The Mission of God and our Mission

We need to know what we mean by the concept of mission before we can talk about what the bible has to say about mission, or how mission affects interpretation.

Andrew Kirk has said  "The church’s mission . . . encompasses everything that Jesus sends his people into the world to do. It does not include everything the church does or everything God does in the world.[1]  The paper "Is mission our only mission?" includes the following diagram as a way of thinking through the implications of this.

• What would you label each of the arrows to represent?
• Are there any other arrows that could be placed on the diagram?
• When we talk about the mission of the church, what are we usually talking about on this diagram?
• What things does theological reflection on mission, i.e. missiology, have to reflect on as well?

Thinking about Hermeneutical Keys.

We can think about hermeneutical keys as keys to doors in corners and walls of the room containing a scene we wish to interpret. What we will see in the room depends not only on what is there, but which door we come in. It makes a difference to our perspective on mission whether we start from God, Church, Society, or the relationship between God and the Church, God and the World or the World and the Church.

• The Gospel and Our Culture Network (UK)
• Gospel and Our Culture network (USA): http://www.gocn.org
• DeepSight Trust: an Initiative for Religion and Cultures: http://www.deepsight.org
• Database of Lesslie Newbigin's writing:  http://www.newbigin.net
• Gospel and Culture Introductory Articles (DeepSight Trust)
• MisLinks Theology of Mission
• http://roxborogh.com/missiology.htm
• http://roxborogh.com/mission.htm 
• Willowbank Report Lausanne Theology and Education Group, 1978
• Dr. Charles H. Kraft Contextualisation Theory in Euro-American Missiology
• Jacques Matthey "Luke 4:16-30 The Spirit's Mission Manifesto
  Jesus' Hermeneutics - and Luke's Editorial"
• SEDOS (Service of Documentationand Study) (Articles in English, French, Spanish and Italian)
• S.M. Michael, S.V.D. Christianity and Culture - Authentic in Dialogue: Beyond Relativism and Ethnocentrism
• Frans Wijsen Intercultural Theology and the Mission of the Church.
• Kim Dae Ryeong Missiology of Preaching Resources and Missiology Arcticles
• Andrew Walls, Interview "The expansion of Christianity"  Christian Century.