Probing a Missional Hermeneutic: Mission as
a Central Interest and Goal of Biblical Story
Michael Goheen
Vancouver, B.C.
Canada
A missional hermeneutic is a way of
reading Scripture . . .
. . . in which mission is the hermeneutical key .
. . not simply a study of the theme of mission in
the biblical writings, but a way of reading the
whole of Scripture with mission as its central
interest and goal
. . . which seeks to understand what the church’s
mission really is in the world as Scripture
depicts it
. . . which inspires and informs the church’s
missionary praxis
Mission as key that unlocks biblical
story
‘Mission is not just one of a list of
things that the Bible happens to talk
about, only a bit more urgently than
some. Mission is, in that much-abused
phrase, what it is all about.’
‘Mission is a major key that unlocks
the whole grand narrative of the canon
of Scripture.’ (Chris Wright)
Framing the Old Testament
The canonical Old Testament frames the entire
story of God’s people as the divine answer to the
problem of evil: somehow, through this people,
God will deal with the problem that has infected
his good creation in general and his imagebearing creatures in particular. Israel is to be
God’s royal nation of holy priests, chosen out of
the world but also for the sake of the world. Israel
is to be the light of the world: the nations will see
in Israel what it means to be truly human, and
hence who the true God is. (N.T. Wright)
Two texts as hermeneutical lens
Genesis 12.2-3: Blessed to be a blessing (cf. Gen
18.18-19)

Backdrop of creation and sin
‘This broad foundation on which Israel's election rests does
remind us, however, that her election cannot be the end goal.
God's revelation, which becomes focused on Israel, has the
nations in its ultimate purview’ (H. Bavinck).

“Twofold agenda”—recipient then channel
‘What is being offered in these few verses is a theological
blueprint for the redemptive history of the world, now set in
train by the call of Abram.’ (William Dumbrell)
Two texts as hermeneutical lens
Genesis 12.2-3: Blessed to be a blessing
Exodus 19.3-6: Display people
 Redeemed:
Liberated from Egyptian empire (1-
18)
 Bound to God in covenant (19-24)
The purpose of the covenant was never simply that the creator
wanted to have Israel as a special people, irrespective of the rest
of the world.
To forget the aim of the covenant is for the sake of the nations is
to betray the purpose for which that covenant was made. It is as
though the postman were to imagine that all the letters in his bag
were intended for him. (NT Wright)
Two texts as hermeneutical lens
Genesis 12.2-3: Blessed to be a blessing
Exodus 19.3-6: Display people
Redeemed: Liberated from Egyptian empire (1-18)
 Bound to God in covenant (19-24)


Israel’s vocation: Three titles (19.3-6)
Israel is to be ‘a display-people, a showcase to the world of how
being in covenant with Yahweh changes a people.’ (John Durham)
‘The history of Israel from this point on is in reality merely a
commentary upon the degree of fidelity with which Israel adhered
to this Sinai-given vocation.’ (Dumbrell)

Torah and presence of God (20-23; 25-40) [cf. Deut 4.58]
People of God in Old Testament
Genesis 12.2-3: Blessed to be a blessing
Exodus 19.3-6: Display people
Placed on display in the land to be visible
to the nations
A display people visible to the nations
The ‘visibility of Israel was part of its theological
identity and role as the priesthood of yhwh among the
nations.’ (Chris Wright)
“God’s people living in God’s way in the sight of the
nations.” (Wright)
“Israel knew that it lived under constant surveillance of
the then contemporary world.” Israel was to live out its
history “as something enacted before the eyes of the
surrounding peoples, ever conscious that the glory of
God was at issue.” (JH Bavinck)
People of God in the Old Testament
Genesis 12.2-3: Blessed to be a blessing
Exodus 19.3-6: Display people
Placed on display in the land to be visible to the nations
Failure and prophets


Failure of Israel to live up to their identity to be light to the
nations.
Promise of prophets: End-time kingdom when 1) Israel
would be gathered and renewed, and 2) then nations
incorporated
Old Testament theology has paid scant attention to the motif of
“gathering,” whereas ‘the “gathering of the scattered people of God” has
been . . . one of the fundamental statements of Israel’s theology.’ (Gerhard
Lohfink)
Church in the Biblical Story
Genesis 12.2-3: Blessed to be a blessing
Exodus 19.3-6: Display people
Placed on display in the land to be visible
to the nations
Failure and prophets
Jesus gathers and renews Israel
 Already-not
yet era of kingdom
Rabbinic Hope
Spirit
Messiah
Sin
Death
Evil
Satan
Knowledge
of God
Love
Joy
Justice
OLD AGE
AGE TO COME
New Testament Fulfillment
Powers of
sin
death
evil
Satan
OLD AGE
Power of
Spirit’s
renewing
work
AGE TO COME
Already-not yet as time of mission
One may say thus that the interim is
preoccupied with the command of
mission, and it is the command of
mission that gives the interim meaning.
. . . mission and the interim are
inseparable. (JH Bavinck)
Church in the Biblical Story
Genesis 12.2-3: Blessed to be a blessing
Exodus 19.3-6: Display people
Placed on display in the land to be visible to the
nations
Failure and prophets
Jesus gathers and renews Israel
Already-not yet era of kingdom
 Time of gathering (sheep, harvest, people to banquet)

Jesus gathers a people
‘After a history of more than a millenium [sic], the people of
God could neither be founded nor established, but only
gathered and restored.’ (Lohfink)
‘. . . the only significance of the whole of Jesus’ activity is to
gather the eschatological people of God.’ (Joachim Jeremias)
‘That God has chosen and sanctified his people in order to
make it a contrast-society in the midst of the other nations
was for Jesus the self-evident background of all his actions.’
In Jesus we see God’s ‘eschatological action’ to ‘restore or
even re-establish his people, in order to carry out definitively
and irrevocably his plan of having a holy people in the midst
of the nations.’ (Lohfink)
Church in the Biblical Story
Genesis 12.2-3: Blessed to be a blessing
Exodus 19.3-6: Display people
Placed on display in the land to be visible
to the nations
Failure and prophets
Jesus gathers and renews Israel
 Gathers
during already-not yet period
 Forms into display community
Jesus forms followers into display
community
Jesus restores them to be a distinctive people
Invitation to centre life in Him
 Summons to be part of what He is doing
 Teaching
 Modelling

‘Thus, there arose in the midst of ancient
Israel—unobtrusively at first and yet
irreversibly—the new society planned by God.’
(Lohfink)
Church in the Biblical Story
Genesis 12.2-3: Blessed to be a blessing
Exodus 19.3-6: Display people
Placed on display in the land to be visible to the
nations
Failure and prophets
Jesus gathers and renews Israel
Already-not yet era of kingdom
 Time of gathering
 Forms into display community
 Renews them in death, resurrection, and Spirit

Death, Resurrection, and Pentecost
Cosmic scope: Turning point in history
 Death:
Decisive defeat of powers of old age
 Resurrection: Inauguration of renewed
creation
Spirit brings life of new creation
Gathered end-time community
participates in life of kingdom/new
creation
Cosmic-communal-individual
Church in the Biblical Story
Genesis 12.2-3: Blessed to be a blessing
Exodus 19.3-6: Display people
Placed on display in the land to be visible to the nations
Failure and prophets
Jesus gathers and renews Israel




Already-not yet era of kingdom
Time of gathering
Forms into display community
Renews them with death, resurrection, and Spirit
Gathered renewed Israel sent


Commissions community
Acts tells story of newly configured mission
Acts 1.1-11
Story of Jesus’ continuing mission (1.1)
Resurrection, kingdom, Spirit: End time!
Now the kingdom will come, right? (1.6)
Jesus’ answer:
Not
yet!
Already! Spirit will give foretaste of kingdom
Until then you are a community that witnesses to
the coming of the kingdom starting here to the ends
of the earth
To the ends of the earth [change of direction]
‘When the Spirit comes to them and gives them the gift of
power, their very identity will be transformed into that of
witnesses. . . . Be, say, do good news.’ (Guder)
‘The meaning of this “overlap of the ages” in
which we live, the time between the coming of
Christ and His coming again, is that it is the time
given for the witness of the apostolic Church to
the ends of the earth. The end of all things, which
has been revealed in Christ, is—so to say—held
back until witness has been borne to the whole
world concerning the judgment and salvation
revealed in Christ. The implication of a true
eschatological perspective will be missionary
obedience, and the eschatology which does not
issue in such obedience is a false eschatology.’
- Lesslie Newbigin
Gathering and mission in Acts
Already-not yet as time opens up for
mission
Time of gathering
 First
the Jew (first part of Acts)
 And then the Gentile (last part of Acts)
Model Churches
Acts 2.24-27: Church in Jerusalem
 Devote
themselves to Word, Lord’s
Supper, fellowship, prayer
ACTS 2.42
Model Churches in Acts
Acts 2.24-27: Church in Jerusalem
 Devote
themselves to Word, Lord’s
Supper, fellowship, prayer
 Attractive life in midst of community
 Lord adds to their number
Acts 11, 13: Church in Antioch
 Faithful,
like church in Jerusalem
 Missions to the ends of the earth
Spontaneous Expansion of Church in
Acts
Attractive life of the community
Spontaneous evangelism by common
members of the church
Planting new churches
- Roland Allen
Ministry of Paul
Pioneer church planting (Rom 15.20,
23)
Nurture communities to faithful
display people
 Through
return visits
 Through letter
Mission and missions (Newbigin);
Organic and sending mode (Shenk)
Jerusalem Council: A Church
Among the Cultures of the World
Growth of new communities raise critical
questions about God’s people and culture
‘. . . not even the original, divinely
sanctioned culture of God’s elect nation has
the right to universalize its particular
expression of Christianity.’ (Flemming)
Missionary encounter with culture:
Redemptive tension as church lives as
distinctive people
Continuity and Discontinuity with
Old Testament
Like Israel: Missionary encounter with
idolatrous cultures which embrace
insight and rejects idolatry
Unlike Israel: Sent to live in the midst
of the cultures of the world and so
becomes a people with many cultural
expressions
Ending of Acts: 28
Why so abrupt? Loose ends?
Story of Acts has not ended
Continues today until Christ returns
. . . the ending of Acts is truly an opening to the
continuing life of the messianic people,
as it continues to preach the kingdom and
teach the things concerning Jesus both
boldly and without hindrance (Johnson).
Mission of the church today
Being a light to the nations: Continuing
the mission of Israel (Ex 19.3-6 cf. 1
Pet 2.9)
Making known the kingdom:
Continuing the mission of Jesus (John
20.21)
Bearing faithful witness: Continuing
the mission of the early church
Probing a Missional Hermeneutic: The
Nature of Mission and Implications for
Pastoring and Church-Planting
Lecture Two: Calvin Seminary MISS 664
Michael Goheen
Vancouver, B.C.
Canada
A missional hermeneutic is a way of
reading Scripture . . .
. . . in which mission is the hermeneutical key . .
. not simply a study of the theme of mission in
the biblical writings, but a way of reading the
whole of Scripture with mission as its central
interest and goal
. . . which seeks to understand what the
church’s mission really is in the world as
Scripture depicts it
. . . which inspires and informs the church’s
missionary praxis
Nature of mission
Oriented to world
Participation in God’s mission
involves two orientations
Chosen by God for the sake of the world
“. . . oriented toward two fronts: toward God
and toward the world.” (M. Barth)
“It is a matter of the church’s very being to
turn towards the world . . .” (GC Berkouwer)
Nature of mission
Oriented to world
Demonstrating what it means to be
truly human: Facing three directions
New being: A witness as wide as life
“. . . model genuinely human
existence” and “demonstrate what it
means to be truly human” (NT
Wright)
Facing in three directions
Nature of mission
Oriented to world
Demonstrating what it means to be
truly human: Facing three directions
Missionary dimension and missionary
intention
Missionary dimension and intention
Missional dimension: “Because the Church is
the mission there is a missionary dimension of
everything that the Church does. But not
everything the Church does has a missionary
intention.”
Missional intention: “. . . an action of the
Church in going out beyond the frontiers of its
own life to bear witness to Christ as Lord
among those who do not know Him, and when
the overall intention of that action is that they
should be brought from unbelief to faith.”
Nature of mission
Oriented to world
Demonstrating what it means to be
truly human: Facing three directions
Missionary dimension and missionary
intention
Preview and instrument
Preview and Instrument
Preview: Embodies new creation in its
own life
Instrument: Agent of renewal in life of
society and culture
The church is designed—it isn’t too
strong a word—to be a sign and
foretaste of what God wants to do for
the entire cosmos. What’s more, such
people are not just to be a sign and
foretaste of that ultimate salvation;
they are to be part of the means by
which God makes this happen in both
the present and the future. (N.T.
Wright)
We move from worship straight into tasks like
humanizing and harmonizing beauty in
architecture, work in office and shop, shaping
public life, campaigning for decent libraries and
sporting facilities, discussing town planning,
running playgroups for children of single
working moms, organising credit unions for the
poor, and creative and healthy farming methods,
among other things, and then repeats the refrain
three times: ‘This is not an extra to the church’s
mission. It is central.’ (NT Wright)
Nature of mission
Oriented to world
Demonstrating what it means to be
truly human: Facing three directions
Missionary dimension and missionary
intention
Preview and instrument
Missions to the ends of the earth
Missions
Establishing a witness where there is
none
Horizon of mission: Ends of the earth
Missions eclipsed
Every congregation shares in this
missionary task
... every church, however small and weak,
ought to have some share in the task of
taking the gospel to the ends of the earth.
Every church ought to be engaged in foreign
missions. This is part of the integrity of the
gospel. We do not adequately confess Christ
as the Lord of all men if we seek to be his
witnesses only among our neighbours. We
must seek at the same time to confess him to
the ends of the earth. The foreign missionary
enterprise belongs to the integrity of our
confession. (Newbigin)
Nature of mission
Oriented to world
Demonstrating what it means to be truly
human: Facing three directions
Missionary dimension and missionary
intention
Preview and instrument
Missions to the ends of the earth
Rooted in the gathered worship life of the
church
‘All will need to be nourished by the
central, worshipping life of the church, and
the central life will itself be nourished and
renewed as the friends of Jesus come back
to worship from their mission in the world.
. . . to be truly effective in this kind of
mission, one must be genuinely and
cheerfully rooted . . . within the life of the
church. There is no use . . . trying to get
fruit from a tree whose roots you have
systematically dug up.’ (NT Wright)
A missional hermeneutic is a way of
reading Scripture . . .
. . . in which mission is the hermeneutical key . .
. not simply a study of the theme of mission in
the biblical writings, but a way of reading the
whole of Scripture with mission as its central
interest and goal
. . . which seeks to understand what the church’s
mission really is in the world as Scripture
depicts it
. . . which inspires and informs the church’s
missionary praxis
Implications for pastors and church
planters
Worship that nurtures our missional
identity
2. Preaching the gospel of the kingdom
3. Devoted to communal prayer
4. Nurturing a contrast community
1.
Countercultural community
‘. . . mission is not primarily about
going. Nor is mission primarily about
doing anything. Mission is about
being. It is about being a distinctive
kind of people, a countercultural . . .
community among the nations.’
(Howard Peskett and Vinoth Ramachandra)
‘They would have to sing better songs
for me to learn to have faith in their
Redeemer: and his disciples would
have to look more redeemed!’
- Friedrich Nietzsche
A contrast community looking more
redeemed today
A community of justice in a world of economic and
ecological injustice
A community of generosity and simplicity (of ‘enough’)
in a consumer world
A community of selfless giving in a world of selfishness
A community of truth (humility and boldness) in a world
of relativism and uncertainty
A community of hope in a world of disillusionment and
consumer satiation
A community of joy and thanksgiving in a hedonistic
world that frantically pursues pleasure
A community who experiences God’s presence in a
secular world
Implications for pastors and churchplanters
5. Understanding cultural context
6. Training members for missionary
encounter in their callings in culture
Callings in public square
Newbigin speaks of the “deep-seated and
persistent failure of the churches to recognize
that the primary witness to the sovereignty of
Christ must be given, and can only be given, in
the ordinary secular work of lay men and women
in business, in politics, in professional work, as
farmer, factory workers and so on.” His
conviction is that “enormous preponderance of
the Church’s witness is the witness of the
thousands of its members who work in field,
home, office, mill or law court.” (Newbigin)
Implications for pastors and churchplanters
7. Training members to do evangelism
in an organic way
8. Involvement in the needs of
neighbourhood and the world
9. Commitment to missions
Implications for pastors and churchplanters
Training leaders
11. Training parents to take up the task
of nurturing children in the faith
12. Small groups
13. Expressing and seeking the unity of
the body of Christ
10.
Probing a Missional Hermeneutic: The
Church’s Missional Praxis
Public Lecture
CalvinTheological Seminary
Michael Goheen
Vancouver, B.C.
A missional hermeneutic is a way of
reading Scripture . . .
. . . in which mission is the hermeneutical key . .
. not simply a study of the theme of mission in
the biblical writings, but a way of reading the
whole of Scripture with mission as its central
interest and goal
. . . which seeks to understand what the church’s
mission really is in the world as Scripture
depicts it
. . . which inspires and informs the church’s
missionary praxis
Biblical authority and mission of
church
Biblical authority is a “sub-branch . . . of the
mission of the church.”
Biblical authority defined by its place and role in
the biblical story
God’s “self-revelation is always to be understood
within the category of God’s mission to the world,
God’s saving sovereignty let loose through Jesus
and the Spirit and aimed at the healing and
renewal of the creation.” (NT Wright)
To understand biblical authority we must grasp
how it works to shape a missional people and
through them the healing of the world
Scripture forming churches for
mission
The writings that became the canonic New
Testament all functioned basically as
instruments for the continuing formation of
these communities for the faithful fulfillment of
their missional vocation. . . . a missional
hermeneutic . . . constantly asks, “How did this
written testimony form and equip God's people
for their missional vocation then, and how does
it do so today?” (Darrell Guder)
Record and tool
“The apostolic writings . . . were not
simply about the coming of God’s
Kingdom into all the world; they were, and
were designed to be, part of the means by
which that happened.” (NT Wright)
Record of God’s mission and tool to
effectively bring it about
Old Testament and formation of
missional people
Old Testament as tool of God’s missional
purposes
“. . . a full account of the role of scripture
within the life of Israel would appear as a
function of Israel’s election by God for the
sake of the world. Through scripture, God was
equipping his people to serve his purposes.”
 Equipping is “inadequate shorthand for the
multiple tasks scripture accomplished.”

Equipping and forming a people to
be a light to the nations
Torah ordered national, liturgical, and moral life
Wisdom shaped daily conduct in conformity with
God’s creation order
Prophets were covenant enforcers that called Israel
back to missional vocation with threats and promises
Psalms nourish faithfulness and universal horizon in
worship (Boda: “psalms as missional collection”)
Historical books retold Israel’s story reminding them
of their place in the story
A distinctive people that encounter
pagan cultures
Story of Exodus confronts rival religious claims of
Pharaoh and Egypt
Story of creation is polemic against creation myths
of Ancient Near East
Historical narratives and pre-exilic prophets depict
Israel’s struggle with religious cultures of Canaan
Exilic and post-exilic books emerge to define
Israel’s identity amidst large pagan empires
Wisdom texts engage pagan wisdom traditions
“with a staunch monotheistic disinfectant”
Psalms and prophets nourish calling of Israel to be
a distinctive people in midst of nations
Central question
“How did this written testimony form
and equip God's people for their
missional vocation then, and how does
it do so today?”
Scipture and formation of missional
people
Old Testament as tool of God’s missional
purposes
New Testament as tool of God’s missional
purposes
 Jesus
fulfils the purpose of the Old Testament
Jesus fulfils purpose of Old
Testament
Purpose: Form and equip people for missional
calling [salvation in them for nations]
“For what the law was powerless to do because it
was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by
sending his own Son . . .” (Rom 8.3-4)
“Jesus thus does, climactically and decisively,
what scripture had in a sense been trying to do:
bring God’s fresh Kingdom order to God’s
people and thence to the world.”
Heightens importance of centrality of Christ in
preaching, also missional implications
Scripture and formation of missional
people
Old Testament as tool of God’s missional
purposes
New Testament as tool of God’s missional
purposes
 Jesus
fulfils the purpose of the Old Testament
 Apostolic proclamation of Jesus: Transforming
power of God
Apostolic verbal proclamation
“It was the story of Jesus (particularly his death and
resurrection), told as the climax of the story of God
and Israel and thus offering itself as both the true
story of the world and the foundation and
energizing force for the church’s mission.”
Proclaiming Christ: Making him present to
accomplish purpose of forming and equipping
people
Powerful word: calls into existence a missional
community, shapes them to be faithful people,
works through them to draw others to faith
Marturia, kerygma, didache (Ridderbos)
Scripture and formation of missional
people
Old Testament as tool of God’s missional
purposes
New Testament as tool of God’s missional
purposes
 Jesus
fulfils the purpose of the Old Testament
 Apostolic proclamation of Jesus: Transforming
power of God
 New Testament canon: Literary expression of
apostolic proclamation
New Testament canon and formation
of missional people
Proclamation, witness, teaching of apostles
takes literary form in NT
NT “carried the same power, the same
authority in action, that had characterized
the initial preaching of the word.”
Same power, same purpose: to sustain,
energise, shape, judge, and renew church
for mission in world
Epistles of Paul
Mission as hermeneutical
prerequisite
“. . . if the questions to which ancient
authors sought to respond in terms
available to them within their cultural
horizons are to be ‘heard’ today with
something like their original force and
urgency, they have first to be ‘heard as
questions that challenge us with
comparable seriousness.” (N. Lash)
Implications for preaching
Preaching gospel:
 Christocentric
 Missional
logic
Luke 24.45-47:
Messianic and Missional Hermeneutic
He [Jesus] seems to be saying that the whole of the
Scriptures (which we now know as the Old
Testament), finds its focus and fulfilment both in the
life and death and resurrection of Israel’s Messiah
and in the mission to all nations, which flows out
from that event. Luke tells us that with these words
Jesus ‘opened their minds so they could understand
the Scriptures’, or, as we might put it, he was setting
their hermeneutical orientation and agenda. The
proper way for disciples of the crucified and risen
Jesus to read their Scriptures is from a perspective
that is both messianic and missional. (C. Wright)
Messianic and missional
‘. . . down through the centuries it
would probably be fair to say that
Christians have been good at their
messianic reading of the Old
Testament but inadequate (and
sometimes utterly blind) at their
missional reading of it.’
- Chris Wright
Questions regarding preaching
Have we reduced salvation to individual
savedness?
Have we reduced the church’s mission to
the maintenance of individual’s salvation?
Have we stressed salvation in and for
church to the neglect of through the church?
Have we separated an individual salvation
from the cosmic scope of the kingdom?
Have we treated passages apart from books,
and books apart from whole story?
Implications of missional
hermeneutic for preaching
Preaching gospel
 Christocentric
 Missional
logic
Salvation: in and for us as well as
through us [e.g., Ps 63]
Metanarratival
Cosmic-communal-individual
Missionary encounter themes [Col]
Mission and theological education:
Some questions
Two sources:
Missionary tradition (Conn, Newbigin, Bosch)
 Young pastors and theological students

Mutually enriching and correcting dialogue
Background: my theological education
Important distinction: Missionary
dimension and intention
In the dimensional aspect of mission,
missiology should provoke theology as a
whole to discover anew that mission is not
simply a more or less neglected department of
the church’s life . . . Missiology is not simply
yet another subject but a dimension of
theology as a whole, an indispensable
dimension which must preserve the church
from parochialism and provincialism. It
constitutes a “test of faith” . . . for church and
theology. This implies that missiology has in
the first place a critical function and operates
as a leaven in theology — sometimes as a
gadfly. (Bosch)
Concerns about theological
education
Character, competency, disconnected from
local congregation, pedagogy, curriculum
Curriculum that forms leaders that lead the
church in mission: Content and division
“A major problem is that the present division of
theological subjects was canonized in a period when
the church in Europe was completely introverted.”
(Bosch)
Theological education in history
The period in which our thinking about the
Church [including theological education]
received its main features was the period in
which Christianity had practically ceased to
be a missionary religion. . . . It was in this
period, when the dimensions of the ends of
the earth had ceased to exist as a practical
reality in the minds of Christians, that the
main patterns of churchmanship were
formed. (Newbigin)
Missional curricular logic
Missional ecclesiology (derived from missio Dei)
“. . . the church’s mission is not secondary to its being;
the church exists in being sent and in building up itself
for the sake of its being.”
Missional hermeneutic: “How does this part of
Scripture form the people of God for its mission in the
world?”
Theological education should follow Scripture’s lead
“The formation of the church for mission should be the
motivating force that shapes and energizes our
theological labors in all their diversity and
distinctiveness.” (Guder)
Biblical studies
Has biblical studies served the preaching
ministry of the church? (Christocentric, missional,
people for sake of world, metanarratival, cosmiccommunal-individual, encounter)
The academic guild of biblical scholars has a largely
self-generated agenda [that] increasingly excludes the
church from its context and implied audience. Biblical
scholarship must address the church in its mission to
the world and make the church in the West, that is now
waking up to its mission, not simply its audience but
its dialogue partner. (Richard Bauckham)
Biblical studies
Have various levels of criticism been made
subservient to the missional purpose of
Scripture?
‘“How did this written testimony form and equip
God’s people for their missional vocation then,
and how does it do so today?” All the resources of
historical, critical, and literary research on the
biblical testimony can and must contribute to the
church’s formation by illumining all the
dimensions of this fundamental question.’ (Guder
explicating Bosch)
Theology
First theological work done in gospels and
epistles—model for theology today?
‘The oldest mission became the mother of
theology.’ (Martin Kahler)
 Theology is ‘an accompanying manifestation of
Christian mission’ in New Testament.’ (Bosch)

Character of that theological work
Equipping church for mission in that place
 Bringing gospel to bear on particular context
 Encountering threatening idolatrous, cultural
powers (need for more cultural studies?)

Theology
Have we been sufficiently aware of contextual
nature of theology especially confessions in our
study of historical theology?
“Our creedal formulations, structured to respond to a
sixteenth-century cultural setting and its problems,
lose their historical character as contextual
confessions of faith and become cultural universals,
having comprehensive validity in all times and
settings.” (Conn)
Has our theology sufficiently engaged various
cultural theologies that can critique our own
cultural blindspots?
Questions about church history
‘We have to ask in all sincerity whether
the study of the history of the church
ought not to be completely redesigned.’
(Bosch)
Have we been too focussed on doctrinal
controversies and polity issues separated
from contextualisation?
Church history
Has our teaching of church history
sufficiently taken into account . . .
the missionary nature of church?
 an encounter with culture in its missional
engagement?

‘Church history was not taught in terms of the
missionary advance in successive encounters
of the gospel with different forms of human
culture and society, but rather as a story of the
doctrinal and other conflicts within the life of
the church.’ (Newbigin)
‘Practical’ theology
What does term ‘practical’ say about our
curricular division?
Are these subjects simply a matter of tactics
and skills, methods and practices, how-to
techniques, and not rigorous theology?
Have the subjects in these areas (homiletics,
liturgics, polity, counselling, pastoral care, etc.)
been taught from standpoint of maintenance
(i.e., pastoral separated from missional,
salvation in/for but not through)?
Place of mission?
Is missiology simply about world
evangelisation and the strategy and
technique to do it?
Is missiology a ‘dispensable addendum’
isolated from the ‘real’ theological work of
the seminary?
‘. . . missions maintains its toolshed
appearance behind the “stately mansions” of
theology.’ (Conn)