When we find faith, it involves following the call of the God of mission and becoming participants in it', Dr Paul Bendor-Samuel, the medically-qualified Executive Director of the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies told the CMF Students' Conference in February.
Some 350 students attended the conference at Yarnfield Park, Staffs. Dr Bendor-Samuel who engaged in mission work in Tunisia for twelve years, observed that most commercial enterprises have a mission statement, spelling out their purpose. McDonalds says it wants to be 'our customer's favoured place they eat and drink.' Ephesians 1:10 offers a classic statement of God's eternal plan: 'to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.' We pray for the fulfilment of God's mission plan every time we pray 'Your kingdom come'.
'Mission' derives from the Latin missio, meaning 'sending'. In the New Testament missio is used only to speak of God sending the Son. But sending is just part of what the mission of God is all about. 'God's mission is 360 degree mission, bigger and fuller than our usual images of mission.' God's mission is bringing humanity and the entire world-system back into wholeness in Christ, 're-integrating, making all things new.'
The imperative in the 'Great Commission' (Matthew 28:19) is not 'go' but 'make disciples'. Participation in the mission of God infiltrates every dimension of life: government, public service, the search for social justice and protection of our planet. Christian disciples are called to be a 'kingdom of priests', where the dual task is representing people before God and representing God to people.
Mission involves crossing barriers. Here in Britain we can often feel discouraged. Adherents to secularism are 'a bit like concrete, all mixed up and firmly set in their ways'. But there are many heart-warming evidences of the advance of the kingdom. A century of missions in Iran saw little fruit but with the scattering of Iranians after the revolution (1978-1979) there are now more than a million Christians. Countries which a couple of decades ago had but a handful of Christians now have thousands: Algeria, Mongolia, Nepal. Over 1,000 Muslim refugees to Germany have been baptised recently.
Jesus is our model for mission. This is why every Christian needs to 'soak themselves' in studying the life and work of Jesus. Today we are called to be carriers of the kingdom. The missiologist Bishop Lesslie Newbigin once commented that in Christ the mission of God 'has a human face.'
