What would you say is the goal of missions? You might answer that it is seeing lost people saved, making a difference in the world, or planting and growing churches. If you have ever thought about this or other similar questions, then you are thinking about the philosophy of missions. Every believer and every church has a missions philosophy, because we all have an idea about the purpose of missionary work and how it should be done, even if we have never spelled it out in verbal or written form. Recently, I read a book entitled For the Sake of His Name by David Doran in which he writes at length about a biblical missions philosophy. Pastor Doran’s book is very helpful, and I would like to interact with some of his thoughts on this issue over the next several weeks.
First of all, he presents an important question that helps to clarify the issue: “Is missions primarily centered on man or God?” At first glance, we might think the answer has to be “man.” After all, if missions involves preaching the gospel, meeting physical or material needs, or even planting churches, the focus must be on men, right? In order to have a biblical philosophy of missions, however, we need to consider the teaching of God’s word on this subject.
Consider 2 Corinthians 4, where Paul speaks of the missions ministry he has received. In v.11 he says that he is “always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.” He is willing to face death because he knows “that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus” (v.14), and so he keeps on preaching the gospel. But then he addresses the ultimate purpose of his ministry in v.15, when he says “For all things are for your sakes.” Here we might think that Paul is saying the purpose of missions is primarily focused on men, the objects of his preaching, but he continues in the same verse to say “that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.”
The process that Paul describes here is clear: he preaches the gospel which spreads God’s grace to more and more people so that their voices will lift up thanksgiving toward God. All of this results in the increase of the glory of God. The ultimate goal and purpose of missionary work, then, is God’s glory. Doran further states the connection between our view of missions and the methods we will use to do missionary work, because, “If God’s glory comes first, then there are some things that cannot be done in our efforts to win souls for Jesus Christ.” We’ll talk more about this connection and its impact later.
If it is true that we ought to do missions for the glory of God rather than for the benefit of men, then we can rule out a couple of ideas about the goal of missions. First of all, it is not about getting the most salvation decisions possible, a view which is often based on a faulty understanding of salvation as simply an escape from hell. Pastor Doran warns, “To view salvation as merely a change of destination (heaven vs. hell) is to miss all the grandeur of God’s design. He saved us to make us like His Son, which means He saved us to reflect His glory.” Second, missions is not about meeting the perceived needs of men. In fact, when we prioritize meeting man’s needs, we end up failing both to honor God and to meet anyone’s truest need. The desire to meet our own perceived need is at the heart of our rebellion against God, beginning in the garden of Eden and continuing to the present, and we recognize that our greatest need concerns our relationship with God. This does not mean we ignore the suffering of others, but Doran rightly explains, “We should have great compassion for the needs of people, but we must have a greater passion for the glory of God.”
So the first and most important principle in developing a biblical philosophy of missions is that everything must be done for the glory of God alone. With this understanding, we are in position to develop a biblical view of the nature of missions, the role of the local church in missions, and our calling as individual Christians to engage in the process of missions for the glory of God. We will take these issues up in the coming weeks.