The Biblical Foundation For New Church Development
By Rev. Dr. José Carlos Pezini
Introduction
The Nature of the Church is a subject that is not understood unanimously in the same way. The difference of view resides in the fact that some churches are priestly oriented, that means that pastors are responsible for the growth of the church in every direction. Other leaders understand that the numerical growth and spiritual growth of the church are responsibility of every believer.
This dual view requires a deep reflection that could state what the right concept is. Therefore, the hypothesis to be worked on is that for years the great Commission of Matthew 28 was thought to be a task to be carried out by pastors, who receive seminary training, as well as missionaries specially gifted to do this work, but not by the believers, despite the fact that they are called to do it and can do it, and that this attitude is contrary to what was established in that commission.
It is necessary to retrieve the etymology of the word to clear out its meaning, as from the Greek word in the New Testament for Church, ekklesia, “Called out” and of the Latin word for mission which is mittere, “to send”. Nevertheless, the definition of mission can be understood in the light of the missio dei, or mission of God.
Therefore, this essay is intended to rescue the meaning of the purpose of the church, the nature of the church as being God’s agent in the world, in whatever community it is located. The defended thesis will be that, to accomplish its purpose, churches must be developed in fulfillment of the great commission, and that it is the task of all believers.
Mission as discipleship to Jesus means more than becoming a member of a local community, it involves a commitment to God’s reign, to justice and love, to obedience to the entire will of God. The proclamation and propagation of the gospel of Jesus Christ is a crucial task for his disciples.
The book of Acts, the Gospels and the letters of Paul are the basic foundations for this thesis. The first believers were sent as we are sent and, for the same purpose, Jesus was sent by the Father: to make disciples.
The foundations of the thesis are the milestone church planting, what characterizes the church as the visible manifestation of the kingdom of God in this world. The idea of plantation carries the meaning of caring for a living organism that is given birth, but requires to be nurtured to bear fruits, and it leads to the concept of “church watering”.
For Paul, the Gospel starts with God. It is not that people seek God, but that God seeks and finds people to belong to him. Paul was committed to developing new churches all around because he believed that God’s blessing is for all nations.
Understanding the Foundations of the Church
The Greek word in the New Testament for Church is ekklesia[1], which literally means “Called out.” The church, exist, not to function within its four walls, but to carry out the message of God to the entire world. With this clear understand in mind, we can say that to develop new churches is to join hands with the risen, ascended Lord in an activity of great concern to him. To develop new churches is to enter the mainstream of God’s missionary.
Having introduced the word missionary we need to explain the concept of missionary briefly. The English word “Mission” does not have its origin in the Bible. It derives from the Latin, mittere, “to send”, a verb that has no Greek or Hebrew roots. However, mittere, is used in the Latin Versions of the New Testament to translate the Greek verbs, pempeinand appostellein. From the latter comes the important word, apostle.
In this attempt to articulate the Biblical theological foundation of new church development, we will define mission in the light of the missio dei[2], or mission of God. Which presents a more holistic approach to mission. This concept is not to be understood strictly within the context of soteriology. Neither does it fall under the doctrine of the church. Rather the mission dei is to be understood within the context of the doctrine of the Trinity[3] as an activity of God himself.
The nature of the church as a missionary body is founded upon the revelation and activity of God. The church is the body of people that know they have been called to participate in the initiatives God is taking and has already taken. It is against this background that the mission of the church has to be understood. The church does not have a mission of its own, but instead was called into being because of it (Barth, 1962:795-796).
In this context, David Bosch says that “the Christian faith, I submit, is intrinsically missionary … This dimension of the Christian faith is not an optional task: Christianity is missionary by its very nature, or it denies its very “raison d’être” (1991:8). What this means in practical terms for any community of the Christian faith is that mission is not one of a smorgasbord of church programs, but the driving force behind the church. Mission activity is not so much the work of the church, but the church at work.
The church is called for the specific purpose of being God’s agent in the world, in whatever community it is located. Fundamental to the church’s identity is the fact that it is constituted by God to be a missional community that does mission (Dulles, 1979: 81-82). The church, as missional community, receives God’s saving mercy and grace in order to embody it and share it with others to the end that “every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Fhil. 2:11). According to this understanding, we have a clear explanation of how the church can bring glory to God. Seeking to fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20) without planting new churches is like trying to give birth to a baby without having the base of a family. In order to fulfill the Great Commission, churches must be developed. Such churches must be biblical in their makeup, and they must give great emphasis to evangelism.
For many years the great Commission of Matthew 28 has been key for Protestants in their understanding of the mission of the church. They have been the basis for church’s missionary organization and mission agencies to send missionaries all over the world to preach the Gospel and teach about Jesus Christ. Also, since last century the Great Commission been often quoted in support of God’s call to believers to use their gifts and talents for God’s glory and to be involved in the ministry of evangelism.
For many years, church leaders misunderstood evangelism. They thought it was a task to be carried out by pastors, who receive seminary training, as well as missionaries specially gifted to do this work, but not by the believers, despite the fact that they are called to do it and can do it.
The biblical call to be evangelist is for all believers. God expects every one who confesses Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord to share the Good News of the Gospel to others. Of course, some believers whom God has blessed with special evangelistic gifts will produce more fruit than other witnesses. Everything begins with God, who has reached out to us, sinful people, through Jesus Christ, to tell us about His love and to call us back to Him from our self-serving lives. It is the task of each one of us to reach out to those around us and share the Good News of Christ, which we have freely received, and to demonstrate that Good News by our actions (Dulles, 1990:89).
Our response to God at the time of conversion includes becoming a part of the local community of God’s people and all that is entailed in joining such a community. David Bosch gives a more complete definition when he says that:
“Evangelism is the proclamation of salvation in Christ to those who do not believe in him, calling them to repentance and conversion, announcing forgiveness of sin, and inviting them to become living members of Christ’s earthly community and to begin a life of service to others in the power of the Holy Spirit”. (Bosch, 1991: 10).
Discipleship involves a commitment to God’s reign, to justice and love, to obedience to the entire will of God. Mission involves making new believers sensitive to the needs of others (Bosch, 1991: 81). This is our task while we are part of the local community of God’s people, the church, so that together we carry out God’s mission in the world. Discipleship is the task of the New Testament church (Stetzer, 2003: 35).
The Great Commission of Matthew 28 is but one of several recorded commands of our Lord to make disciples. In fact, every four Gospels end and the book of Acts begin, with a commission from our Lord Jesus. The proclamation and propagation of the gospel of Jesus Christ is a crucial task for his disciples.
Looking for new insights into the meaning and practice of evangelism, the Latin American missiologist, Mortimer Arias, studies all the Great Commission found in the Gospel, and finds that they deepen and enrich our understanding of mission when we interpret each of them in the context of the whole purpose and unique content of their particular Gospel Arias, 1992: 18). According to Matthew, Jesus is the new Teacher with authority (7:29); mission is defined as teaching “to obey everything that I have commanded you” (28:20), and the Christian teacher is commended to do work of a wise “scribe who is a disciple in the Kingdom of God” (13:52) (Arias, 1992: 19-23).
Arias reminds us that Matthew emphasizes evangelism in terms of going into the entire world, making disciples by baptizing them and teaching them to follow and obey Jesus’ teachings. This fits into the character of Matthew’s writings as a teaching passage where Jesus is presented as the new authoritative teacher. (Arias, 1992: 18)
The Gospel of Mark records the beginning of Jesus’ ministry with these words: “Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said “the kingdom of God is near, Repent and believe the good news!” (1:14-15). The concept of Kingdom of God is the biblical foundation for every church and in particular for the new church development. It is the central idea of the message of Jesus (Herron, 2003:3).
When we go through Mark’s account of the Great Commission, we encounter the text that has defined the mission of the church in terms of going into the entire world to proclaim the good news to everyone: (Mark 16:15). Arias affirmed that for Mark the Kingdom of God is proclaimed by Jesus in action, as well as through his words. “The Kingdom is multi-dimensional and holistic, and has to be announced holistically through preaching, teaching, healing, exorcising, calling and forming disciples, feeding, comforting and confronting”. It is proclamation in action (Arias 1992, 39). It has to do with each individual creature and with the whole society. The message of salvation was destined for the whole world. It embraces all dimensions of human life; physical, spiritual, personal and interpersonal, communal and societal, historical and eternal (Arias, 2001: 15).
Luke’s record of the Great Commission (24:44-49) builds on the Old Testament. According to Luke, the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies concerning the message and work of the Messiah also included the obedient witnesses of Christ’s disciples following the completion of his work. “You are witnesses of these things” he told them (24:48) He also said that repentance and the forgiveness of sins were to be preached as part of the fulfillment of the Old Testament witness (24:47). The message to be proclaimed was clear. The method, through witnessing or testimonial of each believer, was understood.
Luke tells us that Jesus defined his own mission in these terms: “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other cities also; for I was sent for this purpose” (4:43). This is why he came into the world, to announce the Kingdom of God. For this reason Luke emphasizes repentance and forgiveness in the proclamation to all nations (Luke 24:44-49). The only way lost people can be found is through the preaching of repentance and forgiveness (Stetzer, 2003: 36)
Arias stated this way “In the beginning of his ministry Jesus applies to himself the messianic promises of Isaiah 61:1-2; and announces that the liberation promise of the jubilee is now incarnated in his own ministry” (Arias, 2001: 5). That is what can be learned from the statement, “the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim the release to the captives and the recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:18-19). In fact, Jesus uses the language of the Old Testament the year of Jubilee to tell and demonstrate that entering God’s kingdom brings liberation, healing, rectification, restoration to community and new life to those who had no hope.
Christian involvement in social action and social witnessing can trace some of its roots to this evangelism emphasis in Luke, because the Jubilee proclamation pointed to the need for restitution of the means of life, including access to the land, and the cancellation of debts, and the emancipation of the slaves (Arias, 2001: 4). Pastors, including those involve in new church development, cannot ignore that the Gospel is offered for all class of people. Also, they cannot ignore that the Bible give especial emphasis on sharing the Gospel with people who are poor. This is a special blessing for the poor community.
John’s account of the mission mandate is profound in its simplicity. “As the father has sent me, I also send you” (John20:21). Its profundity is seen in Jesus’ charge to his followers that they go with the same urgency and resolve as our Lord himself. As it was necessary for our Lord to be incarnated, coming from heaven to earth, it is necessary for us to leave the sanctuary and go into the world to tell others about Christ.
Arias suggests that in the Gospel of John we have an incarnational model for mission. Jesus sends his disciples out into the world just as he was sent by God, (John 20:21), and he gives them the Holy Spirit to empower them for this ministry. The Church of Jesus Christ is a sent community showing in the practice of love the message of new life.
Thus the sent community, by its proclamation or by its neglect of proclamation, by its love or lack of love, by its accepting or rejecting attitude, by its judgmental or by its pastoral approach, is already conveying forgiveness or unforgiveness! Whatever we do in our mission in the world, it has one or the other effect. This is inevitable in incarnational mission (Arias, 1991: 57-66).
Mission as Carried Out by the Early Church
In the book of Acts we can find the last Great Commission passage, when Jesus says: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The power that Jesus promised in the sending described in Luke appears here. When that power is present, the disciples find themselves able to spread the gospel with confidence locally, regionally, and globally (Arias, 2001: 37)
The first believers were sent as we are sent, for the same purpose Jesus was sent: to make disciples through all people groups, seek and save the lost, both locally and around the world.
That is to say, when believers are living in such a way as to bring glory to God, it is inevitable that lost people will be saved and new churches will be developed. Beyond the obvious Lord’s call to reach people, there are further theological affirmations to be deduced from the New Testament (Dulles, 1990:107).
The Bible is the written record of God’s self revelation to humanity. This, and not the current situation of the church, it is the starting point for new church development. Truth is relevant to any culture. However, it must be presented in an understandable way to a given culture.
In Acts we see the following examples of the empowering work of the Spirit:
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In Acts 1:8 the Spirit empowers witnesses.
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In Acts 2, we see the Spirit’s presence in the community of believers.
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In Acts 4:8, 31 believers filled with the Spirit gave a bold witness.
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In Acts 7, deacons were filled with the Spirit and faith. They also preached Christ and developed new churches. The word done by these men allowed the apostles to do the work to what God had called them to do. Finally the deacons were willing to die for the faith.
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In Acts 13, the Spirit selected and commissioned the missionaries who would develop many churches.
The church is the visible manifestation of the kingdom of God in this world. A church is a group of believers united to worship God, to nurture believers, and to reach the unreached. The nature of the church demands to develop new churches anywhere on earth where people live (Stetzer, 2003: 32-48).
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In Acts 8:5-12 Philip develops a church in Samaria.
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In Acts 9:1-2, 19 believers had developed a church in Damascus.
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In Acts 9:31, it is shown that by now there were churches throughout all Judea, Galilee and Samaria.
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In Acts 9:32-35, a church was developed in Lydia.
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In Acts 10:24-48, Peter established a Gentile church in Caesarea.
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In Acts 11:19-26, the persecuted believers developed churches in Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch.
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In Acts 13:2 and 14:28, we see that Paul’s second missionary journey is the greatest single venture of church development up to that point. According to Acts 15:40 and 18:23, Paul’s purpose was to develop new churches and strengthening existing ones.
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In Acts 18:24 and 21:25, which describe Paul’s third missionary journey, again we see that he developed new churches and strengthened established ones (Malphurs, 2002: 65-72)
Everywhere in the book of Acts, when people were filled with the Hole Spirit, we find that they were anointed with inspired speech. The results were that people were saved and churches were developed (Acts 2; 4:8,31; 6:3,5,8; 8:4-17; 9:31; 10:44-47; 11:24; 19:1-10)
Paul understood that Jesus not only came to save the spiritually lost, but also to serve the well being of the whole person. Salvation is the work of the Triune God (2Cor.5:18-21) who brings human beings out from under the bondage of the sin, the law and the death (Rom.6:18-23; 5:14, 17; Phil.3:6-9) into the freedom of being his children by adoption (Gal.4:1ff. 5:1). The Church is a community of “children of light” (Eph.5:8) (Eugene, 1991:52-54).
There is no question about the impact of Paul’s early life on the authority of his ministry. That Paul was able to move among people who had different thoughts and customs from his own, can be explained as much by his early life as by his special call. Paul was a man of three worlds: Jewish, Roman, and Greek. Each of these cultures influenced his thought and world view. Paul was always the Jew, but his sensitivity to the non-Jewish world was firsthand, since he belonged to that world as well, by both birth and upbringing (Gilliland, 1998, 24-26).
It is impossible to talk about Paul without talking about his conversion. Paul’s conversion was an experience that shaped basic convictions about his theology. It leads to the fact that, in coincidence with his conversion, he received the call to evangelize. It is impossible to separate the phenomena of his conversion and of his call. The sequence of events in Acts 9 brought Ananias, a disciple of Jesus, into the drama. God sent him to Saul with the words, “I have chosen him to serve me, to make my name known to Gentiles and kings and to the people of Israel” (Acts 9:15).
The impact of Paul’s call to evangelize is abundant, and illustrate that any understanding of Paul’s theology that misses his call to take the message of forgiveness and reconciliation to all people is incomprehensible. How clearly and forcedly he speaks of the burden of evangelizing: “I am under orders….” (I Cor. 9:16). It was something with which he had been entrusted, a high and holy trust (Gal. 2:7; I Tim. 1:11); it was not tied to any notion of reward (I Cor. 9:17), but simply and always his aim was to please God ( I Thess. 2:4) (Gilliland 1998, 31-32).
Paul was a great visionary. From the beginning of his work, he understood, that the best way to carry out his commitment to the mission of God was to develop new churches. He had a vision and calling from God, Acts 9:15; Rom. 15:20-23. Paul’s vision was to be the apostle to the Gentiles through leading missionary teams into new territory to develop new churches. He combined evangelism with effective new church development. The marriage of these two powerful methodologies made a rapid impact and established reproducing churches that continued to make bear fruit for generations (Stetzer,2003: 40).
Paul was personally prepared for his church ministry of church development. He was vitally connected with God (2Cor. 12:7-9). He became prepared by engaging in ministry from the start of his life in Christ (Acts 9:20-22). He was a teachable person he was willing to be under the authority of others before God set him in authority over others (Acts 11:25-26). Also, we can say that he lived an exemplary life (1Thess.2).
What is amazing to see is that he began preaching the Gospel right after conversion (Acts 9:19-22). In Acts 16:25-33 he led families to Christ (Acts 13:44; 14:1: 19:9-10) and he conducted large-group of evangelistic meeting. It is not difficult to understand his strategy: he always looked for those who were most receptive (Acts 18:6) (Stetzer, 2003: 39-43).
Along with evangelism, the apostle Paul was concerned with new church development. Wherever he went, congregations began, but Paul did not develop churches during weekend evangelistic blitzes! He spent 18 months at Corinth and two to three years at Ephesus. Paul spoke of the ministry of new church development when he wrote: "I planted, Apollo watered, but God was causing the growth" (1 Cor. 3:6).
New church development and "church watering" are on equal terms. The first covers the evangelistic start-up and other ministries related to the early stages of new church development. "Church watering" covers a wide range of ministries, including theological education, discipleship and continuing evangelization (Arias, 1992:83-89).
To carry out the Great Commission throughout his ministry, the apostle Paul also had to deal with many problems that accompanied new churches he developed. Difficulties came from Jews and Gentiles alike.
In the case of the Gentile, the first thing that Paul mentions is the need the Gentiles had to understand the Gospel. They needed to understand that the Gospel is the good news from God to all people. They also needed to understand that the Gospel was for them. They needed to overcome rejection from the Jews when they did not become circumcised. They had to understand that they did not need to be Jews to become Christians.
Paul expounded this idea, because some Jewish Christian went to the Galatians and preach to them that the Gentiles needed to practice the Jewish rituals and ceremonies to become real Christians. That attitude created many difficulties for the Apostle, as we see in the letter to the Galatians. We also see this problem in the letter to the Romans. Grieb states that “Paul wrote to reassure the Gentiles Christians at Rome of God’s impartiality and of the fact that they, too, were included in God’s covenant promises to the patriarchs of Israel” (Grieb, 2002, 15).
In that case of the Jews, Paul also had many difficulties. They needed to see the covenant God has established with them through the lens of the Gospel. For them the covenant, and consequently the Gospel, was only for the Jews. The Gospel is the good news for all people, and the Jews were having a hard time to accept that truth. How could they accept into the community someone who did not have their religious pedigree? They needed to understand that they could not force their rituals and ceremonies on the Gentiles, for them to be accepted in the Kingdom of God.
They also needed to know that God was not taking their place in the Kingdom and giving to the Gentiles. The intention of God was not to substitute the Jews with the Gentiles, but to form them into disciples of Christ in God’s Church. Grieb, writing about the reasons of Paul to write the letter to the Romans, puts it this way: “Paul wrote to reassure the Jewish Christians at Rome of the priority of Israel and the irrevocability of God’s covenant with Israel” (Grieb, 2002: 14).
The cross is the event that shapes and transforms all and everything. It is at the cross that I can understand the world, the Christian life, and the church. The cross is the center for the church, and for the whole universe. At the cross I meet God and His compassion, love, and mercy. At the cross I meet myself, my weakness, my sin and my needs. At the cross I meet my neighbor and his needs. It is because of the cross that I will accept, serve, and love my neighbor. It is at the cross that I am called to develop new church wherever lost people are.
Paul was a missionary who gave years of his life to traveling around the Mediterranean world and establishes new churches. This shows up clearly in his letters, most of which were written to these newly-established churches and their leaders. He mentions his own prayer life and evangelism as his response to the Gospel, and calls to the churches to pray and evangelize as well.
Most of Paul’s letters begin with a prayer of thanksgiving for God’s work in the lives of the recipients of the letter and many of them refer to his constant prayer for them (Rom.1:8ff. 1cor. 1:4ff.; Eph.1:3ff.; 1:15-22; 3:14-19; Phil. 1:3-6; Col.1:3ff.).
Paul calls the Christians to pray along with him. In 1Tim.2:1-8 he calls all believers to pray in every way for all possible people, especially for those in authority. The reason for this is that God’s love reaches all and God’s people are to participate in reaching them with salvation.
He writes to the Colossians saying: “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us too that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I May proclaim it clearly as I should”. (Col.4:2-4)
He calls the Christians to join him in evangelism and missions. That is the way he wrote Romans, to mobilize the church in Rome to cooperate with him in outreach to Spain (Rom.1:15-23-24). He wrote Philippians, in part, to thank the church there for helping him with his mission work (Phil. 4:10-19). He instructs Timothy to “do the work of an evangelist” (II Tim.4:5).
For Paul, the Gospel starts with God. It is not that people seek God, but that God seeks and finds people to belong to him. Paul assets this on the basis of God’s word given to Jesus: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I have compassion on whom I have compassion” (Rom. 9:15). This includes the gentiles, says Paul: “I will call them my people who are not my people; and I will call her my loved one who is not my loved one” (Rom.9:25).
Paul was committed to developing new churches all around because he believed that God’s blessing is for all nations. For him there is no difference between Jew and Gentile. The Lord is Lord and richly blesses all who call on him (Rom. 10:11-12).
The New Testament makes clear that the church has a missionary nature. It exists for a specific purpose, to carry the Good News to the entire world. God created the church with this responsibility. And the best way to accomplish this task is to develop new churches (Acts 1:8)
Conclusion
It becomes evidently clear that the old view is a diversion of the principles established by the Lord Jesus Christ, practiced by Himself and his disciples. By the definition of the word church and the word mission, as well as the praxis of the ministry of Jesus and his disciples, and by the statement of the great commission constitute the grounds to accept as true the principle that establishes that it is responsibility of all believers and not only of the pastors and leaders the fulfillment of the mission of the church.
We are part of the Kingdom of God working for its final establishment. God in his glory could fulfill this task, but He delegated to the believers to expand the Kingdom by spreading the Word and making disciples. It was well understood by the church since Acts 8 and the Bible gives us the instances of Jesus in the Gospels and his disciples. Paul is the apostle who leaves us the most impressive work in the field of church planting and church development, from whom we learn much of about the responsibility of all believers in leading the way to the establishment of the Kingdom of God.
[1] In the New Testament it is the translation of the Greek word ecclesia, which is synonymous with the Hebrew Kahal of the Old Testament, both words meaning simply as assembly, the character of which can only be known from the connection in which the word is found. There is no clear instance of its being use for a place of meeting or of worship, although in post-apostolic times it early received this meaning. Nor is this word ever used to denote the inhabitants of a country united in the same profession, as when we say the “Church of England,” the “Church of Scotland,” etc.
[2] For the short explanation of mission Dei, meaning literally “God sent”, you will find a whole session on the subject done by Bosch )1991: 393) where he uses the term and concept of mission Dei, borrowed from Barth’s lecture in the Brandenburg Missionary Conference in 1932. Barth became one of the first theologians to articulate mission as an activity of God himself.
[3] ON of the best explanations in Trinitarian mission is done by Newbigin (1995: 19-29), actually the whole book is done on the subject.
[4] I have use the word of evangelism and mission as synonymous. For me evangelize is to do mission, and to do mission is to bring people to Christ.
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