Missiology in the New Testement

Missiology in the New Testament

One of the things that the bible focuses on is missions. Even though the words mission, missions or missionary are not mentioned in the scriptures, it is clear that the New Testament is influential in describing the roles, structures and results of mission activities done. As an assignment for the class, we were assigned to read different passages from the book of Acts. The story begins in Acts 13 in Antioch. Paul and Barnabas were sent by the Holy Spirit on their first missionary journey. Most of the New Testament focuses on Paul and the issues and various problems he faced on the mission trips. They were told to go everywhere and preach the name of Jesus, so as missionaries today do. While reading acts and talking to members of my church I started to notice a slight difference in the mission trips taken by the church ministry today, compared to Paul's journey in Acts. How does the mission trips in the new testament of Acts compare to the mission trips taken today. Today missions are seen as, "the heart of the bible, the center of salvation and the beginning and means of the Church" (Donev). Mission has always been the main objective of the church for all centuries, but the ways the mission work gets done has changed over time (Gorman).

Before Paul started his mission's trip he was very involved in the church. He had high amounts of training and post-training when it came to his religious experience. The experience that Paul has a Christian leader leads him to the path of becoming a missionary. Paul's life turning conversion happened on the road to Damascus where he had a vision of the resurrected Christ (Acts 9:17). From that meeting the object of Paul's missions was to preach the name of Jesus. Paul used the encounter with his vision to often point out that he received the gospel directly from Christ and not from "flesh and blood" (Gal 1:16) when preaching on missions. While on theses mission trips Paul carries himself to show mercy and love, not anger and vengeance. No matter what was thrown at him, he made sure not to react. Paul's reason for doing this was that he, "only knows that in every city the holy spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me" (Acts 20:23). Paul was jailed beaten and severely at one point and called a babbler, said to be advocating false Gods, and was accused of bringing strange things to the city's he visited. Even with all this he still found the strength to keep traveling and make his way to other cities to preach. Paul's work often started in the synagogues or other places were religious meetings were held by the body of believers (Acts 16:13, 16; 17:16). Church planting was important to Paul for the expansion of the kingdom of God. Paul was engaged in an endless journey of constant traveling teaching the word of God starting at the road to Damascus where he met the savior. His mission trips became a lifestyle, not just a journey (Bennema). The reason why Paul's missiology and mission strategies he engaged in works was because he was constantly engaging in prayer, "behold he is praying" (Acts 9:11). Every chance Paul got he prayed about his circumstances, big or small (Nyasula).

There are still many missionary trips being taken today. Today's missions still have the same agenda as Paul did, but are done in a different approach. There is still a calling for the teachings of God's word. Different churches have different approaches. When speaking to different members of a Baptist church I got a sense of why they travel. Missions today are still the travel of groups or individuals to tech the Gospel. Today's missionaries are chosen by members of the church. Some individuals still claim they got a vision from God to go and help spread his word, while others just know it is their duty. Today's mission groups do not just go to preach the word of the lord, but also to give back to the less fortunate. Most mission trips taken by the Baptist missionaries I spoke to are chosen by what a certain country or place may need. There have been mission trips around the city as well as in different countries overseas. When choosing these places to travel they not only look at the object of preaching but also at what that place needs. All of the missionaries that I talked to named different places they visited to volunteer and were "blessed" to be able to teach and give at the same time. Things that were given to the unfortunate were things like clean water, food, buildings, schools, and computers, anything that would help the people of that community. There were some places that were visited that the people did not take the preaching's of the missionaries and would not allow it. When this was done they did not stop their preaching's, just did it in isolation and invited who wanted to come. They had to respect the citizens of that place.

Comparing the two different