MISSIONS IN THE LOCAL CHURCH

Speaking about Missions in the Local Church is speaking about things which should be self-evident. It is like reflecting on Swimming in a Swimming-pool. We had such a pool in our backyard in Zaire, in Africa. But we did not use it, because it was too expensive to keep it clean. In fact, the huge empty hole was dangerous, because people could fall in it. We decided to fill it up with rubbish. What we did to our unused pool can also happen to a church that is not living up to its main task: mission. It can become filled with theological "rubbish". It does not do what it exists for and will frustrate those who would like to enjoy it.

We are not the first to use a self-evident illustration to stress this point. The Swiss theologian Emil Brunner has written that the Church exists by mission as fire exists by burning. William A. Dyrness elaborates this by stating that "theology consists primarily of reflection on mission. This is true on the most basic level: the most highly developed theological statements, those of the Apostle Paul, were forged in the context of the first expansion of the Church". This leads Dyrness to stating that "mission lies at the core of theology ... all that theologians call fundamental theology is mission theology".

No wonder that theology, and through it the church will be led astray when it is disconnected from its roots; that is mission. We might conclude that

theology and church-life that does not further Missions is void and unattractive and endangered to become false.

If this is so fundamental it cannot suprise that mission is also the main theme developed in Scripture. As our topic concerns missions and the Church, we want to explore briefly some biblical data on these two subjects.

I Missions according to the Bible

Normally, when we ask christians where in the Bible we find an emphasis on missions, nine out of ten will point to Mt.28 or Act.1:8. But there can be no doubt that those references are not just incidental, they are expressions of a trend that can be traced back in the Old Testament.

In his Zendingsperspectief in het Oude testament, H.A. Wiersinga pointed out that it is significant that over and over again the New Testament appeals to the Old Testsament when it talks about mission.

Paul justifies reaching out to the heathens by quoting Es.9:6 in Acts.13:46,47.

In Rom.15:8-12 he shows that God's focus has always been on all humanity by quoting from the Psalms, Samuël, Deuteronomy and Isaiah. And when he comes to expressing his explicit desire to preach to those who never heard the Gospel before (vss.20,21), he finds support for this longing in Is.52:15.

If we consider Paul's missionwork exemplary, we must make sure that our work is rooted in the OT.

But not just Paul, we find others in the NT who draw from the OT concerning Missions. So does James during the Apostles Convent in Acts 15:14-18. And last but not least, Jesus Himself explains to the disciples from Emmaus that not only His suffering and His Resurrection were predicted by the OT, but also the fact that this message must be taken to all nations is in accordance with "what is written", Lk.24:44-47. We do not know what OT data Jesus used in His little Bible-Study to these men; was Gen.12, Ps. 67, Jonah, He had a wide choice! Starting from Genesis, the whole OT testifies univocally to Israel's Call to be a blessing to the nations.

Read further on the next page!

Introduction

I Missions according to the Bible