I first wrote this for Introduction to Christian Mission taught by Dr Isam Ballenger at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. Since then I have tweaked it only a little. It basically is a good one page summary of my theology.
(Revised September 07, 2001)
My theological perspective is primarily biblical in the sense that it attempts to utilize the Bible–both Hebrew Bible and New Testament–as a primary source, authority, and primary reference. That being so, my theological perspective, using the Bible as a primary source/authority/reference, is largely Genesis centered. When I think of the sending and mission of Jesus Christ, I tend to understand it in light of Genesis, rather than understanding Genesis in light of Jesus Christ.
Given Genesis as a primary starting point, my theology begins with God as creator of the universe (Gen 1:1), a God who creates not solely ex nihilo (“out of nothing”) but by bringing order out of chaos (Gen 1:2-2:4a). Creation is fragile and is threatened still by the forces of evil and chaos—in that sense is unfinished.
This primordial vision is fundamental to my understanding of Christian theology. God is creator of a creation and creatures that are invited to respond to God in worship (Gen 1:1-2:4a). God is the initiator of the primordial vision (Gen 1:1), and we recognize that the activity of God precedes human activity and does not always require human activity. God is the sender in the primordial vision, sending his Spirit which hovers above the waters, and sending his Word through whom creation comes into being. And yet God is also the commissioner of human beings as effective agents to help accomplish the primordial vision—they bear the image of the creator (they represent the creator within creation) and are commissioned to be fruitful and multiply and to rule the creation (they continue the creation).
But the primordial vision of Gen 1:1-2:4a cannot be read without Gen 2:4b-3:24. Because the image bearers sought to fulfill their commission in a way contrary to God’s intent, all of creation has been cursed, the order of creation has been broken, relationships within creation have been distorted. The risk of creation in Genesis 1 became the reality of a broken creation in Genesis 3 and following. But even in Genesis 3 we can see God at work, on his own initiative, to heal, repair, and to restore creation and creatures (see Gen 3:20-21).
That is the framework within which I tend to understand Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ fulfills the divine mission to redeem broken creation, and he invites us to become part of the mission of God to “gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth” (Eph 1:10). My theology then is also strongly Trinitarian: mission is participation in the life of the Trinity.
The biblical story narrates how God fulfills his cosmic purposes through particular relationships. God chooses and maintains a particular relationship with his people who are called and commissioned by him to manifest the character and will of God within creation (see Exodus 20-24). God then is not concerned solely with individuals living in right relationship with him, but with communities living in right relationship with each other and with God. Establishing Christian communities is as high a priority as asking individuals to become Christians. Individuals will become Christians most often when authentic Christian community is present. Authentic Christian mission must be concerned not only with “souls” and individual conversion, but with the whole person, including the culture and society in which the whole person lives.
But we cannot ignore the Pauline tradition. Yes, (expressions of) theology and mission must respond to and change with the historical situation. Yes, the mission of God was prior to Israel and was fulfilled not only through Israel. Yes, revelation may be present in religions other than Christianity. Yes, we need authentic dialogue between Christianity and other religions. But the Pauline witness still challenges us not to abandon altogether the evangelical tradition that we are saved by grace obtained through pistis Christou (either “faith in Christ” or “the faithfulness of Christ”). This is still true even if God sometimes in some way accepts adherents of other religions [see Alan Neely, “Baptists and Peoples of Other Faiths,” Perspectives in Religious Studies 17 (1990): 221-235].
So my theological perspective is Christian—Jesus Christ is the Son of God who lived and died and rose again for the redemption of creation, and God invites human beings to receive the righteousness (or the righting of relationships) that comes from God and is received through pistis Christou. It is primarily biblical but not exclusively so; it begins with Genesis but does not end with that book; it begins with the Hebrew Bible but includes the revelation of God in Jesus Christ and in the New Testament writings; it includes but does not stress eschatology; it is Trinitarian but respects the contributions of the evangelical and liberation perspectives; it stresses the communal but recognizes that transformed communities are made up of transformed individuals; it realizes that the mission of God continues not only in Christianity and in the church but insists that this does not relativize the importance of the Christian gospel and of being in Christ; it holds that Christian mission must change to meet historical circumstances but insists that the mission is not defined primarily by those circumstances.
