Thinking about mission

Mission is one of those words that can put you off. We hope this exercise doesn’t! Mission does not simply mean church planting or producing ever bigger congregations. It is not preoccupied with buildings, finance and keeping the show on the road.

Mission means partnership with God in God’s worldly work. It can be a tricky business. Its about encounter and exchange with a view to &ellipsis;?

The key question is:

With a view to what? We have designed this exercise to help you explore and consider your own judged response to ‘with a view to what?’ in the context of your working situation.

We invite you first to read four short real life stories on mission from the book A Conspiracy of Goodness : Contemporary Images of Christian Mission by Donald Messer. The study questions we offer are:

• How does Donald Messer seem to understand mission? Do you agree with him?
• Does Messer say anything that you disagree with?
• Do you think anything is missing? What?
• What challenges you in the stories?
• What excites you?
• Taking all the stories together, who or what is being converted - from what, to what and why?
• What, on reflection, do you think mission is all about?

You might like to print these questions out for reference. When you have thought about your response to Messer’s stories go on to look at the questions we have provided to help you examine the implications of your reflections for your work in Further Education.

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