Shaping a Theology of Mission Part 1

Paradigm
It has been stated that "all reading of Scripture occurs within a paradigmatic understanding of the whole." This is the reality in which we approach Scripture, how we understand within a larger frame work that which we are reading. Ben Witherington III postulates that regardless of our paradigm, there will always be Scripture which is difficult to fit within our paradigm. I do not think that we can underestimate the overarching implications of the underlying paradigm we bring to the Biblical Text. Much like our system of Theology, where we begin and what we emphasize has ripples through out our entire system. I believe that we see the implications of the paradigmatic approach we choose in how the Church has drifted away from Trinitarianism, how God as Trinity scarcely permeates our system and our doctrine. Rather, it is another doctrine on the shelf of Theology.

It is my opinion that a similar disconnect is alive and well in the church today: namely the disconnect between Theology and Mission. Why else would there be a mission’s conference every two years called 'Urbana' and then church planting and 'how to do church better' conferences like 'Catalyst'. How is it that the church has focused on doing 'church' first, then creating a ministry department called Missions? Or creating another ministry department to engage in Compassion Ministries, where somehow caring for the real needs of peoples in the world and righting injustices in the name of Jesus are somehow not a part of what their doing over in the missions department? I believe our choice in Biblical paradigms are at the root of the situation we the church find oursleves.

My sense is that the church has often not read the Bible in a manner in which mission is the central thrust or focus of God. I very much appreciate what Leslie Newbigin has to say about the Bible, and I believe there is much truth in it: "If we see the Bible first and foremost as a competing meta-narrative, a story of reality as we know it, stretching all the way to eternity past and the One who created it, then we begin to see that the Bible isn't a book of doctrine for Christians alone."

Now it seems that if this self-revealing God who has chosen to reveal himself and his purposes for humanity and creation through the written Word, than what He has disclosed must point to His story, His purposes, His mission, THE story of all that was, that is, and is to come- for all peoples and at all times. In this exercise I am challenging my own paradigm, my stating point for understanding who this God is. I am attempting to find a paradigm from which to understand who this God is as revealed in the Bible, and having settled on a paradigmatic foundation of approaching the text then orienting this paradigm in a missional trajectory with which to understand and engage the world around me.