What’s NOT the Mission of the Church? 2

Last updated on: October 16, 2011 at 9:12 am by Joel Willitts

What’s NOT the Mission of the Church? 2 2011-10-16T09:12:11-04:00 Joel Willitts

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In my first post on DeYoung and Gilbert’s book What Is the Mission of the Church?: Making Sense of Social Justice, Shalom, and the Great Commission, I came out of the corner swinging admittedly. At least one friend encouraged me to take a more irenic tone so that these issues can in fact be discussed. Otherwise, as he wisely said, the two sides will be simply “playing to” our respective crowds. And I affirm the hope that one commenter on the first post expressed that a “conversation” will be generated. I would welcome it. I think these issues are of utmost importance. The kingdom, the gospel, the mission of Jesus and the church are things I’ve been thinking about for a while now. They are themes about which I’m passionate and, in fact, it is these which have driven my academic pursuit. So let’s have a conversation.

In Part 2 of the book DeYoung and Gilbert set out to elaborate on “categories” related to their understanding of the church’s mission. I will take at least the three chapters on the story of the Bible, the Gospel, and the kingdom in this series of posts.

The chapter on the story of the Bible is important and I can’t agree more with their impulse to see the importance of the Bible’s story as the frame of reference for our understanding of the Gospel and the church’s mission. On this point, Scot McKnight’s recent book on the Gospel would be in agreement. But every retelling of the Bible’s story, including the ones contained in the Bible itself (e.g. Matthew’s genealogy, Stephen’s in Acts 7) is an interpretation. So the question, that I want ask is:

What is DeYoung and Gilbert’s interpretative spin on the Bible’s story? They assert that the Bible’s story can be boiled down to this one point: “How can hopelessly rebellious, sinful people live in the presence of a perfectly just and righteous God?”

Again there is much to commend in this chapter, on many points we’d be in agreement. But I see a flaw at the core of their argument that makes their conclusion about the mission of the church subbiblical.

I think the most important question to be asked is whether any biblically sanctioned retellings of the story of the Bible, particularly the story of Israel, make the same point DeYoung and Gilbert do? Does Matthew in his genealogy, Peter and Paul in their sermons in Acts, Stephen in his defense of his trust in Messiah, or Paul in Romans 9—11 make that point in their retelling? It’s not that I don’t think the point of the Bible’s story is to communicate that through the work of the Messiah Israel and the nations can be reconciled to God. This is expressly the point, as Paul so poetically makes clear in Eph 2—3.

But what is interesting is the way DeYoung and Gilbert frame the story from anthro-centrically, rather than theo-centrically. Furthermore, they introduce elements that seem foreign to the story line, elements not indigenous to the story. For example, no less than eight times they use the adjective “perfect” when presenting the point of the story (e.g. “perfectly just and righteous”, “perfect fellowship”, “perfectly glorify God”, “perfect relationship”). These are not the Bible’s own categories. While it is true that God’s perfect and perfectly . . . (put the noun in), and humanity is not in “perfect” fellowship with God, this isn’t the way the Bible itself expresses things.

If we take Paul’s retelling in Acts 13 as an example we would be more biblical to say that the Creator God is setting out to save Jew and Gentile. Jesus resurrection means his death was redemptive, that sin is forgiven. The question of the Bible’s story then is “How is God going to reconcile a lost world back to himself?” “How is God going to bring harmony to the created order which is in rebellion?” It’s a question of God’s vindication as creator. By the way, it’s not just or even primarily humanity that is most at issue. Tim Gombis, for example, in his book on Ephesians [I posted about the book a week or so ago] has usefully reminded us of the thoroughgoing presupposition of ancient Jews, including the writers of the New Testament, of the suprahuman forces in the Bible’s storyline. It’s perhaps not at the top of the surface of the Bible’s story, but the NT writers fundamentally believe that while the nations are to blame, angelic forces are at work directing humanity toward idolatry and away from their creator. Fundamental to the definition of sin the Bible is idolatry. Idolatry is not one form of sin; it is Sin. Humanity disobeys, because they worship the wrong thing. So the lake of fire is primarily created for the “devil and his angels” (Matt 25:41).

Ok, so what does this have to do with the mission of the church? Well if the storyline is about God’s vindication, and as Paul puts it in Eph 3, the mission of the church is to “make known” the “manifold wisdom of God to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms” (Eph 3:10). The church as it proclaims and makes disciples of the nations is exposing the deceit of idolatry and enacting harmony, where it leaves a footprint, in the disharmony of the lost world. These actions are the storefront window of God’s eternal purposes. All of this is the mission of the church.

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