Sent right where you are

Martin Salter, speaker at this year’s Keswick Convention, on how good deeds should dovetail with evangelism

When we speak of ‘mission’ or ‘missionaries’ we tend to automatically think of those in far-off places.

They might be working with unreached people groups, teaching, practising medicine, or planting churches. ‘Mission’ becomes something ‘over there’ for a special breed of Christians.

What if mission wasn’t just about other places and other people – what if it was about every Christian? And what if it wasn’t just about powerful preaching or persuasive apologetics – what if it was, in significant part, about how we live our lives before a watching world?

Some truth

St Francis of Assisi is sometimes quoted as saying ‘preach the gospel at all times; if necessary use words.’ The truth is there is no evidence he ever said such a thing, and certainly didn’t seem to believe it1. However, there is some truth in the sentiment expressed – i.e. distinctively holy lives, transformed by God’s grace, can, in some way, bear witness to the reality, power and goodness of the living God.

Let’s briefly consider some examples of this in Scripture. In Deuteronomy 4.5-6 Moses exhorts the Israelites: ‘See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the LORD my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say: “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” ’ (Deuteronomy 4.5-6).

The instruction to ‘observe them carefully’ speaks of more than mere intellectual assent; it speaks of a lived-out obedience that, crucially, will be observed by the surrounding nations. Moses testifies to the fact that the distinctive lives of a ‘contrast community’ can bear witness to a watching world2. Christopher Wright notes: ‘The ethical quality of life of the people of God (their obedience to the law, in this context) is a vital factor in the attraction of the nations to the living God … There is a vital link between the religious claims of the people of God (that God is near them) and their practical social ethic.’3

Compelling, distinctive, good

Jesus makes a similar claim in the Sermon on the Mount: ‘In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven’ (Matthew 5.16). Jesus encourages his followers that non-believers may observe something in their life of light that is compelling. As Carson says, commenting on these verses: ‘Witness includes not just words but deeds.’4

Consider the early Christian community in Acts 2, characterised as committed to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, breaking bread and prayer (Acts 2.42). They contributed to one another’s needs, and met openly with gladness and sincerity (vv.44-46). The result was that they were ‘enjoying the favour of all the people’ (Acts 2.47). There was something distinctive about their lives and witness that was attractive to outsiders. Their life as a community was ‘a visible part of their testimony.’5 The subsequent narrative of Acts reminds us that the reception was not universally positive. To some they stank of death; but to others they were the fragrance of life (cf. 2 Corinthians 2.16).

Finally, recall Peter’s instruction in his first epistle: ‘Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us’ (1 Peter 2.12). There are different interpretations of what the ‘day of visitation’ means, but it seems that Peter’s express hope is that those who have slandered the believers may, having observed their good works, come to faith, such that they glorify God on the day of his visitation.6

What this brief survey demonstrates is that, in the Bible’s terms, ‘mission’ is something that every Christian and every local church is caught up into, and that it is the integration of word and deed which provide the totality of a holistic witness to Christ.

One of the most significant thinkers in this area in the last century was Lesslie Newbigin. He has been a controversial figure for evangelicals, not least for his involvement with the ecumenical movement. However, some of his insights into missiology are insightful and stimulating. For Newbigin the church does not have a mission separate from its existence. Rather, there is a sense in which the faithful existence of the church is its mission.7 The church is not the source of its own witness; it is rather the locus of witness reflecting the transforming grace of God.

It’s not just what you do...

The church should of course be active in evangelism and missions, but it also needs to recognise the testimonial beauty of its existence in the world. Newbigin illustrates this idea as follows: ‘The light cast by the first rays of the morning sun shining on the face of a company of travellers will be evidence that a new day is coming. The travellers are not the source of that witness but only the locus of it.’8 Any given culture may have a ‘missional encounter’ when it observes ‘the spontaneous overflow of a community of praise … [and] the radiance of a supernatural reality.’ 9 For Newbigin the congregation is the ‘hermeneut-ic of the gospel.’10 Mission is not just about what you do, but about how it’s done.

This is something to consider not just for the individual Christian in their work place, sports club or neighbourhood. This is something also for the church to consider. Abraham Kuyper made the distinction between the church as organism and institution.11 The organism is the living miracle birthed by God. The institution is the organised arrangement – a ‘means supplied by God for feeding and expanding that organism … From the organism the institution is born, but also through the institution the organism is fed.’12 As part of the organism the individual Christian is sent, and their distinctive lives bear witness to something of the goodness of God. As institution, local congregations can resource community initiatives that bear witness to a different way of being in the world. Christians Against Poverty centres and food banks, to take just two examples, testify to the love, charity, care and concern of God’s people, and by implication their God.

Provocative and attractive

We know that the distinctive lives of individuals and churches is not in and of itself sufficient to salvation – faith comes by hearing (Romans 10.17). So while distinctive lives are not a sufficient word for salvation, they are nonetheless a provocative and attractive witness to the God of grace. None of this is intended to downplay the importance of missions, nor undermine what Chris Wright terms the ‘ultimacy’ of evangelism.13 It is simply to affirm that every Christian, and every local church has a part to play, in the lives they lead, in God’s global mission.

The missiologist J. H. Bavinck, said that good works ‘must be so performed that even the pagans who do not understand the deep background of these works inadvertently feel behind them something of the compassion which is not born from man but from God.’14 Jonathan Rowe notes the challenge of the converse to also be true: ‘Conversely, immorality is ‘anti-mission,’ a failure to give true testimony or witness … the whole life of the people of God, not only verbal proclamation, testifies to the church’s faith – or lack of faith – in her Lord.’15

If you’re a Christian who sometimes feels as if you play little or no part in God’s global mission, then take heart. You are sent to wherever you are to bring glory to God as a light in the darkness. If you’re a church leader, consider whether there is more you could be doing to ‘enjoy the favour’ of those around you through a distinctive way of being a community.

Martin Salter is part of the leadership team at Grace Community Church, Bedford.

FOOTNOTES

1. See Scott W. Sunquist, Understanding Christian Mission (Baker Academic), p.39. 2. Walter Brueggemann, Deuteronomy (AOTC; Abingdon, 2001), p.52. 3. Christopher J.H. Wright, Deuteronomy (NIBC 4; Peabody: Hendrickson, 1996), p.49. 4. D.A .Carson, Matthew (EBC 8; Zondervan, 1984), p.140. 5. Darrell L. Bock, Acts (BECNT; Baker Academic, 2007), p.155. 6. Karen H. Jobes, 1 Peter (BECNT; Baker Academic, 2005), p.172. 7. Lesslie Newbigin, One Body, One Gospel, One World (IMC, 1958), p.20. 8. Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (SPCK, 1989), p.120. 9. Lesslie Newbigin, Foolishness to the Greeks (SPCK, 1986), p.149. 10. Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, p.222. 11. Abraham Kuyper, Rooted and Grounded (trans. Nelson D. Kloosterman; Christian’s Library Press, 2013). 12. Ibid., Kindle edition. Loc. p.484. 13. Christopher JH Wright, The Mission of God (Downers Grove: IVP, 2006), p.439-41. 14. J.H. Bavinck, An Introduction to the Science of Missions (trans. David H. Freeman; P&R, 1960), p.114. 15. Jonathan Rowe, What is Missional Ethics in Living Witness (eds. Draycott and Rowe; IVP, 2012), p.13.