The Mission of God’s People: A Biblical Theology of the Church’s Mission (Biblical Theology for Life)

by Christopher J. H. Wright

Publisher:

Zondervan

, 2010

Overview

In The Mission of God’s People author Chris Wright offers a sweeping biblical survey of the holistic mission of the church, providing practical insight for today’s church leaders. Wright gives special emphasis to theological trajectories of the Old Testament that not only illuminate God’s mission but also suggest priorities for Christians engaged in God’s world-changing work.

The Mission of God reveals that the typical Christian understanding of “missions” encompasses only a small part of God’s overarching mission for the world. God is relentlessly reclaiming the entire world for himself. In The Mission of God’s People, Wright shows how God’s big-picture plan directs the purpose of God’s people, the church. Wright emphasizes what the Old Testament teaches Christians about being the people of God. He addresses questions of both ecclesiology and missiology with topics like “called to care for creation,” “called to bless the nations,” “sending and being sent,” and “rejecting false gods.” The Mission of God’s People promises to enliven and refocus the study, teaching, and ministry of those truly committed to joining God’s work in the world.

Key Features

• Preface by the author
• Bibliographical references and indexes

Contents

Top Highlights

“But when I speak of missions, I am thinking of the multitude of activities that God’s people can engage in, by means of which they participate in God’s mission.” (Page 25)

“So when I speak of mission, I am thinking of all that God is doing in his great purpose for the whole of creation and all that he calls us to do in cooperation with that purpose. Mission, like science, has a conceptual, generic breadth, and a word like ‘missional’ can be as broad in significance as ‘scientific’” (Page 25)

“Blessing, then, at the very beginning of our Bible, is constituted by fruitfulness, abundance and fullness on the one hand, and by enjoying rest within creation in holy and harmonious relationship with our Creator God on the other.” (Page 67)

“In this volume, our prime concern is simply to ask the question: ‘What does the Bible as a whole in both testaments have to tell us about why the people of God exist and what it is they are supposed to be and do in the world?’ What is the mission of God’s people?” (Page 17)

“‘If everything is mission, then nothing is mission.’ It would seem more biblical to say, ‘If everything is mission … everything is mission.’ Clearly, not everything is cross-cultural evangelistic mission, but everything a Christian and a Christian church is, says and does should be missional in its conscious participation in the mission of God in God’s world.” (Page 26)

Praise for the Print Edition

. . . extraordinarily readable, written by a preacher who knows how to communicate simply, clearly, and fascinatingly. It is refreshingly adventurous, as it explores the theme of mission in biblical passages where you might not have expected to find it. . . . remarkably practical . . . surprisingly relevant . . . outstandingly down-to-earth . . . It is thus eminently commendable . . .

—I. Howard Marshall, professor, University of Aberdeen

What a marvelous author Chris Wright is! Here you get the distilled insight of someone who knows mission and knows the Scriptures . . . And he doesn’t confine himself to scriptural themes but enables us to get inside lots of particular Scriptures, all in easily manageable chunks. What do theology and mission have to do with each other? This book powerfully answers the question.

—John Goldingay, professor, Fuller Theological Seminary

The Mission of God’s People is more than a biblical theology. It is a journey through the call God has given to his people to impact the world in the way God desires. . . . This book brings us there very nicely, fully using both Testaments, and even gives us questions to reflect upon in order to move us to action. Well done.

—Darrell L. Bock, research professor of the New Testament, Dallas Theological Seminary

This is biblical theology at its best. . . . Through his comprehensive reading of the whole Bible, he offers a robust portrayal of Israel’s mission and our own. Thank you, Chris, for showing us that God’s election is not about us; it is about the world. May this work inspire his church to greater faithfulness in giving verbal witness to God’s redemptive grace for the cosmos, but also to greater ethical faithfulness as we embody his grace in the microcosms in which we live.

—Daniel I. Block, Gunther H. Knoedler Professor of Old Testament, Wheaton College

. . . Christopher Wright shows in The Mission of God’s People that grounding missions practice in the prior action and plan of God does not render the church static or passive. In this masterful survey, Wright demonstrates decisively what happens when the whole church starts reading the whole Bible and reflecting the full scope of God’s good news in all our life and witness in the world. This is the long-awaited road map that moves missions from the practice of a few elite professionals to the faithful witness of all of God’s children. If want to help your church become a missional church, I cannot think of a better place to begin that journey than this book. I assure you, you will discover afresh who you are in Christ and what you are here for!

—Timothy Tennent, professor, Asbury Theological Seminary

A wonderfully kaleidoscopic biblical overview of the privileged role afforded to all of God’s people in fulfilling the Missio Dei in the world. Chris Wright demonstrates that the theme of the mission of God and his people is a prominent and unmistakable thread running through the elaborate tapestry of the whole of Scripture. In so doing, he provides a ringing affirmation that it is the responsibility of the whole church to bear witness to Christ and his kingdom in every area of the world geographically, as well as in every sphere of society.

—Lindsay Brown, director, Lausanne Movement for World Evangelization

Product Details

• Title: The Mission of God’s People: A Biblical Theology of the Church’s Mission (Biblical Theology for Life)
• Author: Christopher J. H. Wright
• Series: Biblical Theology for Life
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Print Publication Date: 2010
• Logos Release Date: 2012
• Pages: 304
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Mission of the church; Missions; Church work
• ISBNs: 9780310490388, 9780310291121, 0310490383, 0310291127
• Resource ID: LLS:MSSNGODSPEOPLE
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2023-05-17T19:57:50Z

About Christopher J. H. Wright

Christopher J. H. Wright (PhD, Cambridge) is international ministries director of the Langham Partnership, providing literature, scholarships, and preaching training for pastors in Majority World churches and seminaries. He has written many books including commentaries on Deuteronomy, Jeremiah, Lamentations, and Ezekiel, The Mission of God, Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit, Old Testament Ethics for the People of God, and Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament. An ordained priest in the Church of England, Chris spent five years teaching the Old Testament at Union Biblical Seminary in India, and thirteen years as academic dean and then principal of All Nations Christian College, an international training center for cross-cultural mission in England. He was chair of the Lausanne Theology Working Group from 2005-2011 and the chief architect of The Cape Town Commitment from the Third Lausanne Congress, 2010.