Development of Missiological Thinking and Praxis

- Mr. Abhinilesh Prakash

Course Objectives
- To help students to understand the origin and the development of mission studies.
- The missiological foundation of the Bible
- The contextual and methodological issues of Mission Studies.
- A comprehensive approach to mission based on biblical writings
- The various practices of mission about the changing global and contextual realities.
- To integrate their knowledge of history, mission and missiological thought as it
relates to practical issues facing the contemporary church throughout the world.

Unit 1, Introduction
a. Definitions of Mission and Evangelism
What is Mission?
Since the 1950’s there has been a remarkable escalation in the use of the word “mission” among
Christians. Until the 1950s “mission,” even if not used in a univocal sense, had a fairly
circumscribed set of meanings. It referred to
(a) The sending of missionaries to a designated territory
(b) The activities undertaken by such missionaries
(c) The geographical area where the missionaries were active
(d) The agency which dispatched the missionaries
(e) The non-Christian world or “mission field,” or
(f) The center from which the missionaries operated on the “mission field”

Theological synopsis of “mission” as the concept has traditionally been used, it has been
paraphrased as (a) propagation of the faith, (b) expansion of the reign of God, (c) conversion of
the heathen, and (d) the founding of new churches.
Until the sixteenth century the term was used exclusively with reference to the doctrine of the
Trinity, that is, of the sending of the Son by the Father and of the Holy Spirit by the Father and
the Son. The Jesuits were the first to use it in terms of the spread of the Christian faith among
people (including Protestants) who were not members of the Catholic Church. In this new sense
it was intimately associated with the colonial expansion of the Western world into what has more
recently become known as the Third World (or, sometimes, the Two-Thirds World). The term
“mission” presupposes a sender, a person or persons sent by the sender, those to whom one is
sent, and an assignment. The entire terminology thus presumes that the one who sends has the
authority to do so. Often it was argued that the real sender was God who had indisputable
authority to decree that people be sent to execute his will. In practice, however, the authority was
understood to be vested in the church or in a mission society, or even in a Christian potentate. In
Roman Catholic missions, in particular, juridical authority remained, for a long time, the
constitutive element for the legitimacy of the missionary enterprise. It was part of this entire
approach to view mission in terms of expansion, occupation of fields, the conquest of other
religions.

Orlando E. Costas put it, the basic purpose of the Christian mission is “to be a channel of
wholeness and liberation” wherever it is proclaimed.

What is Evangelism?
It is derived from the Greek noun ‘evangelismos’ which has following distinct meanings: (a) glad
tidings, or the preaching of the gospel; (b) annunciation; (c) evangelization (Barrett 1987).
Evangelism is both good news preached and good news about Jesus. It is bringing and
proclaiming the good news about Jesus – the bearer of the gospel and the embodiment. It is not
limited to preaching, worship, fellowship, service. It involves everything.

According to Toyohiko Kagawa, Evangelism means conversion of people from worldliness to

Christ like godliness. According to D. T. Niles, Evangelism means, primarily the proclamation
of the good news the gospel. According to Bishop William J. Thompson, Evangelism, put very
concisely, is a conscious desire and longing to bring others in contact with Christ.
According to Donald McGavran, “Theologically mission was evangelism by every means
possible.” Though evangelism is one dimension of the total task of mission, it is at the very heart
of mission. the church is called to a task of communicating a particular message (the gospel)
about a particular person (Jesus) in a particular context (the redeeming/reconciling/restoring
work of God in the world). To evangelize is to ‘preach, bring, tell, proclaim, announce, declare’
the good news. All these six words have been used to mean evangelizo.

The 1918 Church of England Report of the Archbishops’ Committee gives a classic definition
of evangelism:
To evangelize is so to present Christ Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit, that men
[and women] shall come to put their trust in God through Him, to accept Him as their
Saviour, and serve Him as their King in the fellowship of His Church.

The Lausanne Covenant defines:

To Evangelise is to spread the good news that Jesus Christ dies for our sins and was
raised from the dead according to the Scriptures ( 1 Cor 15:3-4), and that as the
reigning Lord he now offers the forgiveness of sin (Acts 2:32-39) and the liberating
gift of the Spirit to all who repent and believe (John 20:22). Our Christian presence in
the world is indispensible to evangelism, and so is that kind of dialogue whose
purpose is to listen sensitively in order to understand. But evangelism in itself is the
proclamation of the historical biblical Christ as Saviour (1 Cor 1:23; 2 Cor 4:5) and
Lord, with a view to persuading people to come to him personally and so be
reconciled to God (2 Cor 5:11, 20). In issuing the gospel invitation we have no liberty
to conceal the cost of discipleship (Luke 14:25-33). Jesus still calls all who would
follow him to deny themselves, take up the cross (Mark 8:34), and identify
themselves with his new community. The results of evangelism include obedience to
Christ, incorporation into his Church (Acts 2:40, 47) and responsible service in the
world (Mark 10:43-45).

What is Missiology?
Etymologically, the word “missiology” simply means “the study of mission” Missiology can
easily be described as the intentional and ongoing theological study or reflection of God’s
mission and the church’s missionary activity, which includes the history, the character and
purpose of missionary work.
Missiology is an interdisciplinary discipline which, through research, writing, and teaching,
furthers acquisition, development, and transition of theologically-informed, contextually-
grounded, and ministry-oriented knowledge and understanding, with the goal of helping and
correcting Christians, and Christian institutions, involved in the doing the Christian mission.
According to David Bosch, Missiology, as a branch of the discipline of Christian theology, is not
a disinterested or neutral enterprise, rather it seeks to look at the world from the perspective of
commitment to the Christian faith.
Escobar puts missiology as “a reflection of God’s people as they engage in acts of obedience to
God’s missionary call, under the light of God’s world.”
Missiology is an academic discipline aimed at understanding and explaining the specifics of the
church’s missionary calling in light of the Missio Dei. Being biblically based, it is historically
informed, theologically balanced, and grounded in particular cultural contexts with the ultimate
purpose of directing the practice of the Christian mission in its specific settings.