Theology of Integral Mission
Dewi Hughes, Theological Advisor, Tearfund
There is a need for a theology of integral mission because theologians and church
leaders have torn apart elements of the Christian mission that should never have
been separated. Liberals reduced the mission to social action and in response
evangelicals reduced it to making individual converts by proclaiming the ‘gospel’.1
This polarisation was hardly ever complete but enough heat and suspicion was
generated for social action to be damned by many evangelicals for its association
with liberalism and for proselytising evangelism to be damned by liberals for its
association with obscurantist fundamentalism. From the evangelical side
theologians have been trying to exorcise the demon of associating social action with
liberalism for over half a century and will probably have to continue doing so.
Meanwhile where the evil spirit has been cast out we need to focus on how to live
integrally. This will mean:
1. Having a robust biblical understanding
understanding of God’s plan for the earth and its people.
Tearfund’s new Statement of Faith contains a summary outline of such an
understanding. Here is a summary of the summary:
God created the earth and everything in it and declared that it was all good. He is intimately
concerned with what happens to the creation that continues to depend upon him for its
existence. God chose to focus the meaning and history of the earth in people, the dominant
species that he created. Very early in human history people chose to reject God’s authority. Ever
since our history has been dominated by violence and destructive exploitation of each other
and the rest of creation. This is the root of poverty.
But running in parallel with this sad human story is the story of God’s plan to redeem human
beings and restore the earth. Focused on Israel in the Old Testament, the story is eventually
summed up in Jesus Christ who through his life, death and resurrection opened the way to a
better life through restored relationship with God, between human beings and with the rest of
creation. This restoration will reach its culmination when Jesus returns to fully establish his
kingdom in a new heaven and earth from which all evil will be banished.
We live in the time between the arrival of the Holy Spirit’s new redemptive power on earth
following Christ’s resurrection and the consummation of all things when Christ returns. The
power of evil is still great. We see it in disasters, war and the way the rich protect their own
interests at the expense of the poor. But as the Holy Spirit works in and through communities
1
This was a case of what is common in the history of theology of a bad argument being countered by
an equally bad one. Even great theologians are not immune. The sixteenth century Jesuit theologian
Robert Bellarmine argued that Protestantism could not be of God because Protestants did not engage in
converting the heathen [foreign missions]; Calvin countered by arguing that the Great Commission [Mt
28:19-20] had been fulfilled in apostolic times and was no longer binding on Christians and thus
stymied the development of a robust Calvinistic missionary theology for 200 years. Theologians bear a
heavy responsibility!
of disciples of Jesus Christ true peace, justice and prosperity – the qualities of Jesus Christ’s
rule – can be experienced now as a foretaste of what is to come in the new heaven and earth.
2. Cultivating a deep experimental involvement in God’s story.
This will mean:
Deepening our experimental knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our evangelical tradition has
rightly focused on Jesus as the one who forgives the sins of those who believe in him. In fact
evangelicalism has historically been at its most vibrant when declaring this truth in the power of
the Spirit in periods of deep spiritual and moral declension. But evangelicalism at its best has
always seen this initial experience of Jesus as a door into a growing understanding of his
lordship. Jesus is Lord is the foundational Christian confession. Growth in grace is growth in
submission to the lordship of Jesus. Under the new covenant established by Jesus submission
begins in individual hearts and from there is meant to permeate every aspect of any individual’s
life. Every individual believer is an actor in a host of different relationships that impacts the
lives of others – marriage, family, church, village, town, nation, organizations of many kinds,
the economic and political community etc. The privilege and joy of Christians is to represent the
Lordship of Jesus in all their relationships.2
Cultivating our dependence on Jesus. What is in view here is cultivating a conscious communion
with the Lord Jesus Christ in our hearts – what Brother Lawrence called practising the presence
of God. Our fundamental premise is that we can achieve nothing apart from Jesus3 and the only
way to make sure that we are ‘in him’ is to assiduously practice the fundamental spiritual
disciplines of meditation on the truths of the Bible, prayer and fasting in the context of the
church. This is the context where we realize that even our striving to overcome poverty is not
ultimately a struggle against flesh and blood ‘but against the rulers, against the authorities,
against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly
realms.’4 The most significant victories against evil – including the evil of poverty - are won on
this level.
Living in the power of the Holy Spirit. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our hearts is the
greatest gift won for us through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus. What happened
at Pentecost was the general dissemination to every believer of everything that was glorious
about the old covenant as represented in its prophecies, visions and dreams. Intimacy with God
now became the norm and with it knowledge of God’s will and purpose for now and hereafter.
We have God’s word in the Bible but through the Spirit we can now expect the sons and
daughters of God to speak God’s word into their generation and together to be able to envision
a better world and the path towards it.5 Because of what the Son achieved on the cross the
Spirit is now at work in God’s children moving the creation towards its final destiny of glorifying
2
A lot could be said at this point about our calling in Tearfund to focus on those aspects of submitting
to the Lordship of Jesus that have a bearing on poverty.
3
John 15.
4
Ephesians 6:12.
5
Even old/er men will have dreams of a more glorious future under God in this world and beyond,
which is a great comfort to me! Acts 2:17d.
the Father. Those engaged in the integral mission of God expect to be led and empowered by
the Spirit.6
3. Affirming the centrality of churches as the earth moves towards its final
final destiny under the
direction of the Spirit.
It is through the church as a ‘caring, inclusive and distinctive community of reconciliation
reaching out in love to the world’7 that the multifaceted wisdom of God is made known to the
hostile ‘rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms.’8 The church is not the means by which
Tearfund can deliver ‘development’ to the poor but the most convincing evidence that we now
have of the outworking of God’s purpose to redeem his creation. United together by the
indwelling Spirit Christians become communities in which the fruit of the Spirit is manifested –
‘love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.’9 It is
not surprising that from the very beginning of church history the communities infused with
these Spirit-induced qualities could not abide poverty in their midst and that their love has
always overflowed to the poor outside the churches as well.
However wonderful they can be we have to recognize that the churches on earth are never
perfect. They are always made up of people that are at different stages of being made perfect
and the fruit of the Spirit is not always in evidence. There is also a strong tendency for
individuals and groups to usurp the authority of the Lord of the churches. But Jesus remains
Lord of the churches and we know that in every age his churches have continued to manifest
the fruit of the Spirit. It is our privilege to be continually looking for such churches within the
worldwide evangelical community that we may encourage them in their integral mission.
The Holy Spirit also gives a whole range of gifts [charismata] to the churches so that they can
fulfil their high calling. Interestingly in the context of the debate about evangelism and social
action the gifts can be divided into two main categories – speaking gifts and practical service
gifts. Peter makes it clear that both types of gifts are required to achieve the end of God’s
purpose for his creation, which is his praise and glory through Jesus Christ.10 Tearfund needs
both types of gifts to fulfil its calling but we are particularly eager to stir up the gifts of service
most of which are primarily focused on the poor.
4. Showing mercy to the poor and acting justly on their behalf.
Showing mercy and acting on behalf of the poor belongs to the essence of the church. By
definition a church is a gathering of people that cares for its poor. A church that does not care
for its poor is not a true church. There is probably some scope for thinking about the precise
responsibility that rich Christians in the West bear for their poor brothers and sisters in the
South but there are strong precedents in the New Testament for expressing practical care for
6
The doctrine of the Spirit is the least developed aspect of the doctrine of the Trinity. The tentative
suggestions in this paragraph flow from a conviction that the Spirit must not be neglected in
formulating a theology of integral mission.
7
Tearfund: mission, beliefs, values strategy, p. 11.
8
Ephesians 3:1.
9
Gal 5:22-3.
10
1 Pet 4:10-11.
poor Christians living at a distance.11 The key principle seems to be knowledge. If a Christian
knows that a fellow believer is in need and has the means to relieve that need a failure to do so
is evidence of a lack of true knowledge of God.12 Where the infinite compassion of Christ
towards the poor is expressed within the fellowship of the church in the power of the Spirit it
will inevitably overflow into society at large. The great challenge for us is to be true church at
every level from the most local to the most international.
We accept as consistent with the Bible the development community’s analysis of
poverty as a lack of empowerment, opportunity and security and emphasise that the
poor are denied power, opportunity and security by the rich and powerful. Much of
the pro-poor legislation in the Old Testament does not prescribe charity but
empowerment and opportunity. Right through the Bible the widows, orphans and
immigrants are the prime subjects of God’s special care and attention because they
are most vulnerable to exploitation because most dependent on people that have
power over them. God singles them out because they need protectors – in political
terms they need good rulers.13 Showing mercy to the poor, therefore, often requires
a lot more than a handout although in an emergency a handout/alms may be
required. To show mercy requires a whole range of different actions and gifts needed
to reduce the vulnerability of the poor. These actions and gifts also cost money.
This focus on the responsibility of the rich and powerful is underlined by the large
body of material on wealth in the teaching of Jesus. Jesus warns us about the grave
dangers of wealth and possessions and makes it very clear that following him
involves using what wealth and power we have on behalf of the poor. This has major
implications for the way Tearfund relates to the UK church in particular but also to
wealthy churches throughout the world. Integral mission also has a bottom line!
11
Aid from Antioch to Jerusalem, Acts 11:27-30 and Paul’s major collection again for the poor
believers in Jerusalem.
12
1 John 3:16ff. Where knowledge is expressed in terms of seeing – theōreō which means a prolonged
look rather than just a quick glance. Cf. Luke 10:33 – it is seeing [horaō] the beaten victim of robbery
that brings out the Samaritan’s compassion.
13
Cf Mt 9:36: ‘When [Jesus] saw the crowds he had compassion on them, because they were harassed
and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.’ This would be crowds of the poor of the land that Jesus
saw with compassion as people who lacked good government because biblically the shepherd is a
metaphor of the ruler.