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