Who is in charge of the mission of the Church?
Hey All,
So, what’ s the first image that comes to mind when you hear the phrase “Christian Missionary Activity”? In many ways this is a loaded term and you probably have a lot of thoughts come to mind ranging from images of colonization to some more benign images of rich North American’s going overseas for a stint of Gospel proclamation to the “lost”. It should be clear that most of these images show the “Christian” in control of mission — in other words, the mission of ‘mission’ is decided and even pre-determined by those in the church. However, what if mission could be conceived differently? Alain Epp Weaver’s States of Exile has a great passage which describes a far more radical conception of the church in mission:
“The church in diaspora [exile] is a church in mission. Jesus sends the church out into the world to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt 28:19). Exile is the site of mission, the name for the innumerable places to which the church is sent by her Lord. However, a peculiar thing happens as the church embarks on this exilic mission. As Christians in mission learn new languages, become immersed in new thought worlds, we discover that the Spirit of the God incarnate in Jesus has preceded us. While we thought we were going out to share information about Jesus with others, we gradually realize, as we seek to confess our faith in Jesus in ever-new situations, that we do not possess or control our proclamation of Jesus but that our prior expectations and certainties about Jesus’ identity are subverted. The church in exile is “not in charge” politically, but even more so, it is not in charge theologically: exile is thus not only the site of mission but also a style of mission.” p.67
What might our history of “Christian” colonization both in the past and as it still occurs today have looked/look like if we would understand mission in this sense?