We are on the home stretch with our blog series on The Missional Manifesto. I hope you have enjoyed tracking with us as I’ve unpacked my thoughts about the affirmations from the manifesto.
I want to remind you that the affirmations are the work of the framers. As I have written about them in this series, I was simply attempting to weigh in with some of my own thoughts here on the blog. That is why we have taken the time to “muse” about them here. I continue to invite you to join the conversation in the comment section.
We have two final affirmations to look at in this series. So far, we have looked at eight of the ten affirmations in previous posts. You can read about them here:
Today we come to the ninth affirmation. Here is the wording for it found in the manifesto:
Universality: We believe God’s mission, and thus the mission of His people, extends to every people, nation, tribe and tongue; to persons of every gender, age, education, social standing, and religious persuasion (or lack thereof). Thus a missional church will intentionally embrace diversity locally and will cross social, cultural and geographic barriers as agents of the missio Dei. God’s mission furthermore universally encompasses every aspect of life: personal, familial, social, cultural, and economic. This is grounded upon the universal authority and lordship of Jesus Christ.
Extends to All
In the latter part of the third chapter of Galatians, Paul unpacks the Gospel promise of adoption for those that have placed their faith and trust in Jesus. On the heels of this affirmation, Paul says this, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” This is an helpful connection. Paul shows the relationship between our adoption and our unity. As we are adopted by God (Galatians 3:26), we become united as his people. (Galatians 3:28).
One of the unfortunate realities in our world is that because of the fall (Genesis 3), divisions will be ever present through the impact of sin. But God says that as his adopted children, we join a new type of family in which the barriers that normally separate us in the world (gender, race, education, social standing, etc.) dissolve. Why? Because in Christ, as the adopted children of God, we are Christians before we are any gender, race, etc. Adoption levels the field.
I see some clear connections between this and God’s heart for mission in the world here. First, if our adoption is through faith and not of our own works, it should lead to a humility that understands, as the famous quote says, “We are all mere beggars telling other beggars where to find bread.” Christians should be the most humble people in the world because they know their salvation is a free gift received by faith alone.
Second, this humility should lead to a deep love for all people. Because God’s love extends to all people, so should our love. Because his mission extends to all people, so does our mission.
And that brings us to this third connection. This humility and love should that is norm of the gospel should literally extend to all through mission. God’s mission is truly a global mission (Rev. 5:9). While I love the emphasis in evangelicalism regarding missional endeavors in our personal spheres, we must remember that Christians also have a global obligation to advance God’s kingdom among all the nations (Matthew 28:18-20). It is a both and. We must cross the street as well as span the globe with the missio ecclesia.
Embraces Diversity
In his bible study on Galatians, one of our framers, Tim Keller, points to Galatians 3:28 to show how there are three barriers that usually divide people but are broken down in Christ through the power of the gospel: cultural, class, and gender barriers. [1] Keller believes this passage does not teach that we are all identical, that all distinctions have been obliterated, or that we are all interchangeable, but rather that we are united as one in Christ.
Of all of the themes in Galatians, this is one of Paul’s most prominent. We don’t have to give up our culture and our sensibilities to be grafted into the family of God! Paul is trying to show us that because of the Gospel, there can be unity in diversity under the banner of Christ. And this unity in diversity is what demonstrates to a watching world the manifold wisdom of God (Ephesians 3:10). What does this have to do with mission? Everything.
If we believe that through unity in diversity, we are an “apologetic” of the Gospel (see Leslie Newbigin) and that God’s mission extends to every place, that will naturally mean that the church, in faithfulness to the mission we have received, should embrace every kind of person. In MissionShift: Global Mission Issues in the Third Millennium, a book that I co-edited with my friend, David Hesselgrave, I said this:
This task of reaching out to other cultures is under the Holy Spirit’s direction. That task requires us being humbly certain of our own beliefs and methods, rather than arrogantly being so sure that we know what God would do and have us say in any situation…Crossing the barriers is more important if the world is our focus…we achieve this by holding the gospel close and climbing the fences with it in order to share it on the other side. [2]
True mission will embrace diversity by “climbing the fences” into territories that may be uncomfortable and challenging. This is the call of God and his great commission.
Encompasses All Aspects of Life
God’s mission is his work of redemption through Jesus Christ. The mission he gave the church is heralding the hope of redemption, proclaiming the promises that are only found in Jesus, and making disciples of Jesus throughout the world. But, while our gospel mission gives us an outward posture to our neighbor and to the world, I also believe that it should have an “internal” implication as well. I like how the manifesto describes this by saying that God’s mission should encompass every aspect of our lives because our lives are “grounded upon the universal authority and lordship of Jesus.”
Lee Camp, author of Mere Discipleship: Radical Christianity in a Rebellious World, says:
‘Jesus is Lord’ is a radical claim, one that is ultimately rooted in questions of allegiance, of ultimate authority, of the ultimate norm and standard for human life. Instead, Christianity has often sought to ally itself comfortably with allegiance to other authorities, be they political, economic, cultural, or ethic…Have Christians claimed the lordship of Christ but systematically set aside the call to obedience to this lord? [3]
Lee asks a great question. It seems to follow that if God’s mission reaches to all spheres and envelops all people, it should have a widespread impact on the “allegiances” found within us as well. In other words, when people experience the saving grace of Jesus (the result of God’s mission in the world), it should change the way we live personally, in our families, socially, culturally, and economically. It should reorient our priorities, our time, and our investment of resources. It should ultimately result in Gospel-motivated obedience in every nook and cranny of our lives.
My friend and fellow framer, Alan Hirsch, says in his book, Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church, “Yahweh’s lordship is at once complete and graceful salvation, as well as total, unqualified demand. In biblical faith, salvation and lordship are inextricably linked.” [4] I would add that God’s mission is the catalyst for that salvation and lordship.
Next, we will look at the tenth and final affirmation regarding the application of mission. As always, be sure to read the preamble and affirmations here, and then come back and weigh in with your thoughts in the comments.
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[1] Tim Keller, “Paul’s Letter to the Galatians” leader’s guide, available at www.redeemer2.com/websamples/GalatiansSample.pdf.
[2] Ed Stetzer and David Hesselgrave, MissionShift: Global Mission Issues in the Third Millennium (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2010), 158.
[3] Lee Camp, Mere Discipleship: Radical Christianity in a Rebellious World (Brazos Press: Grand Rapids, MI, 2003), 16.
[4] Alan Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church (Brazos Press: Grand Rapids, MI, 2008), 89.
