VULNERABLE MISSION

“MISSION IN WEAKNESS AND VULNERABILITY” IN SELECTED WRITINGS
in weakness and vulnerability is crucial in understanding and formulating mission theology
for missionary movements. The writings on the theme of mission from a position
of weakness and vulnerability from missiologists such as Newbigin and Bosch will illuminate
us as to how missionaries and mission theologians have tried to understand mission
in Christ’s way.
LESSLIE NEWBIGIN
Lesslie Newbigin acutely indicated that modern missiology remarkably lacks the understanding
of weakness and vulnerability that should essentially accompany the messenger
if the message that the messenger carries is to be authenticated. 3 In his book, Mission in
Christ’s Way, Newbigin unfolds what it means to do mission in the way of Christ.
First of all, in order to do mission as Christ did, according to Newbigin, we need to realize
that gospel is revealed, yet hidden, in Jesus Christ; people are naturally asking how a
man crucified as a sinner can be the embodiment of the wisdom and power of God. It is
like a parable. It is hidden, yet revealed in the eyes of believers. It is there on Calvary that
the kingly rule, the kingdom of God, won the victory over all the powers of darkness.
The cross is not a defeat overturned by the resurrection, but the cross is itself the victory
proved by the resurrection. The disciples who saw the resurrected Jesus began to understand
that it was when the Lord of Life was crucified that he exposed and disarmed the
power of the darkness and overcame death itself. 4
Therefore, the kingdom of God, Newbigin went on to say, now has a human face and a
human name. Without Jesus, we cannot comprehend the kingdom of God, and without
the kingdom of God, we cannot think of Jesus. Jesus Christ himself is the very embodiment
of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God has been given to us (not that we
establish, expand, or extend it by ourselves) in the form of the Suffering Servant of
Yahweh. In this milieu, the cross embodies the weakness and vulnerability of God that
turned out to be the power of God. It is in this vulnerable love out of which overflowed
the saving and healing power of God for humanity. 5
Thus, to Newbigin, mission is not a success story. The world yearns for success, but the
gospel is, by no means, a success story. Mission does not have to do with a pragmatic or
effective effort, or an accomplishment that can be much more easily achieved with readymade
tools or highly developed scientific statistics. In both Newbigin’s time and ours, the
most vital mission has not taken place in more developed countries but rather in areas
where Christianity is persecuted, believers suffer, and where Jesus’ followers do not have
much means to offer—a position many would define as vulnerable or weak. However,
the effectiveness of our mission is not in our own hands. It is the work of the Holy Spirit,
the Paraclete, who himself arises, is with and comforts the weak and vulnerable community
of the believers, and manifests the power of God through this earthen vessel. 6
3 Lesslie Newbigin, Mission in Christ’s Way: Bible Studies, WCC Mission Series (Geneva: World Council of
Churches, 1987), 23.
4 Ibid., 5–6.
5 Ibid., 6–12.
6 Ibid., 13–14; Lesslie Newbigin, The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission, rev. ed. (Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1995), 62.
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