of modern missions; however, they only offer brief surveys of mission in the early church period.5 Other surveys have now become dated and only span until the mid- to late twentieth century.6 Some authors have compiled surveys for a broader ecumenical audience, examining mainline Protestant, Orthodox, and Roman Catholic mission work in the modern era, which is broader than my focus.7 Finally, some works are organized more thematically, and others take a biographical approach.8 Though my study includes both themes and biographies, I will take a broader, chronological, and contextual approach. I want to produce a global history of Christian mission that will celebrate how the gospel has gone from everywhere to everyone. I want to offer a balanced study of mission in the often-neglected patristic and medieval periods while also giving attention to the modern period. I also want to highlight twenty-first-century evangelical mission efforts from the Global South or majority world.

LIMITATIONS

Given the broad nature of this book, there are some necessary limitations. First, compared to other world Christianity surveys, my examination of Christianity in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Oceania, Africa, Asia, and Latin America, for example, will be more representative than exhaustive. Second, I will only briefly discuss political and social history in each period and region in order to show the context for missionary approaches and innovation. Third, although at times some theological controversies may be discussed, I do not intend to thoroughly explore historical theology. Finally, in light of the breadth of global mission efforts since...