Symphony of Mission , livre ebook

Cover
Half Title Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
© 2019 by Michael W. Goheen and Jim Mullins
Published by Baker Academic
a division of Baker Publishing Group
PO Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakeracademic.com
Ebook edition created 2019
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-1984-5
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™
Scripture quotations labeled ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2016
Scripture quotations labeled Message are from THE MESSAGE, copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Dedication
To Jenny and Elliana Mullins, for displaying sacrificial and creative love
To Tom Shrader, for his faithful and foresightful leadership of Christ’s church in Phoenix
Contents
Cover i
Half Title Page ii
Title Page iii
Copyright Page iv
Dedication v
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xxiii
1. Story: Listening to the Symphony 1
2. Simplicity: Learning the Notes 31
3. Intentionality: The Movements of Mission 49
4. Stewardship: Displaying the Glory of the Father through the Work of Our Hands 65
5. Service: Displaying the Love of Christ by Washing the Feet of the World 93
6. The Spoken Word: Displaying the Power of the Holy Spirit by Opening Our Mouths 121
7. Listening: Finding Your Place in God’s Symphony 145
8. Performing: Participating in God’s Symphony 167
9. Sustaining: Persevering in God’s Symphony 183
Recommended Resources 197
Back Cover 201
Preface
“Another book about mission?” you might be thinking. “Surely we don’t need another. We just need to put into practice what we already know!”
We certainly sympathize with these thoughts. And in fact, this book is designed precisely to move God’s people from theological reflection to faithful practice, from wrestling with the idea of mission to participating—faithfully and obediently—in what God is doing in mission. Harvie Conn, who has shaped both of us, says it well when he pleads at the beginning of his book on evangelism and justice, “And now to the streets and not, pray God, to the study.” 1
This book is a joint project between Mike Goheen and Jim Mullins. Mike is leading a creative experiment in missional theological education among the Phoenix area churches called the Missional Training Center (MTC). 2 He works with many pastors in this role, and Jim is one of them. Jim is the pastor of theological and vocational formation at Redemption Church, Tempe. He is on the board of MTC and plays a key role among the Phoenix area churches to catalyze and unify congregations in mission. He also helps lead the Surge School, a widely ecumenical endeavor that disciples hundreds of people annually in vocational mission. While both of us are deeply engaged in the mission of the church and in thinking about it in light of Scripture, it is especially Mike’s theological reflection and Jim’s imaginative implementation that come together in this book.
The book itself arises out of three things: our personal stories, how our stories intersect, and the need we discovered in our Surge School for a certain kind of book about mission. So we’ll begin with our stories, each told in our own words.
Mike’s Story
When (in the late 1970s) I committed myself to follow Christ, it was in a church that stood squarely within the revivalist tradition of the early twentieth century. My assumptions about the nature of mission and what it meant to participate in that mission sprouted from that soil. For me, mission was about evangelism, sharing a certain message that would enable people to go to heaven. In those days the animosity between the evangelical and ecumenical traditions was so bitter you almost had to experience it to believe it. Word and deed were seen to be in tension, and the church I was a part of was firmly and unapologetically committed to word over deed.
And so I became a zealous evangelist. I took a personal evangelism course in a local Bible college and memorized many formulas, including the Four Spiritual Laws and the Romans Road. I became involved in the Evangelism Explosion ministry in our church, diligently mastering all the techniques and becoming a trainer. I went into the homes of folks who had visited our church, urging them to believe in Jesus. I took every opportunity to share the gospel—or at least a narrow version of the gospel—with anyone who would listen, and often with those who wouldn’t. In short, I embodied what one book of that time referred to as a “witless witness.” 3 On the front of that book is a picture of an angry-looking man standing on the chest of another man who is pinned on the ground. The man who is standing has a large Bible raised high in one hand, while with the other hand he is aggressively pulling his helpless victim’s tie. Now you might dismiss this picture as a mere caricature designed to get a laugh and catch the buyer’s eye in a Christian bookstore, but it’s more than that to me. You see, I remember a time on the streets of Miami when I came close to being that bully with the Bible as I badgered a young man with the “gospel” until he finally prayed the sinner’s prayer. He said the words of the prayer, but he did so—I am sure—just to get rid of me. I’m not proud of that memory. But it is a reminder for me of a time when I was genuinely (though ignorantly) wrestling with the nature of mission, how I was to participate in it, and what it should look like in my daily life.
But then another event occurred in my life a short while later that gradually worked loose some of my most deeply held assumptions about mission. A Haitian man appeared on the front steps of my church’s conference center, his feet bleeding from a long walk. He was hungry. He had nowhere to live and no job. I brought him into the foyer of the conference center and seated him there while I set about figuring out what I could do to help. But before I came up with a real plan, I was summoned to the office of the senior pastor, where the whole pastoral staff had assembled to demand I remove this man from the premises. As a relatively new Christian, I was confused because these leaders whom I respected were apparently acting without mercy. “There are government agencies for this kind of thing,” and “You can’t help everyone, Mike,” were some of the words I remember. I stubbornly refused to follow their direction, and a long drama ensued that eventually led me to find lodging and a job for the man on my own. But the whole incident shook me deeply. At that point, I didn’t yet understand the twentieth-century theological history that had produced such a passionate division between word and deed. But I knew something was very wrong with a church that placed such a high priority on evangelism and yet had so little sense of justice and mercy. My views on mission were being challenged and broadened.
The tradition in which I grew up was also committed to cross-cultural missions. Accordingly, I decided that if my life was to count for anything, I needed to become a foreign missionary. With that in mind, I decided to head to Westminster Seminary, Philadelphia, to get the biblical training I would need for the task. I have no doubt that many of my ideas and convictions shifted during my three years there, but two such shifts in particular would play a huge role in my later life. First, I learned in the tradition of Herman Ridderbos and Geerhardus Vos to read the Bible as one story. Second, I was exposed to Harvie Conn’s classes on mission. His views of holistic mission, his redemptive-historical approach to every issue, and his urging to read and absorb J. H. Bavinck’s work combined to shape my views on mission profoundly.
When it came time to graduate, I was met by a group from eastern Ontario who challenged my commitment to go overseas. They argued that Canada was a far more needy mission field than any of the African countries I was considering. And, of course, they were right. I ended up church planting and then pastoring on the edge of Toronto. I’m afraid I did many—perhaps most—things wrong. Yet I learned a lot and continued to wrestle with the nature of mission, especially in relation to the church. My views of mission had been highly individualistic; now I had to find the right connections between my missional and pastoral activities. What, I began to ask, does the church have to do with mission?
A number of events in my life at that time were working together to reshape my understanding. First, I was invited to teach an introductory course on mission at the university level. 4 I didn’t know where to begin, so I turned to Bavinck’s The Science of Missions (since that is where Harvie Conn had told me to go). After reading that book again, I became convinced that one must begin by reading the Bible as one story in order to understand mission. 5 I also began to read David Bosch and especially Lesslie Newbigin. Newbigin offered a way of viewing mission that helped resolve a number of tensions I had experienced in my theology and ministry, especially