“The house of the church is on fire! In our missionary outreach we resemble a lunatic who carries the harvest into his burning barn.”
Transforming Mission is a scholarly, in-depth study of major missionary paradigms from the first century until the present. Today “Kingdom people seek first the Kingdom of God and its justice; the church people often put church work above concerns of justice, mercy and truth. Church people think about how to get people into church; Kingdom people think about how to get the church into the world; Kingdom people worry that the world might change the church; Kingdom people work to see the church change the world.”
Bosch believes our problem has been that the church has:
1. “Ceased to be a movement and turned into an institution.”
2. “Missed the way because it had used the church instead of the kingdom of God as its starting point.” He distinguishes between the missio Dei – God’s own involvement in the world, and Missions – the church’s missionary activity. He believes that to carry out God’s mission the church can neither focus its activity exclusively on saving souls nor on this-worldly human progress -it must do both.
3. “Viewed ministries as ‘auxiliary activities’ and not as missionary in their own right. Their purpose was to dispose people favorably toward the gospel, ‘soften them up’, and thereby prepare the way for the work of the REAL missionary, namely the one who proclaimed God’s word about eternal salvation. In most cases, then, a strict distinction was maintained between ‘horizontal’ and ‘vertical’ elements of the missionary agenda. Only the latter had a bearing on the appropriation of salvation. This definition of salvation inevitably led to a preoccupation with narrowly defined church activities, which, for their part, complicated the believers’ involvement in society since such involvement had nothing to do with salvation except to draw people toward the church where they might get access to salvation proper.”
Bosch makes the point that one of the most well-known missionary texts, the Great Commission, cannot be divorced from the rest of Matthew’s gospel. He believes that Matthew envisions a mission to both Jews and Gentiles and that this mission is characterized by discipleship and a call to challenge social injustice. Luke’s understanding of mission highlights repentance and forgiveness of sins as well as economic justice and peace-making. Paul’s understanding of mission focuses on the church as an eschatalogical community which is works for the improvement of society while awaiting the ultimate renewal of all things with the parousia.
Bosch also emphasizes that mission is ultimately multidimensional. The contours of these many dimensions are shaped by six major “salvific events” chronicled in the New Testament:
1. Christ’s incarnation, by which he fully experienced the challenges and struggles of being human;
2. his crucifixion, which signifies the completeness of his service and self-sacrifice;
3. the resurrection, which conveys a message of victory and hope for humanity;
4. the ascension, which calls Christians to work for a new order here on the earth which issues from above;
5. Pentecost, which inaugurated the era of the church as a distinct community where social renewal is made manifest;
6. parousia, which sets the sights of the church on the imminent and full realization of God’s reign.
The depth and comprehensiveness of Bosch’s work make it an important resource. “There has been an almost imperceptible shift from an emphasis on a church-centered mission to a mission-centered church. The church [can] neither be the starting point nor the goal of mission. God’s salvific work precedes both church and mission. We should not subordinate mission to the church nor the church to mission; both should be taken up into mission Dei. The church changes from being the sender to the one sent.” Bosch states, “mission is thereby seen as a movement from God to the world; the church is viewed as an instrument for that mission.” “There is church because there is mission, not vice versa. To participate in mission is to participate in the movement of God’s love toward people, since God is a fountain of sending love.”
“There is no room for a gospel that is indifferent to the needs of the total man not of the global man. The church and mission in the West should overcome its inbred “tiers-mondisme”, which immediately thinks of what it can do for the ‘less fortunate’. It should discover that liberation, dialogue, development, poverty, absence of faith and the like are not only problems for Third-World churches, but also challenges to itself.”
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