Churches Mission in the World - Essay Example

Churches Mission in the World In his book Ancient Future Faith, Webber s that a majority of mission models of the recent past are based on the idea that evangelism and teaching are two separable functions. Nonetheless, this is far from truth based on the arguments presented by other bible scholars such as C.H. Dodd and R.C. Worley as well as evidence from the Bible. Considering the fact that message of Christianity is a historical message with content, this theologians submit that “the loss of evangelism in education as well as the loss of education in evangelism is one of the root causes of superficiality in evangelism today.” Any attempt to preach Christianity without its historical perspective is simply playing around with people’s minds, or rather feelings, forcing them into a content less call to Christian living. On the other hand, presenting the intellectual and historical content to Christianity without accompanying it with relevant calls to Christian living is an exercise in futility as the message would certainly lack the power to convert the recipient. Apostle Paul’s mission serves to add credibility to the above reasoning. In his mission to Ephesus, for instance, Paul entered the Synagogue for three months and argued persuasively about God. The author therefore makes a call to incorporate both education and evangelism in mission work (Webber 153). Further on, the author takes a chronological analysis of the role played by the church through the various historical periods. In the ancient times, the church was regarded as incarnation of Jesus. In other words, the continued presence of Churches after Christ’s ascension to heaven was viewed as Jesus’ continued presence on the face of the world. The church of this period radically dissociated itself with world politics by refusing to acknowledge Caesar as Lord and, instead, regarded Jesus as Lord. In essence, this Church looked forward to the second coming of Jesus to establish his Kingdom over the face of the earth. This school of thought later modified by Gregory the Great following the conversion of Constantine and the consequent transformation of the emperor into Christian. Here, the church was perceived as the kingdom, and that God intends to rule the world through the church (Webber 165). In the modern world, the evangelical churches has become an institution that offers moral advise on matters pertaining to legislation and has served more or less like the chaplain of the society. The challenges to the role that the church is supposed to play has been compounded by the involvement of church with world politics. In America, for instance, conservative Christians have often a times established links with Republican Party so as to influence legislations. The fact the church is running its duties through world politics has negatively impacted on the original mission of the church, where it was supposed to take the lead role in proclaiming Jesus’ kingdom and not the worldly kingdom. The situation is worsened by the collapse of Christian values in the postmodern world dominated by the western society. In respect to this, the church’s mission in the current society is to focus on taking back the America, and to a global perspective the world, to the values that characterized Christians before the modern age. Webber points out that while the Church has found itself operating in a world that has greatly deviated from Christians values, its main mission is to transform the world and bring it back to God. The church is supposed to be the mirror that reflects the Christian values to the world. On the other hand, Wright’s books talks about Christian walk here on earth and the eventual establishment of God’s kingdom here on earth. He warns Christians to stop imagining that they will one day ascend to heaven and dwell there with God. God’s original intention is not to abandon the earth, but to establish his kingdom and presence on earth as it was in the creation story (Wright 218-219). Basing on this assertion, Wright seeks to explain the mission of a Christians here on earth in anticipation of the second coming of Jesus. He argues out that Christian ethics is not just about discovering what is happening in the world and getting in tune with it, or it is not about trying to win God’s favor through multiple actions, or not about trying to live within the confines of Christians rules that were established ages ago, but instead it is all about practicing, in the present, the tunes we shall sing in the new world (Wright 222). As at the present moment, the world is out of tune with God’s original intention. Therefore, it is important for Christians to renounce and rediscover themselves in order to get back to the ways of God. Wright notes that it is the moral obligation of every Christians, guided by the spirit of God, to focus on reconciling back the present world to God so that in the second coming of Christ we can all dwell in the new world that would be established. Just as Christ resurrected from death, so will all Christians who died in him be resurrected to dwell in the new world. In his conclusion, Wright depicts the mission of church as that of reawakening the beauty at every level. This is essential and urgent (Wright 235). The church is to help other understand the beauty of the present and the need to prepare for the second coming of Jesus Christ. Basing on the arguments presented by Webber regarding the role of evangelism and education, I would wish to agree with him in totality. It is undoubtedly evident that the post-modern world is characterized by a plethora of philosophies all of which, in one way or the other, serve to either support or contradict the original message of God as contained in both the new and old testament. Gradually the world is shifting its position from the Bible as the reference to other philosophies professed by the so called “men of wisdom.” This is a dangerous precedence to the Kingdom of God and the message of the cross as more and more people are getting confused about the actual meaning of the bible. In fact, most current Christians are nominal in nature such that they hardly have any historical understanding of what their faith is all about. Instead, they have been forced to accept their faith through shear manipulation of the feelings and fear of going to hell. This should be the case in reality. God’s original intention is for all Christians to get to understand him on a one-to-one basis. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches his disciples to directly communicate with God the father as he is omnipresent and listens to all our prayers. Unfortunately, this is hardly the case in the modern and post-modern church as Christians have been reduced to reciting prayer without a deeper understanding of who they are actually communicating to. In fact, most of them can hardly give chronological account of God’s interactions with Children of Israel and Jesus’ mission here on earth. The disconnect between evangelism and historical context has generated nominal Christians from generation to generation. This trend is worrying as the future generation might get to a point of regarding the story of Jesus as some sort of fairy tale or legend stories. In my view, therefore, which I also share with Webber, is that the Church should raise up and takes its lead role in preaching not only about the principles and laws of Christian living, but also the historical content of Christian faith. On the other hand, Wright’s perspective about the mission of the church here on earth is rather controversial which I would wish to partially disagree with it. From the onset, the Bible has clearly shown the distinction that exists between the heaven and earth. According to Deuteronomy 10:14 and Psalms 115:16, the abode of God is the “heaven of heavens”. Other supporting scriptures can be drawn from the New Testament. While sounding a warning about oaths, Christ forbade swearing by “heaven,” the throne of God, or by “earth,” which is his footstool (Mathew 5: 34). The Lord’s prayer on the other hand talks about God’s will be done here on earth as in heaven (Mathew 6:10). Jesus further warns that people should not layer up their treasures on earth where they would be exposed to all manner of risks; rather, one’s treasure should be stored up in heaven. Aside from the controversial bit of where the heaven would be, I agree with Wright when he says that the role of church, and by extension Christians, is endeavor to in tune the world as at present to be in line with God’s ultimate goal for mankind –salvation. This is exactly the call Jesus made to his disciples to go all around and make men fishers of men. Works Cited Webber, Robert. Ancient-future Faith: Rethinking Evangelicalism for a Postmodern World. Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker Books, 1999. Print. Wright, N T. Simply Christian. London: SPCK, 2011. Print. Read More