1. Blessed to be a Blessing
Michael Goheen
Burnaby, B.C.

2. What is mission? Two most common answers:
Cross-cultural work done by mission organisations
Outreach kinds of activities
Important but mission in Bible much bigger

3. Starting with God’s Mission
Long term purpose/intention to restore creation, all of human life
Told in story of Bible
Through Israel—Jesus—church/Spirit
Church is mission
Missional identity comes from role people of God play in biblical story

4. Participation in God’s Mission
Fundamentally, our mission (if it is biblically informed and validated) means our committed participation as God’s people, at God’s invitation and command, in God’s own mission, within the history of God’s world for the redemption of God’s creation.
- Chris Wright

5. Importance of Old Testament
When we speak about the Church as ‘the people of God in the world’ and enquire into the real nature of this Church, we cannot avoid speaking about the roots of the Church which are to be found in the Old Testament idea of Israel as the people of the covenant. So the question of the missionary nature of the Church, that is, the real relationship between the people of God and the world, cannot be solved until we have investigated the relation between Israel and the nations of the earth.
- Johannes Blauw

6. Understanding Relationship of Israel to World: Two Key Texts
Abrahamic Covenant: Genesis (Gen )
Sinai Covenant: Exodus

7. Formation of People Backdrop of creation and sin
Genesis 12: Abrahamic covenant
Blueprint: Twofold unfolding of God’s mission

8. Importance of Genesis 12:1-3
‘. . . these few verses offer a theological blueprint for the redemptive history of the world’
- William Dumbrell

9. Formation of People Backdrop of creation and sin
Genesis 12: Abrahamic covenant
Blueprint: Twofold unfolding of God’s mission
Blessed to be a blessing

10. Blessed to be blessing Blessed: Place of God’s redemptive work
To be a blessing: Channel of God’s redemptive work to others

11. Formation of People Backdrop of creation and sin
Genesis 12: Abrahamic covenant
Blueprint: Twofold unfolding of God’s mission
Blessed to be a blessing
Chosen so that . . .

12. Two Orientations Chosen by God For the sake of the world
“The election of Israel is a matter of divine initiative which has as its goal the recognition of God by all the nations over the whole world.”

13. Formation of People Backdrop of creation and sin
Genesis 12: Abrahamic covenant
Blueprint: Twofold unfolding of God’s mission
Blessed to be a blessing
Chosen so that . . .
Promise fulfilled by way of faithful lives
Keep the way of the Lord
Do what is right and just

15. Formation of People Backdrop of creation and sin
Genesis 12: Abrahamic covenant
Exodus 19: Sinai covenant
Exodus: Formation of a holy people
A redeemed people (Ex. 1-18)

16. GOD gods of Egypt Moses Pharaoh Israel Egypt
I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt.
Freed from idols to serve the living and true God.

17. In the Exodus, the power of the suzerain is broken; the pharaoh, the god-king of Egypt, was defeated and therefore lost his right to be Israel’s suzerain lord; the Lord conquered the pharaoh and therefore ruled as King over Israel (Exod. 15:18). As their deliverer, God had claimed the right to call for his people’s obedient commitment to him in the covenant.
- Peter Craigie

18. Formation of People Backdrop of creation and sin
Genesis 12: Abrahamic covenant
Exodus 19: Sinai covenant
Exodus: Formation of a holy people
A redeemed people (Ex. 1-18)
A covenant people (Ex )
Vocation: An attractive, distinctive life (19.3-6)

19. Treasured possession, holy nation, priestly kingdom
. . . a people set apart, different from all other people by what they are and are becoming—a display people, a showcase to the world of how being in covenant with Yahweh changes a people.
- John Durham

20. Formation of People Backdrop of creation and sin
Genesis 12: Abrahamic covenant
Exodus 19: Sinai covenant
Exodus: Formation of a holy people
A redeemed people (Ex. 1-18)
A covenant people (Ex )
Vocation: An attractive, distinctive life (19.3-6)
Calling foundational for rest of the story

21. ‘The history of Israel from this point on is in reality merely a commentary upon the degree of fidelity with which Israel adhered to this Sinai-given vocation’
- William Dumbrell

22. Formation of People Backdrop of creation and sin
Genesis 12: Abrahamic covenant
Exodus 19: Sinai covenant
Exodus: Formation of a holy people
A redeemed people (Ex. 1-18)
A covenant people (Ex )
Vocation: An attractive, distinctive life (19.3-6)
Calling foundational for rest of the story
Torah: Shape Israel’s life (20-23)

24. Formation of People Backdrop of creation and sin
Genesis 12: Abrahamic covenant
Exodus 19: Sinai covenant
Exodus: Formation of a holy people
A redeemed people (Ex. 1-18)
A covenant people (Ex )
Vocation: An attractive, distinctive life (19.3-6)
Calling foundational for rest of the story
Torah: Shape Israel’s life (20-23)
A people of God’s presence (Ex )

25. God converts the nations by working in the midst of His own People
God converts the nations by working in the midst of His own People. His interventions, and these alone, make Israel the light of the world. The Church does its work of evangelisation in the measure in which its Lord gives it life; when it lives by Him its very existence is effectual. In contradistinction to what has sometimes been believed, mission has nothing in common with any sort of political or commercial enterprise; it is entirely dependent on the hidden activity of God within His Church, and is the fruit of a life really rooted in God. The evangelisation of the world is not primarily a matter of words or deeds: it is a matter of presence—the presence of the People of God in the midst of mankind and the presence of God in the midst of His People. And surely it is not in vain that the Old Testament reminds the Church of this truth.
- Robert Martin-Achard

26. Rest of the story Failure of Israel
Prophetic promise: Gathering and renewal
Jesus gathers his people
Jesus renews his people
Jesus sends his people into the midst of the world

27. Continuing the Mission of Israel
Incorporated into Abrahamic covenant: Blessed to be a blessing (Gal )
Taking up vocation of Sinai covenant: An attractive, distinctive life in midst of nations (1 Pet )
In Christ and by the Spirit (Rom )

28. “They would have to sing better songs for me to learn to have faith in their Redeemer: and his disciples would have to look more redeemed!”
- Friedrich Nietzsche

29. Look more redeemed today
A community of justice in a world of economic and ecological injustice
A community of generosity and simplicity (of ‘enough’) in a consumer world
A community of selfless giving in a world of selfishness
A community of truth (humility and boldness) in a world of relativism and uncertainty
A community of hope in a world of disillusionment and consumer satiation
A community of joy and thanksgiving in a hedonistic world that frantically pursues pleasure
A community who experiences God’s presence in a secular world