Learn and understand how to fulfill the Great Commission
At Good News Seminary & Bible College, you will learn and understand how to fulfill the Great Commission. Missions by the Book provide an outline to fulfill the God-honoring mandate. A Bible-shaped gospel mission process is a way to the thousands of unreached people groups scattered throughout the world. The methodology of many mission groups that downplays Scripture as regulating how we are to take the gospel of the God of grace to all the nations. Without denying the powerful, present ministry of the Holy Spirit, Missions seeks to take seriously the transgenerational wisdom of God’s Word in understanding how the church today is to seek, to reach, and win the lost in every age.
We will focus our attention on clear and biblical understanding of our Triune God’s desire and plan for all nations. It is my fervent hope and prayer that it is embraced widely by pastors, Christian leaders, and those who will take the gospel of our Lord to the ends of the earth. Missions and good theology began as good friends but have gone through a rocky period the last sixty or so years. All manner of lone-ranger missionaries, speed-based methodologies, and bad hermeneutics have found great traction in the present missions’ world.
A critique written from a positive stance
Missions by the Book contains a light critique of the Church Planting Movement (CPM) and the Disciple Making Movement (DMM). The critique is written from a positive stance advocating a biblical basis of missions (and thus the book’s title). One of the main points is that the Bible gives us a method for missions, and we are not to depart from that method (proclamational model). The authors also cover numerous other topics, including the role of the Holy Spirit in missions, the theology of the church in missions, missionary suffering, the scope of the missions (the “nations”), the motivation for missions, and the exclusivism of Christ—among others.
Across the church, there is a rift between theology and missions. Bad theology produces bad missions, and bad missions’ fuels bad theology. We wrongly think that we must choose between making a global impact and thinking deeply about the things of God. But the relationship between theology and missions is symbiotic—one cannot exist without the other. They work hand-in-hand; the authors weave together a thoroughly biblical argument for why all missionary efforts and practice must have a comprehensive theology at their core. Missionaries, students, and pastors alike will benefit from this clarion call to restore theology to its rightful place.
An opportunity to gain an understanding
During this study, you will be given an opportunity to gain an understanding on two fronts: (1) reflecting on missions in light of the above tensions (the rift between theology and missions) and (2) reflection on our lives as Christians in a cultural environment that is increasingly alien to our view of the world. Regardless of where you live or what culture you’re from, everyone is a theologian. Therefore, it is vital that theology informed by Scripture is not divorced from missions but is the fuel that drives all missionary gospel endeavors.
Please consider joining me in class!
In His Service,
Dr. Joe Albert
