The Mission of God by Justin Schell

The Mission of God and the Witness of the Church

The missio Dei, or the mission of God, is the context in which every other theological event takes place. Creation, the fall, the Cross, the calling of Israel and the Church and the new heavens and new earth all have their place as moments along the timeline of God’s mission. As important as this topic is, the Church today can be fuzzy on the definition of missions, and especially the mission of God. As Schell says, “When an important word like mission becomes so elastic that its meaning is cloudy, significant questions arise.” In the first pages of this excellent book, he offers this working definition that sets the stage for the rest of the material. Mission, Schell says, is “…God’s revelatory work intended to establish a divine-human communion within creation.”

The missio Dei is not a peripheral theological topic, it is central to understanding God’s actions at every point to reveal Himself to creation in such a way as to gather a people for Himself and so to have a perfect, blessed communion with them for eternity. Schell has done a magnificent job of distilling this enormous topic down to an approachable form that pastors, theologians or laymen alike can come away with a more than sufficient understanding that contributes to their thinking and worship.

Each of the eight chapters is concise but packed with the necessary scriptural references for the reader to construct a biblical understanding of the mission. Schell leans heavily on the Old Testament as understanding the events of creation, the Garden and the Fall, and the calling of Israel form the background to understand the blessing of the incarnation and the cross and the assignment of the Church. This background is often missing from the thinking of many in the Church who form their understanding by starting at the Christmas narrative.

One of the finest features of this book is its size. I have numerous volumes of several hundred to over a thousand pages that require immense dedication to engage. By the time I have finished these books, the point or topic can be lost in the countless details and arguments. This series by Crossway contributes immensely to the craft of theology by concisely presenting the enormous things of God in a form approachable by any reader at nearly any level.