Tim Dakin: Missiology & Witness in a Global Context
1. ‘Mission’ as a Problem
Transcending Mission, a recent book on missiology by Michael Stroope (an American Baptist), argues that we
need to move on in our understanding of mission because the word ‘mission’ no longer reflects either ‘the real
world’ or the Bible. We are no longer in the ‘great century’ of missionary expansion:
We live on this side of two world wars and in the new realities of increasing pluralism, heightened secularism, and vibrant
localized expressions of Christian faith. . . . Our pioneering task is to transcend mission and to discover fresh impulse and
renewed vision for witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ. (IVP 2017, pp. 29f)
2. The Missio Dei in Jesus the Image of God: a Basis for Witness
For many European missiologists Stroope’s challenges are familiar. Yet the language of ‘mission’ is retained
but not grounded in bygone colonial perspectives; it is primarily grounded in God’s mission. (It is strange that
Stroope does not explore the missio Dei and connect the language of ‘sending’ with the ‘divine processions’.) Positively, Stroope
proposes pilgrim witness to the Kingdom as a way of life for today (‘Epilogue’ pp. 355-85). Yet this way of life needs
grounding in a credible theology of God’s transcendent and historical mission. (See Flett’s book on Barth: The Witness
of God (Eerdmans, 2010) and essay: ’Theology of Missio Dei’ (Theology in Scotland 2010).
Thus God’s mission (the missio Dei) has emerged as the basis for missional thought and practice in a new
era of intercultural and contextual sensitivity. Such a perspective is not dependent on the American or
European mission movement for its origins; rather it draws on the missio Dei discerned in the great traditions of
world Christianity. From these wider resources emerges a world mission of Christian witness that is both divine
and human, and Biblically based (eg Stephen Bevans & Roger Schroeder: Constants in Context: A Theology of Mission for
Today (Orbis 2004); William Burrows et al (eds): Understanding World Christianity: The Vision and Work of Andrew Walls (Orbis 2011);
John Flett: Apostolicity: The Ecumenical Question in World Christian Perspective (IVP 2016); Philip Jenkins: The Lost History of
Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, African and Asia (Lion 2008); Lamin Sanneh:
Translating the Message: Missionary Impact on Culture (Orbis 2009); Vladimir Ubeivolc: Rethinking Missio Dei among Evangelical
Churches in an Eastern European Orthodox Context (Langham 2016)).
A major ecumenical and intercultural contribution has been the Christological coordination of the divine-andhuman-in-mission: Jesus as the image of God is the basis for Christian witness (see Dominic Robinson’s
Understanding the ‘Imago Dei’ (Routlege 2011) on the descent and ascent of divine and human relationships coordinated in Christ).
Thus Jesus ‘the true witness’ (Rev 3:14) is God’s image in human form (Heb 1:3). This Christological perspective
reworks issues like the nature-grace debate, and human participation in reconciliation and consummation. (Here
intercultural Spirit Christologies are significant, eg Christina Manohar: Spirit Christology ISPCK, 2009).
3. Witnessing to Jesus as the Image of God amidst Pluralism: A World Mission Practice
Christians witness Jesus’ uniqueness amidst global pluralism, as Nick Wood says in Faiths and Faithfulness:
Christianity affirms that the Trinue God is Christ-like: the Father is revealed by the Son in the power of the Spirit. This
knowledge of God has not been understood as one vision among many … Rather it has been understood as a universally
valid revelation, true for the whole world, for all peoples and for all time.’ (Paternoster 2009 p.xv)
For those who address this challenge two dynamics are essential: translation and conversion (cf Walls work op
cit). These are framework-practices that take Christian witness back to its roots: cross-cultural engagement and
intra-cultural conversion. Jesus as the true witness is both the translation of God into humanity and the
conversion of humanity towards God. Christian witness is made up of these two dynamics transposed into
human participation in Jesus’ ongoing mission in the power of the Spirit. This witness is also conducted
within the dynamics of prophetic dialogues with other religious believers or other world views (see Bevans &
Schroder: Prophetic Dialogue: Reflections on Christian Mission Today Orbis 2011).
4. Analogy of Mission: Witness as World Mission Practices (not Geographical Expansion)
In a book that pre-empts much of what Stroope says (and not referenced by him) Stanley Skreslet states (in
Picturing Christian Witness: New Testament Images of Disciples in Mission Eerdmans 2006) that he can no longer use some of
the images which inform and shape contemporary mission. For example, he says, ‘I cannot affirm the premise
that Christianity is a territorial religion, such that mission could be pictured as an act of expansion from
Christian nations to non-Christian lands’ (p.19). Neither can Skreslet endorse the imposition of a foreign
hierarchy of normative cultural values or the use of military language to describe mission.
Skreslet’s alternative set of images are derived from New Testament images of disciples engaging in mission
practices. He suggests five: 1. announcing the good news; 2. sharing Christ with friends; 3. interpreting the
gospel; 4. shepherding; 5. building and planting. These different forms of witness, rooted in the early tradition
of NT discipleship, show a tradition of witness not grounded in modern missionary movements. Christian world
mission is not shaped by geography but by mission practices, including the ongoing question of how
Trinitarian mission is expressed in historical and social practices (see David Fitch & Geoffrey Hosclaw: ‘Mission Amid
Empire: Relating Trinity, Mission and Political Formation’ Missiology, 2014). Bevans & Schroeder (2004) identify six areas of
mission practices: witness & proclamation; liturgy, prayer & contemplation; justice, peace & integrity of
creation; interreligious dialogue; inculturation; and reconciliation.