Foundations for Christian Mission, Mentor's Guide, MG04

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F O U N D A T I O N S F O R C H R I S T I A N M I S S I O N

publishing houses, and church and parachurch organizations are run by those who are European or North American in background, usually white, and with connections of power and means. For many from the outside, then, Christianity does not appear to be a new people of God built on inclusion, equality, diversity, and unity—multi-national and multi-cultural, enjoying one bond in the Spirit. Rather, the body and bride of Christ appears to be Gentile in orientation, and western in domination. These perceptions are undermining our ability to enter into certain societies, which see Christianity as essentially a western, cultural religion; many nations are no longer open to receive Christian missionaries, seeing them as agents of western values and norms, not the representatives of the citizenry of heaven. With the ever increasing animosity towards Christianity and the West, how ought we as mission leaders think about the next generation of communicating Christ across cultures, especially those which are highly suspicious and skeptical of anything western and white? The divine romance between God and his people is one of the major motifs of mission in Scripture, that is, God’s determination to draw out of the world a people for his own possession, a possession fulfilled and completed in Jesus’ love for his Church. The notion of the bride and bridegroom in the OT is prominent, related to idea of social union, mirth, and gladness in Scripture, as well as its use as a basic image of God’s relationship to his people (as seen in the book of Song of Solomon). Ultimately, his people would be restored to God, who would dance and rejoice over his people like a bridegroom over a bride. Clues for the hope and promise of a new covenant are included in God’s covenant with Abraham, and its prospect of Gentile inclusion. In the person of Jesus, the bride-bridegroom metaphor is extended and completed. Jesus has now become the source and life of the Church, his new bride, and John the Baptist, his forerunner, has become the friend of the bridegroom. The mystery of the body has now been revealed through the apostles and prophets, that Gentiles are fellow heirs with Jews in the new covenant promise of God, and through it, are welcomed as members of God’s new humanity and Christ’s bride. The divine romance will be consummated with the coming of the New Jerusalem from heaven, the dwelling place of God and his people, who will totally identify with Christ the bridegroom in being made like him, becoming joint-heirs with him, being in his presence forever as his co-regent. Mission, therefore, is the work of sharing this message of God’s selecting a people from all nations who by faith in Jesus Christ form the members of his kingdom community who will live with him forever.

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Restatement of the Lesson’s Thesis