What Does "Mission" Mean to You?

Darrell Guder, in The Continuing Conversion of the Church, speaks of the “Cultural Captivity” of the church.[1]   He speaks particularly of the early twentieth century, a time in which the goals and values of the church, in its widest sense, and Western Culture had become inextricable in the minds of many.  Guder contends that the term mission “basically meant the Western expansion of its own culturally conformed Christianity, carried out in a complex relationship with colonialism.”[2]

By the early twentieth century, a combination of the skepticism that was ingrained in Western thought as a result of the Enlightenment, a growing understanding of literary and historical criticism of the Bible itself [3] and the eruption of World War I in 1914 was beginning “a profound process of self-questioning”[4] on the part of the church.  Guder pegs the culmination of the process to the publication of Karl Barth’s commentary on Romans in 1919. [5]

Guder maintains that this self-questioning led to an examination of exactly what the term mission meant, and contends that the concept of mission is rightly examined as missio Dei, a mission of God or a movement from God to the world.  Framed in this light the missio Dei, the proper understanding of the mission of the church, is freed from the “captivity” of Western culture. Guder brings home this point by succinctly stating that “God cannot be restricted to what has been and is happening in Western cultural Christianity.” [6]

So, what exactly does “mission” mean to us?  Is it broadly defined or does the term hold a
meaning more specific to our communities of faith in Burlington, Vermont?  The United Church of Christ examines the issue of the meaning behind the term that we use so often in the life of the church in the Statement of Mission[7]:

As people of the United Church of Christ, affirming our Statement of Faith, we seek within the Church Universal to participate in God's mission and to follow the way of the crucified and risen Christ.

Empowered by the Holy Spirit, we are called and commit ourselves:

·        To praise God, confess our sin, and joyfully accept God's forgiveness;

·         To proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our suffering world;

·        To embody God's Love for all people;

·        To hear and give voice to creation's cry for justice and peace;

·        To name and confront the powers of evil within and among us;

·         To repent our silence and complicity with the forces of chaos and death;

·        To preach and teach with the power of the living Word;

·        To join oppressed and troubled people in the struggle for liberation;

·        To work for justice, healing, and wholeness of life;

·        To embrace the unity of Christ's church;

·        To discern and celebrate the present and coming reign of God. 

Which portions of this statement resonate most with us?   Are the missions of our congregations aligned with needs of the most vulnerable among us?  What needs are not being met right on the doorstep of our churches?  What is God calling us to do?  What does “mission” mean to you?

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[1] Guder, Darrell L.  The Continuing Conversion of the Church.  Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.  Grand Rapids MI.  2000.  Pg. 17.

[2] Ibid. Pg. 18.

[3] Ibid. Pg. 16

[4] Ibid. Pg. 15.

[5] Ibid. Pg. 17.

[6] Ibid. Pg. 20.

[7] The UCC Statement of Mission, 1987, was drafted by a church-wide conference on mission in Houston, Texas, in which representatives from all communities in the church—including evangelicals, liberals, and others—tried to find common ground. The statement was affirmed by General Synod XVI later that year.