“There has been a long tradition
which sees the mission of the Church primarily as obedience to a command. It
has been customary to speak of ‘the missionary mandate.’ This way of putting
the matter is certainly not without justification, and yet it seems to me that
it misses the point. It tends to make mission a burden rather than a joy, to
make it part of the law rather than part of the gospel. If one looks at the New
Testament evidence one gets another impression. Mission begins with a kind of
explosion of joy. The news that the rejected and crucified Jesus is alive is
something that cannot possibly be suppressed. It must be told. Who could be
silent about such a fact? The mission of the Church in the pages of the New
Testament is more like the fallout from a vast explosion, a radioactive fallout
which is not lethal but life-giving.”
which sees the mission of the Church primarily as obedience to a command. It
has been customary to speak of ‘the missionary mandate.’ This way of putting
the matter is certainly not without justification, and yet it seems to me that
it misses the point. It tends to make mission a burden rather than a joy, to
make it part of the law rather than part of the gospel. If one looks at the New
Testament evidence one gets another impression. Mission begins with a kind of
explosion of joy. The news that the rejected and crucified Jesus is alive is
something that cannot possibly be suppressed. It must be told. Who could be
silent about such a fact? The mission of the Church in the pages of the New
Testament is more like the fallout from a vast explosion, a radioactive fallout
which is not lethal but life-giving.”
- Lesslie Newbigin, The
Gospel in a Pluralist Society, page 116.
Gospel in a Pluralist Society, page 116.
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