“This book integrates all missionary life and testimony with the Bible at its center!”

- The latest book by Christopher Wright, author of the Cape Town Covenant
- Christianity Today, Outreach '2024 Book of the Year'
- Recommended by Moon Dae-won, Park Bo-kyung, Michael Goheen, Ellen Davis, and Craig Bartholomew

This book is a compilation of three lectures by Christopher Wright, a prominent Old Testament scholar and missionary, condensing his thoughts, reading, writing, and preaching on missions over many years.
In light of God's purpose as revealed in the Bible, what is our identity and mission? Who are we, God's people, and why are we here? This book is a journey to find answers to these questions, asserting that the great mission (Great Commission, Matthew 28:16-20) proclaimed by the Lord Jesus Christ, Lord of all time and space, must be carried out everywhere in the world and is the very essence of life for all people.
In other words, missions is not an exotic calling or project reserved for special people who are appointed, trained, and sent out 'in place of the rest of the people.'
Mission is a way of being that defines the entire life of all members who make up God's complete church.

What the Bible presents to us is a God with a purpose and a people with a purpose.
Essentially, this is what I mean by mission in this context.
Perhaps we could ask this question more directly:
In light of God's purpose as revealed in the Bible, what is our identity and mission? Who are we as God's people, and why are we here?
--- From "Entering"

The fundamental belief of missional hermeneutics is that the entire Bible tells the story of God's mission through God's people in relationship with God's world for God's purposes for the entire creation.
The significance of this comprehensiveness of missionary hermeneutics for the subject of this book is that it allows us to read the Bible as a whole from this perspective.
Rather than simply establishing and implementing mission theology based on a few scattered “mission texts,” we must treat the entire Bible as a text related to (God’s and our) missions.
--- From “Chapter 1 Missionary Biblical Hermeneutics”

Paul must have had in mind the entire story of Old Testament Israel (which he summarized in a few sentences in Acts 13:17-22).
The story culminates in the death and resurrection of the Messiah, an event through which God conceives a new creation within the womb of the groaning old creation.
This is the story of the entire Bible, a memory of the past and a hope for the future, rooted in the God of Israel.
This is also a story that conveys ‘God’s mission.’
This is God's great and eternal purpose that propels the entire drama of Scripture toward its glorious ultimate goal.
--- From "Chapter 2: A Great Story: A Drama in Seven Acts"

Once we understand that the Bible is a purposeful story unfolding according to God's plan and purpose, we can also understand that our lives become part of the way God has chosen to fulfill that plan.
The entire story of the Bible is about God's amazing, vast, and comprehensive mission (embracing all times, all peoples, and all creation) in and through Christ (Ephesians 1:9-10).
It is truly amazing that God calls us to play a role in such a weighty issue.
Our mission as individuals and as a church is to participate in God's mission as 'co-workers of God.'
--- From "Chapter 3: The Role of Great Stories"

Every dimension of our mission flows from the Lordship of Christ.
It also flows from God's unwavering intention that the whole world and all creation will acknowledge that Jesus is Lord and in so doing come to know, love, praise, and worship God our Creator and Redeemer.
When we center the lordship of Christ, it becomes possible to integrate (connect) all of our missionary engagements around the gospel.
This gospel is the good news proclaimed by Jesus (God in Christ is king) and Paul (God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ).
--- From “Chapter 4: Five Marks of Great Mission and Mission”

Engaging in holistic mission requires the integration of two elements.
One is to share the good news of historical facts and the truth of the gospel through evangelism.
Another is to embody that gospel message through social and contextual engagement within society and the created world.
--- From “Chapter 5 Building the Church through Evangelism and Teaching”

“Teach them to obey everything I have commanded you” does not simply mean “teach them to preach and teach the gospel” (although it does include that meaning).
Because this is not 'all' that Jesus commanded his disciples to keep.
As we have seen, the early church and the apostle Paul never thought of the meaning of missionary commitment to Christ and the gospel in that way.
We are called to integrate faith and practice, word and deed, proclamation and demonstration of the gospel.
--- From “Chapter 6: Serving Society through Compassion and Justice”

Whatever our obedience to the Great Commission and the various ways in which we carry out our mission, it must be premised on and acknowledged by the universal truth that Jesus is Lord of all creation and that the earth belongs to Him.
Wherever we go on this planet, we are stepping on 'His own land.'
He is the landlord and we are the tenants.
The ownership of the earth belongs to God, and as stewards, we are accountable to Christ for everything we do on this earth.
Therefore, we cannot separate our personal obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ from the socio-economic practices of living in, using, and caring for the created world that belongs to Him as Lord of heaven and earth.
--- From “Chapter 7: The Goodness and Glory of the Created World”

The ecological actions we take now are both a creative responsibility given at the beginning of the Bible and an eschatological expression of the ending of the Bible (which is, of course, a new beginning!).
Christian ecological action points to and anticipates the restoration of humanity's proper place and function within creation.
It is the behavior we were originally intended to do when we were created, and the behavior expected of us when we are fully redeemed.
The earth is eagerly waiting for the kings and priests appointed for it to be revealed.

--- From "Chapter 8: The Destination of the World of Creation"