“The simplest understanding of mission is that it is an assignment given to a person or group of people, typically involving travel to other communities.”[1] I understand mission in an even simpler manner: Mission is the taking on of an assignment to its completion. The church itself is not the mission. The church is part of missio Dei; God’s mission. It is to proclaim the kin-dom of God on earth and in heaven, share the life of the Son, Jesus Christ, and bear witness to the Spirit.[2]

History has demonstrated that the church approved of “missions” and sent missionaries out into the world but did not consider itself to be the mission.[3] The church has fallen prey to individualism instead of understanding its role in communalism. The church does not have a mission; the mission has a church.[4] This reversal of thinking incorporates the church into the mission deo instead of the church believing it is in charge of the mission.

“There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”[5] The uniting factor across humanity is that we are all one in Christ. Missio Dei is to reconcile God and humanity.[6] The nature and purpose of the church are to be part of this mission to reunite those who were broken. The church’s role in ministry is to repair relationships among people and God, unifying the world, and all peoples of all nations, through Jesus Christ.

The church’s purpose, obligations, and consequences for not fulfilling its purpose are spelled out in Matthew 25:31-46. The church is to feed those who are hungry, give drink to those who are thirsty, welcome the stranger, give clothing to the naked, take care of the sick, and visit those imprisoned. This pericope reiterates the unification of nations before Christ as “All the nations will be gathered before him.”[7] It identifies God has a purpose and a destination for God’s people who will “inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”[8] The pericope then provides the instructions as mentioned above that by helping those who are in need of help, you are helping Jesus Christ. These tasks are meant in both a literal and a figurative sense. As Jesus is the “living water” of which we drink, so too is water physically drawn from a well.[9] “Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’”[10] The tasks which we perform for those in need are done in service to Jesus Christ. The pericope concludes “And these will go away into eternal punishment but the righteous into eternal life.”[11]

A missional church seeks to discover and continually rediscover its role in missio Dei. Instead of asking what the congregation wants to do and what it thinks the community needs, it seeks to get to know its community better. It seeks to see what God is already doing and then joins in on the mission rather than trying to create its own.[12] It puts community needs first through participating with other human beings in the world making a new, inclusive, community to which all are invited and belong.[13] While we all belong to God’s community already, someone has to take the initiative to begin forming new relationships by being welcoming and intentional.[14] The church is to serve as Jesus served and go as Jesus went proclaiming the Gospel in all that it does.[15]

            The catholic church is not homogeneous. “True catholicity implies that, as new perspectives are brought into conversation on the Christian faith, new insights into that faith are discovered.”[16] A multicultural church must be united in its diversity through Christ. If the church strives too hard for uniformity, human uniqueness, and distinctiveness are lost. Striving too hard for diversity magnifies differences and creates separation.[17] Worship in the church is an act of rehearsal for worship at the end of days.[18] Revelation 7:9 states, “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language” will stand before God in worship. The future of the church is diverse. At Pentecost, each heard their own language, not a universal tongue. The church is not to be a melting pot but more of a salad where each member retains their own culture and language but unites to form something bigger than themselves. Diversity not sameness is God’s intention. God created the things on earth with the focus “of every kind.”[19] The church is a unity of people not a uniformity of all people.

            Proclaiming the kin-dom of God, sharing the life of Christ, and witnessing the spirit requires the church not to be confined within its walls. The church must be evangelistic. Jesus sends the disciples into the world to heal and make disciples of all nations.[20] To make disciples of all nations does not mean to have universal control of all nations. Those who engage in this aspect of missio Dei must “Realize that the living Christ, speaking through the Scriptures, can speak directly to the new convert in a way that is not just an echo of the words of the missionary.”[21] Missio Dei does not belong to the church but to God alone.

Missio Dei sends the church ahead to every place Jesus Christ will come. The church’s purpose is to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”[22] The church’s nature and purpose is not just to make disciples of all nations but to baptize for a new life and to teach everything that Jesus commanded. God has a church for this purpose.

Hospitality

            The story of Mary and Martha is a story of church hospitality. Martha is preoccupied with trying to accomplish many tasks while Mary sits at Jesus’ feet and listens to what he is saying.[23] The church has become preoccupied with the tasks of hospitality at the expense of the purpose of hospitality. Hospitality is a physical demonstration of the recognition of equal worth. Good hospitality respects the dignity of others through acknowledging and valuing their potential contributions to the community as a whole.[24] As Jesus tells the preoccupied Martha, “Mary has chosen the better part.”[25] Hospitality is not about social graces but about mutual respect.[26] A church without hospitality is a church that does not welcome God. While church growth is not in the control of the church but is up to God, churches can improve their witness to the kin-dom through hospitality.[27]

            Hospitality opens the door to welcome in a multicultural church. It is a church that makes room in anticipation for unknown and unexpected guests.[28] To create appropriate space, the church must know the needs of its community and what special accommodations they might require to feel welcome. The church must possess an agenda for inclusion while calling for accountability in issues of racial injustice.[29] Through being involved in local issues of injustice, the church is able to not only learn and apply what special accommodations might need to exist but also make itself known in the community as a safe space for those experiencing such injustices. The church must recognize its existence in a particular social, cultural, economic, and political context.[30]

Racial integration in the church can be aided by demographic factors.[31] The place where a church exists is an essential component in its mission Dei role. “We are place-making faithfully when we foster community, practice hospitality and mutuality, steward the environment, deepen spirituality, manifest the divine in our bodies and physical spaces, heal brokenness, nurture growth, and pursue peace with justice.”[32] Embracing location means embracing those who call that location home. The church building itself is sent to be witness in its location as its people are sent to be witness to its community.[33] A church located in a community that is open to diversity, as demonstrated by the natural existence or evolution toward multicultural, must adapt and respond to the needs of that community in order to witness to it.[34] Donald McGavran suggests in his writing that multiracial congregations will only truly occur in areas where integration is already taking place.[35] Multiculturalism therefore works best in areas where it is a response to demographic changes which have occurred rather than being the force of demographic change. The church is a reflection of its community more so than the community is a reflection of the church.

One of Brueggemann’s imaginings is “A congregation with a limited-scope but deeply embraced mission, not needing to be God’s sole agent in the neighborhood.”[36] The first step to renew and revitalize a church should be to adopt and deeply embrace a mission of hospitality.  If hospitality can become a way of life for the church, the strangers and guests who arrive will become increasingly diverse and representative of the surrounding community.[37] True hospitality extends an open invitation to diversity by making all feel worthy to enter.[38]  It embodies a sense of mutual obligation and respect for one another.[39]

Many feel threatened by the prospect of increasing power to those they have deemed strangers.[40] Joel Barker relates the basis of this fear to George Land’s process of Grow or Die whereby individuals are originally pulled together for resource obtainment, replicated by joining with those as similar to them as possible, and only after stability is achieved do they join together with new unidentified elements that might benefit the whole group.[41] This oversimplifies the stages but indicates that when threatened, populations tend to “go with what they know” rather than welcome a potential threat. Barker ascertains that strangers are the key to opening a new paradigm by creating new opportunities through a lack of knowledge of how things “are” for a particular group.[42] Hospitality is how we welcome strangers into our midst to create long-term growth and sustainability.

Hospitality begins with what you have, not what you don’t have, and does not require many resources.[43] It is about entering into fellowship with those you welcome through evangelism.[44] To welcome the stranger into your life is to welcome Christ into both your lives. Evangelism is not about persuading people to adopt the church’s personal ethics but to engage in a multicultural community within the societal framework that already exists.[45] Successful evangelism requires meeting people where they are not expecting them to come to you figuratively or literally. All too often, evangelism presents itself as the imposition of one’s beliefs upon another rather than a sharing of beliefs.[46] The church must respond to people’s needs not tell them what they need.

The practice of hospitality almost always involves eating together.[47] The regularly practiced sacrament of Holy Communion in the church is a celebration of Jesus Christ eating together with his disciples.[48] It is a foundation of our faith practice and a foundation of hospitality. Serving community meals creates a less imposing environment to draw strangers into the building while fostering fellowship and inclusion. All people must eat regardless of race, socioeconomic class, or gender. Food is a great equalizer for hospitality.

The table is a place for connecting and belonging.[49] To prepare a table is to intentionally work to create space for another human being.[50] It is a space and opportunity to mutually share the lives and life stories of both host and guest.[51] For a table to function in this manner, the church must resist the urge to create a segregation between those who serve and those who are served.[52] There can be no distinctions between where people sit, what table they sit at, or the foods they are offered.[53]

The mark of successful hospitality is the embodiment that all are guests, both strangers and members of the church. God is both the host and the guest we receive through the stranger.[54] “The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the native-born among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”[55] The guest will from time to time be the host and the host from time to time will be a guest. The church came into existence as part of missio Dei; to bring salvation to the world. Hospitality is at the core of imparting salvation. To provide for the needs of the community whether it be food, water, clothing, or social justice, the church must know the needs of its community. The church learns the needs of its community through hospitality. The church evangelizes through hospitality. The church welcomes the stranger offering acceptance and forgiveness that cannot be elsewhere. A multicultural ministry cannot exist without hospitality. Hospitality becomes the welcoming in of what God is already doing around the church.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Branson, Mark Lau, and Juan Francisco Martínez. Churches, Cultures, and Leadership: A Practical Theology of Congregations and Ethnicities. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2011.

Brueggemann, Walter. “Missional Questions in a Fresh Context.” Hope for the World: Mission in a Global Context. Edited by Walter Brueggemann. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001.

DeYoung, Curtiss Paul, Michael O. Emerson, George A. Yancey, and Karen Hwee Kim Chia. United by Faith: The Multiracial Congregation as an Answer to the Problem of Race. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Girgis, Raafat. “’House of Prayer for All People’ a Biblical Foundation for Multicultural Ministry.” International Review of Mission 100, no. 1 (April 2011): 62–73. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lsdar&AN=ATLAn3795366&site=ehost-live.

González, Justo L. For the Healing of the Nations: The Book of Revelation in an Age of Cultural Conflict.” Maryknoll; Orbis Books, 2002.

Gunda, Masiiwa Ragies. “Re‐membering Mission: A Decolonial Critique of the Five Marks of Mission” International Review of Mission 113, no. 1 (May 31, 2024): 159–72. https://doi.org/10.1111/irom.12485.

Hirsch, Alan. “Defining Missional: The Word Is Everywhere, but Where Did It Come from and What Does It Really Mean?” Leadership 29, no. 4 (Fall 2008): 20–22. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lsdar&AN=ATLA0001686755&site=ehost-live.

Homan, Daniel and Lonni Collins Pratt. Radical Hospitality: Benedict’s Way of Love. Brewster: Paraclete Press, 2002.

Kim, Kirsteen. “Mission Theology of the Church.” International Review of Mission 99, no. 1 (April 2010): 39–55. doi:10.1111/j.1758-6631.2010.00035.x.

Litchfield, Randy G. Roots & Routes: Calling, Ministry, and the Power of Place. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2019.

Newbiggin, Lesslie. The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995.

Park, Joon-Sik. “Hospitality as Context for Evangelism.” Missiology 30, no. 3 (July 2002): 385–95. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lsdar&AN=ATLA0001340692&site=ehost-live.

Pohl, Christine D. Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999.

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[1] Masiiwa Ragies Gunda, “Re‐membering Mission: A Decolonial Critique of the Five Marks of Mission,” International Review of Mission, 113, no. 1 (May 31, 2024), 161. https://doi.org/10.1111/irom.12485.

[2] Lesslie Newbiggin. The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995.

[3] Lesslie Newbiggin, The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission, (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmens Publishing Co., 1995), 2.

[4] Alan Hirsch. “Defining Missional: The Word Is Everywhere, but Where Did It Come from and What Does It Really Mean?” Leadership 29, no. 4 (Fall 2008): 20. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lsdar&AN=ATLA0001686755&site=ehost-live.

[5] Gal 3:28 (NRSVUE)

[6] Gunda, “Re-membering Mission,” 162.

[7] Matt 25:1a

[8] Matt 25:34b

[9] John 4:13

[10] Matt 25:45

[11] Matt 25:46

[12] Mark Lau Branson and Juan Francisco Martínez, Churches, Cultures, and Leadership: A Practical Theology of Congregations and Ethnicities (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2011), 66.

[13] Branson and Martínez, Churches, Cultures & Leadership, 81.

[14] Christine D. Pohl, Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999), 123.

[15] John 20:21; Rom 10:15; 1 Cor 1:17

[16] Justo L. González, For the Healing of the Nations: The Book of Revelation in an Age of Cultural Conflict,” (Maryknoll; Orbis Books, 2002), 21.

[17] Caleb Rosado, “Multicultural Ministry: The Frontier of Mission for the Twenty-First Century,” Ministry 69:5, (1996): 22.

[18] González, For the Healing of the Nations, 109.

[19] Raafat Girgis, “’House of Prayer for All People’: A Biblical Foundation for Multicultural Ministry,” International Review of Mission 100, no. 1 (April 2011): 68. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lsdar&AN=ATLAn3795366&site=ehost-live.

[20] Mark 6:7  The disciples were sent specifically for the purpose of visiting the sick and imprisoned.; Matt 10:16 The journey will not be easy. John 20:21 Disciples are sent as Jesus Christ was sent. Part of the mission is to serve as Jess served.

[21] Lesslie Newbiggin, The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission, (Grand Rapids: William. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995), 136.

[22] Matt 28:19-20

[23] Luke 10:38-42

[24] Branson and Martínez, Churches, Cultures & Leadership, 61.

[25] Luke 10:42b

[26] Father Daniel Homan and Lonni Collins Pratt, Radical Hospitality: Benedict’s Way of Love (Brewster: Paraclete Press, 2002), xviii.

[27] Kirsteen Kim, “Mission Theology of the Church,” International Review of Mission 99, no. 1 (April 2010): 45. doi:10.1111/j.1758-6631.2010.00035.x.

[28] Homan and Pratt, Radical Hospitality, 13.

[29] Curtiss Paul DeYoung et al., United by Faith: The Multiracial Congregation as an Answer to the Problem of Race (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 136.

[30] Kim, “Mission Theology of the Church,” 41.

[31] DeYoung et al., United by Faith, 80.

[32] Randy G. Litchfield, Roots & Routes: Calling, Ministry, and the Power of Place, (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2019), 30.

[33] Branson and Martínez, Churches, Cultures & Leadership, 66.

[34] DeYoung et al., United by Faith, 80-82.

[35] DeYoung et al., United by Faith, 125.

[36] Walter Brueggemann, “Missional Questions in a Fresh Context,” Hope for the World: Mission in a Global Context, ed. Walter Brueggemann (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001), 11.

[37] Pohl, Making Room, 103.

[38] Homan and Pratt, Radical Hospitality, xxviii.

[39] Branson and Martínez, Churches, Cultures & Leadership, 143.

[40] Pohl, Making Room, 99.

[41] Girgis, “House of Prayer for All People,” 64-66. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lsdar&AN=ATLAn3795366&site=ehost-live.

[42] Girgis, “House of Prayer for All People,” 66.

[43] Pohl, Making Room, 116.

[44] Joon-Sik Park, “Hospitality as Context for Evangelism,” Missiology 30, no. 3 (July 2002): 386. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lsdar&AN=ATLA0001340692&site=ehost-live.

[45] Newbiggin, The Open Secret, 138.

[46] Branson and Martínez, Churches, Cultures & Leadership, 139.

[47] Pohl, Making Room, 12.

[48] Matt 26:17–30; Mark 14:12–25; Luke 22:7–20; John 13:1–30

[49] Homan and Pratt, Radical Hospitality, 108.

[50] Homan and Pratt, Radical Hospitality, 110.

[51] Pohl, Making Room, 13.

[52] Pohl, Making Room, 74.

[53] Pohl, Making Room, 51.

[54] Homan and Pratt, Radical Hospitality, xxxvi.

[55] Lev 19:34