Wright on Reading the Whole Bible for Mission
Given the recent discussions on the mission of the church, I was interested to watch a lecture given by Christopher Wright on Reading the Whole Bible for Mission. I’m planning on reading back through The Mission of God soon to aid me as I think through the differences in view between it and DeYoung and Gilbert’s What is the Mission of the Church? But if you’re interested in the discussion and Wright’s viewpoint, yet are not quite willing to invest the time it takes to get through the 535-page beast, this video gives a nice introduction to his thought. Below the video I’ve compiled a brief outline of his talk along with a few thoughts.
Christopher Wright – Reading The Whole Bible For Mission: What Happens When We Do? from Southeastern Seminary on Vimeo.
Outline of Wright’s Lecture
- God with a Mission
- God’s intentionality and purpose
- The four dimensions of God’s mission
- The teleological narrative of Scripture
- The biblical worldview is a missional worldview
- Humanity with a Mission
- Man’s purpose and intention from God’s purpose and intention
- All dimensions of being human are dimensions of mission.
- Old Testament Israel with a Mission
- Old Testament vision of God: Missional Monotheism
- Old Testament vision of God’s people and why they exist: Missional Election
- Old Testament vision of God’s people and how they should live: Missional Ethics
- Old Testament vision of God’s future for all nations: missional eschatology
- Jesus with a Mission
- Jesus’ conviction of being sent in his birth and baptism
- The Great Commission: comprehensive, beginning with an indicative
- The Church with a Mission
- Key words rooted in the Old Testament show us that we must come to the NT theology of mission by means of the story from the beginning
- Witnesses (Acts 1:8; Isaiah 43)
- Servanthood (Acts 13:47; Isaiah 49:6)
- Priesthood (1 Peter 2; Rom 15:16)
- What does it mean to read the whole Bible from the perspective of mission?
- We have a Genesis to Revelation Bible. We can’t just go from sin to the day of judgment, thereby ignoring the cosmic realities of creation and new creation.
- We read the Bible in light of God’s purpose for humanity.
- We read the whole Bible in light of God’s historical election of Israel and promise to Abraham for the sake of the nations.
- We read the whole Bible in the light of the centrality of Jesus of Nazareth, his messianic identity and his missional thrust for the church. We read the whole Bible as the missional community called by God.
Thanks for this. I’m working on an exegesis of John’s prologue from the standpoint of a missional hermeneutic.
On the question of the institutional role of the church, I’d like to think for a minute about the idea that the institutional church has a narrower role (A,B)than the individual Christian (A,B,C,D). Ok, well, if the individual Christian has a moral responsibility to accomplish C and D, how does he or she go about learning what C and D are, and how to go about doing that? I suppose the answer would have to be, not from the church. Where does that leave them?
Also, we have the Great Commission command, “Make disciples … teaching them to observe all things I commanded you.” So, are C and D included? If so, then the institutional church would need to have some connection to them. If not, then where are we getting C and D from in the first place?
On your second question, can we move from God’s mission to ours, I think the answer is to distinguish between the GOAL of the mission, common to God and man, and the MODE of accomplishing that goal, not common to God and man. For example, let us say that Bob comes to Christ. Likely, Bob’s conversion had some human, Christian input, say a series of chats with Bob’s Christian brother, Jim. So, in terms of goal, both God and Jim were accomplishing the same mission. But in terms of mode, they differ. Jim tells the gospel and lives consistently with it; God effectually calls through the Spirit.
I think DeYoung’s example of Jesus and the atonement is a bit of a low blow. That’s not the sort of thing that anybody is talking about, but even there, you have Mary and Joseph and others who had a role in that coming to pass.
Charlie,
I appreciate your thoughts on this. I’m hardly sold either way in this whole discussion. I love the approach that Wright takes, but I also appreciated the careful and reasonable (for the most part at least) approach that DeYoung took to the issues as well.
Let me offer a few thoughts on what you’ve said:
I’m not sure about your identification of C and D with a moral responsibility for Christians. In other words, in terms of direct moral responsibilities, Scripture reveals what it is necessary for us (and the church is certainly responsible to teach those things). There are so many areas that would be wonderful for Christians to be involved in that are not necessarily moral obligations. Thus the institutional church’s responsibility is to make disciples, to train its people to understand how their faith guides them in their myriad responsibilities. E.g., a Christian may legitimately run a good business. He may face ethical dilemmas in that business. It is certainly the church’s role to help its members think through those ethical situations. But is it the church’s role to run a business school?
I’m probably not as far as DeYoung is and certainly not as far as Michael Horton is on these issues. But I am concerned that Wright, whose work I love in so many ways, doesn’t seem to even address this issue one way or the other.
I think your thoughts on my second question are quite helpful in distinguishing the parts of moving from God’s mission to our mission. But let me ask a further question: can we move directly from God’s mission to restore our things and us “fighting against the curse” now? E.g., God will restore the brokenness of the world, therefore, part of the church’s calling is to do nature/energy conservation. Is that a legitimate move? I’m unconvinced either way on it, as there are many other questions wrapped up in it (such as: will the cultural achievements on earth carry on in a glorified state into eternity)?
I’d love to read your exegesis of John’s prologue when you’re done. Feel free to offer further thoughts as well, as this helps me think through the issues not only academically, but practically for ministry as well.