Main Areas of Missiology - Essay Example

# Introduction to Missions # 29th March, Introduction to Missions This paper is on Introduction to Missions, which is oneof the main themes of Missiology. In order to explain well all the issues around missions, it is important to look at Missiology as whole, this paper therefore gives an overview of Missiology. Missiology is basically a broad multi-disciplinary field of study which encompasses Theology, Anthropology, and Ecclesiology. As we shall see in this paper, the main aim of Missiology is to prepare prospective missionaries for the missionary work; for this reason, Missions is the central theme in Missiology. This paper looks at the main areas of Missiology and gives an explanation of each of the areas of Missiology. The paper also explains in detail the meaning of Missions and shows how the theme of Missions is the main focus of Missiology. Before we delve into the main areas of Missiology, it is important to look at the distinction between two important Missiology terminologies. The first terminology is the term mission. The term mission (singular) is used in reference to God’s mission in the world, or in other words God’s desire of reconciling all human beings to him (Rogers, 27). Missions (plural) on the other hand refers to the human participation in God’s work of reconciling the human beings to him. As we have said in the introduction, the main aim of Missiology is to prepare the prospective missionaries for the challenging and very important work of missionary. For the missionaries to succeed in their mission work, they should be adequately prepared to face the challenges of mission work. The preparation requires that, first; the missionaries should be well grounded in Theology. This is because as the work of any missionary involves living the Gospel in a radical way and helping the other people to know God and to give their lives to God, the missionaries should be well grounded in Theology. To be effective and successful in their work therefore, the missionaries should understand well the main aim and goal of mission work. This therefore means that the preparation of future missionaries should involve studying salvation history. According to the Bible, especially the book of Genesis, we learn that the main reason why God created human beings is to have a mutually satisfying relationship with the human beings (Rogers, 13). That is why even after man sinned against God in the Garden of Eden, God did not abandon man but He initiated the process of reconciling man back to him. Salvation history is all about this process of God reconciling humanity back to him. This process of reconciliation reached its completion in the birth, death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Through Jesus Christ, man was reconciled back to God. God, however, continues to call human beings to accept him and to live in accordance to His will. God therefore calls people to be His stewards in bringing other people to him. These stewards are the missionaries. And as the stewards of Jesus Christ, the missionaries should be trained to live a godly life, marked with self sacrifice just as their master Jesus Christ lived. Theology therefore is central in Missiology and the prospective missionaries should be made to see themselves as the stewards of God, in bringing other people to God; the missionaries also should have passion for this very important work because there is indeed a necessity of evangelization in the world (Alleine, 16) . Theological studies therefore are one of the areas of concentration in Missiology. Apart from the theological studies, the second aspect of Missiology is Anthropological studies. Since the missionaries work in diverse cultures, they should be prepared on how to overcome the challenges of working in radically different cultures; without proper understanding of the culture of the people that one is evangelizing to, it will be difficult to handle the culture shock that results from interacting with the people of radically different cultures. Again, evangelization requires that one understand well the culture of the people that he/she is evangelizing. The missionaries should be trained to grasp the culture and the worldview of the people that they are preaching to, so that the people that they are preaching to may understand and embrace their message of salvation. The missionaries should be trained to interpret the Gospel in light of the culture of the people that they are evangelizing to. This fact therefore shows that anthropological studies in preparation for the future missionaries is very important. Also, the missionaries should be well grounded in Ecclessiology. Ecclessiology generally is the study of the history of the church, and the history of the missions. The missionaries should understand the church well for them to be effective and successful in their work. The missionaries should first understand well the purpose of the church in the world and the relationship between the church and God. The Catholic teaches that the Church is intimately united with Jesus Christ as a wife is intimately united with her husband. The main point here is that the Church and Jesus Christ are one; this means that the Church is God’s vehicle of salvation in the world. The prospective missionaries should be made to understand this very important fact. Also, the prospective missionaries should be well acquainted with the history of the church, i.e. the beginning and expansion of the church. Also, the prospective missionaries should be familiar with the history of the missions. This would give the prospective missionaries an insight into what they need to do so as to be successful in their mission work. Also, the history of missions can inspire the prospective missionaries in their future work. Missionaries should also be prepared well on mission work. Mission work involves the various ways in which the missionaries can serve the people of God. One of the areas in which the missionaries can serve the church is in pioneer work. Pioneer work generally involves going to places where the missionaries have not yet gone, with the aim of evangelizing the people who have not yet heard the Gospel. Pioneer work is quite demanding and requires a lot of determination, faith, and passion for the mission work. The second work of mission is teaching. This can be in form of either building schools or the actual teaching. The third form of mission work is building hospitals and dispensaries to care for the sick people. The other form of mission work is building orphanages and hospices to cater for the needy members of the society. The missionaries also build centres for rehabilitating the drug addicts. The other important aspect of Missiology is the preparation of the missionaries before they go to the field. The missionaries should be adequately prepared in all aspects of missionary work before they go into the field. This preparation involves the spiritual preparation whereby the missionaries are given enough time to prepare spiritually by, for instance attending a retreat before embarking on the demanding missionary work. The missionaries should be provided with all the necessary material for preparation before going to the field. As we can see from the explanation of the different themes of Missiology, the main focus of Missiology is the Missions. Missiology generally aims at ensuring that the missionaries are well prepared for the missionary work. The theological, the anthropological, and the ecclesial studies aim at preparing the missionaries adequately for the missions. This fact therefore shows that all the themes of Missiology relate to and are, actually, aimed at missions. Works Cited Alleine, J. An Alarm to the Unconverted. Edtr, Green, J.P. USA: Evansville, 1999. Rogers, G.A Basic Introduction to Missions and Missiology. USA: Mission and Ministry Resources, 2003. Read More