Although this is a timely question for a world fast changing under the impact of globalisation it also a question that is faced by every generation of Christians as they seek to relate the Gospel to their culture and context.  

Before proceeding with this question, it must be clarified that the focus is not on “mission” as a general generic term but rather specifically Christian mission.  This raises the question of whether there is a specific and unique Christian mission that is distinct from other “missions”.  There are certainly different views and understanding of Christian mission. The core of my understanding however is that Christian mission is essentially to continue the mission of the Lord Jesus Christ in the world. 

I had only just landed in the Andaman Islands, bringing relief supplies from my organisation (EFICOR) for the tsunami-stricken victims when a man strode up to me, shook my hand, gave me a tract and said, “Jesus is the answer.”  The context was so inappropriate and I felt that the gospel was being cheapened in that kind of presentation.  Again when I was taking some church members to Gujarat in response to the devastating earthquake in 2001, I specifically instructed them that there was to be no tract distribution and no preaching, but they could pray silently. I told then they are here to serve the people and to concentrate on the work of food distribution.  One team member however berated me indignantly: “Now is the time to share the gospel of Christ and you’re not allowing me to do that!” I replied, “When you are in a relief situation your work is to bring relief and to do it well.  I am allowing you to share the gospel – through your life.”   Is it ethical to use the need of a person to push in the gospel? Just because they receive the food from you, do they have to listen to you?

It is in these kinds of mission situations and contexts that we need to think through in terms of a biblical understanding of mission.

To understand and define the mission of Christ, and so understand our mission we need to begin with the Father who sent the Son in mission.  A key scripture in this respect is John 20.21-23,

‘Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”’

A further key Scripture illuminating the nature and purpose of Christ’s mission is Mark 10.45,

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

The Father sent the Son as an expression of his own nature and actions in salvation and service.  Christ came both to save and to serve.  In John 20.21-23 Jesus identifies mission with the task of bringing forgiveness and reconciliation, the central aspects of salvation. He goes on to the corollary of this – the need to judge evil and the withholding of God’s saving grace on those who consciously reject God’s grace through deliberately persisting in sin and insistence on identifying with explicit evil. However this mission is to be undertaken only in and through the Holy Spirit who is a Spirit of loving service and self-sacrifice.  Saving and Serving belong together in mission. The same is evident in Mark 10.45 – the mission of serving others and self-giving is conjoined with the mission of saving others.

This biblical partnership of service and salvation provides too a biblical basis for the concept of “integral mission”.  The “Micah Network” has further developed and defined the concept of integral mission. As I have been closely identified with the work of the Micah Network in defining “integral mission” at a consultation held in Oxford during September 2001, I would like to expand further on this.

The Micah Network firstly considered various phrases and terms that have been employed to summarise a biblical model of mission or to express a particular organisations role in mission. These included the following:

It was the last of these terms, “integral mission” that the Micah Network adopted as a phrase that seemed to best cover these various near-alternatives and to bring clarity in communication within the network without imposing it on any particular members. It is a term that all members of the network felt able to use when discussing the work of mission and which can express a full biblical model that includes proclamation of the Word and addressing the practical and real needs of the poor. It also adequately reflects the name and beliefs of the Micah Network as expressed in Micah 6.8,

“And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

What more can we say about integral mission?  It has been stated as a way of integrating the “proclamation and demonstration of the Gospel”.    Proclamation is usually related to verbal communication of the Gospel.  It could also be said that works and actions equally proclaim the message, though without some sort of communication through words it is hard to see how they would normally clearly elucidate the message of Christ.  However works or actions are nevertheless a vital part of the communication of the Gospel and the word here used to make a distinction from the verbal or word aspects is “demonstration”.  The third key word in this short phrase is “Gospel”. What is the Gospel?  This term translates the New Testament Greek, euaggelion, which means "good news."  Much could be said about the meaning and content of this good news. One concise summary is found in 1 Corinthians 15.1-5,

“Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.”

Clearly the Gospel is constituted by both the Person of Christ and by the historical facts of his sacrificial and redeeming death, burial and resurrection, and the significance of these facts is seen in their effect – providing the single basis and way to God and to receive his salvation,

“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4.12)

“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.” (Romans 1.16)

However although the gospel is verbally proclaimed with the intention that people receive salvation through faith, the proclamation is also intended to bring about a social impact and social consequences since to the call to people to repent in all areas and dimensions of life and to henceforth be committed to the ways of love, is intrinsic the Gospel.   Since globalisation is a major social phenomenon of our time it therefore follows that the Gospel has implications and consequences in relation to processes and results of this globalisation in all aspects.

Conversely it is also true that social involvement as an expression of service has evangelistic consequences, as our social engagement is itself a witness to the transforming grace of Christ. 

“If we ignore the world we betray the word of God which sends us out to serve the world. If we ignore the word of God we have nothing to bring to the world.”

Justice and justification by faith, worship and political action, the spiritual and the material, personal change and structural change in society integrate together.

As in the life of Jesus, “being”, “doing” and “saying” are at the heart of our integral mission task.

Charles Spurgeon, the great Baptist preacher, made the following statement on the church’s mission in the world, 

“If you give a man the gospel, wrap it in a sandwich. And if you give a man a sandwich, wrap it in the gospel.”

Bishop Leslie Newbiggin once said, “Words without deeds are empty and deeds without words are dumb.”
St Francis of Assisi once said “Preach at all times, if necessary, use words”.

The Relationship of Social Engagement and Evangelism in South Asian Contexts
The inter-relationship and mutuality of social engagement and evangelism has the potential for difficulties and misunderstanding where Christians engage in service and social involvement in many or other faith contexts.  The distinguishing line between (a) service out of a compassion and love arising from the Spirit of Christ in the church and which therefore witnesses to Him and (b) service as primarily a means to communicate the message of the Gospel (and which too may be motivated by a compassion, though for spiritual rather than other areas of human need) is one that is not always or even readily grasped by those of other faiths.  The lesson perhaps is that Christian mission can be a risky business in south Asian contexts, and that negative responses could be based on misunderstanding rather than, or as well as, prejudice.

However verbal proclamation and social involvement are distinct activities and need to be identified as such, although both are aspects of mission.  This distinction needs to be maintained despite the inter-relationship of the two and the ideal of the two dimensions being practiced together and working to mutually enrich the other. Although the two dimensions or types of activity belong together within the concept of integral or holistic mission, in many sensitive contexts, especially as found in south Asia, it may be appropriate to maintain the clear distinction and for the two activities to be kept separate in practice, recognizing that the separation can never be absolute – nor should it be. 

The conference theme “Gospel and Globalisation” embraces these twin dimensions of mission.  The study of globalisation as a phenomena and especially the impact on south Asia is one aspect of the conference. It is motivated by a desire to examine and understand the impact of globalisation on the poor, marginalized and weak and to seek to find ways to speak up on behalf of, and to serve, our neighbour who may be suffering economically, socially, physically, psychologically or in other ways.  Equally the conference intends to have a focus on the Gospel and its proclamation. Recognising that the world is fast changing under the impact of globalisation, how do young Christian people in south Asia proclaim Christ in a changing context and homogenisation of youth culture?

The Example of Amy Carmichael
Let us at this point look at one illustration of “integral mission” from south Asian mission history – the example of Amy Carmichael.

By the time Amy Carmichael (1867-1951) arrived in India, the murder of widows through immolation (known as “sati”) had been legally banned. Yet, she was horrified to discover that ritual abortion and female infanticide were still commonly practiced. In addition, many of the young girls that she had come to work with were still being systematically sold off as slaves to the nearby pagan temples to be raised as cult prostitutes.
Within a few years Carmichael established a ministry to protect and shelter these girls. Although she had to suffer the persecution of various religious sects and the bureaucratic resistance of the British colonial government, she built an effective and dynamic ministry that was renowned for its courage and compassion. Sadly, many of her fellow missionaries in India believed that her efforts to build an orphanage and school were “worldly activity” that distracted her from the “saving of souls.” To such accusations, she simply replied,“Souls are more or less firmly attached to bodies.

The resistance that Amy Carmichael faced from her fellow missionaries may be surprising to many of us, but similar tension has sadly continued to exist in the church today.

The reason why many of Amy Carmichael’s fellow missionaries in India believed that her efforts to build an orphanage and school were “worldly activity” that distracted her from the “saving of souls” could be due to a false dichotomy in the understanding Christian Mission, the belief that saving of souls is more important than caring for the human need. This dichotomous understanding asserts the primacy of evangelism over social responsibility on the basis that evangelism relates to a persons eternal well-being or destiny and social responsibility related to temporal needs that are secondary in comparison. It was also a reactive understanding against the so-called “social gospel” and those who identified the kingdom of God with the construction of society based on Christian values and principles and which seemed to suggest that human beings are able to bring God’s kingdom to fulfilment in present history by their own efforts and especially through social and political action.  However the dichotomous approach of Carmichael’s critics represents a failure to appreciate the close inter-relationship of both aspects of mission and to view them as both being valid mission expressions with their own intrinsic worth and value and which ideally, (though perhaps adapted to contextual constraints), should accompany one another.

The Mission of Jesus as our Model for Mission
Let us look a little more closely at the saving and serving mission of Jesus with a view to the mission of Christ being our model and example for mission.  Of course, in an ultimate sense, Christ’s mission is unique and cannot be duplicated. Jesus lived a sinless life for his people; he died and rose again for their salvation. No one can copy this salvific aspect of the Son’s work. But there is a way in which the church follows in Christ’s footsteps in her mission to the world. For this we need to remind ourselves of the words of Jesus to the apostles and hence to the church in John 20.21, “As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you”.  We have already considered the question this raised of “How did the Father send the Son?”  There could be various answers to this question: for example the Son was sent in love, he was sent to the world, he was sent with divine authority, he was sent with an eschatological purpose and so on. However the Father also sent the Son to engage in particular types of activity that, as we already considered at the beginning of this study, can be summarised as being two-fold: to save – or mediate salvation, and to serve.

These Scriptures reflect both the individual and personal nature of salvation but also the global embrace of the saving mission of Jesus.  The changes in our world brought about by globalisation bring more knowledge of our neighbour in different parts of the world and more possibilities for direct encounter.  Communication and travel as features of world of globalisation can help us to be more acutely aware of the need for the saving mission of Jesus to continue and for him to be made known to all.  Despite many of the negative aspects, globalisation may help to bring our neighbour closer and to open new opportunities for the saving mission of Jesus to be continued through the proclamation of the Gospel and the evangelistic ministry of the church.

Let us know turn to the serving ministry of Jesus and consider some relevant Scriptures,