Darrell Guder - "Seen through the lenses of the gospel, the world is desperately in need of reconciliation. Certainly
we would confirm that diagnosis—the news reported in any daily paper would document humanity’s need to be reconciled. But the human diagnosis will not identify the problem as our need to be reconciled with God. We focus upon the brutal divisions that make nations, tribes, religions, and cultures into each other’s deadly enemies. We struggle to find human resources to bring about the reconciliation for which we all long. The gospel defines creation’s distress as the result of our separation from God. It is not merely a matter of human resources but of divine intervention. So, the gospel announces that God has intervened. Our separation from God and each other has been overcome, the chasm bridged, the opposing factions brought together. Our message starts with the assurance that in Christ there already is a new creation. The work of reconciliation was accomplished at Calvary, Easter, and Ascension Day. Thus, our calling to the role of ambassadors is a consequence of what God has already done."
Robert Webber - "The calling of the church in every culture is to be mission. That is, the work of the church is not to be an agent or servant of the culture. The churches’ business is not to maintain freedom or to promote wealth or to help a political party or to serve as the moral guide to culture. The church’s mission is to be the presence of the kingdom. . . . The church’s mission is to show the world what it looks like when a community of people live under the reign of God.”
Kirsteen Kim - "Mission in the sense of missio Dei, that is commitment to God’s loving concern for the world is an antidote to relativism in theology."
Lesslie Newbigin - "the missionary task of the church to make known the gospel where it is not known must remain an indispensable aspect of the church’s mission. In a time when missionary resources are being scandalously allocated, and when the task of taking the gospel to areas where it is not known remains a vital part of the church's calling, this distinction continues to hold before us that the missionary task of the church is to the ends of the earth."
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