YOU WILL BE MY WITNESSES:
Theology for God’s Church Serving in
God’s Mission
By Brian A. Devries
Crossway. 276 pages. £17.99
ISBN 978 1 433 591 389
“Know your place” is a phrase we don’t tend to use these days (and rightly so!). It was used to make sure people didn’t think too highly of themselves; but in the case of how the church thinks about mission it is perhaps a helpful expression.
Getting a grasp on who we are (redeemed creatures) in relation to God (the redeeming Creator) has huge implications both for those of us who tend to see the task of mission – both locally and globally – falling on our shoulders (“If we don’t do it, it won’t get done…”) and for those of us who are paralysed by our inadequacy (“I couldn’t possibly go…”).
In Brian A. Devries’ excellent book, he contends that the right way to think about the work of the church is as witnesses to the sovereign work of God in His work of salvation. This means that we think about mission first and foremost in terms of God’s triune activity in redemption (as the Father who plans from eternity, the Son who secures redemption, and the Spirit who gives new life). Only after we have this clear in our minds may we begin to see how the Lord includes the church in His glorious and gracious mission to the world. This is both humbling (since it means we say that we merely “participate” in His mission and not He in ours) but also liberating (because it means that we can rest with confidence in His power and purposes, which means He will take and use us in our weakness).
This is the core of Devries’ argument, and over the course of three sections (The Biblical Story of God’s Mission / Concise History of Christian Witness / Our Witness in an Un-Christian World) he shares what feels like the fruit of many years of careful theological reflection and missionary experience (as Professor of Missiology at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, and pastor of Grace Reformed Church in Pretoria, South Africa).
He provides invaluable reflections on countless questions (e.g. the neglected role of the Spirit in the life of the “witnessing” church within much Reformed church life) and offers numerous conclusions throughout for the reader to chew on. I was, for example, struck by the comprehensive yet open-ended list of ways in which the church bears witness to Christ in the world – from evangelism to church planting, Biblical counselling to gospel suffering. This is not an exhaustive list and I felt it would have been helpful to have had a discussion about how a church makes decisions about the way it prioritises these (or makes decisions about other forms). However, rather than a weakness, this is an example of content which is thought-provoking throughout.
I think this book will become the standard text for all those seeking a strong, Reformed theology of mission and practice. At the end of each chapter there are questions which lend themselves to the book being read by a group (e.g. a group of elders, small group focusing on mission) or for personal reflection. Know your place, know God’s place and witness to His glory!
