MISSION AND VISION
The word ‘mission’ is interpreted in the dictionaries as: “an important job that some is sent somewhere to do; a group of people whose job is to increase what is known about their country, organization or religion in another country or area; an act of sending, esp., to perform some function”. Missionaries are people who have been sent to a foreign country to teach the religion to the people live there; one sent up on a mission, esp., religious. The word ‘mission’ was derived from the Latin word ‘missio’,’-onis’, means ‘to send’. ‘Apostle’ also means ‘one sent to preach the gospel’. Etymology of the word is from Greek ‘apostolos’, one sent away, ‘apo’ away’, ‘stellein’, to send.
In the Christian context, the first mission was entrusted to Jesus Christ by God or Jehovah, the father and the mission was ‘salvation of the world’. The first missionary was Jesus Christ and he was sent to an Asian nation, Jerusalem. Christianity originated in east and it spread all over the world from there through his disciples. Jesus Christ, the master, commanded to his disciples-“Go and make disciples all over nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”(Matthew 28: 19, 20) “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.”(Mark 16:15) and he confirmed that, “as my Father has sent me, even so sent I you.” (John 20:21)
The disciples or apostles obeyed Jesus. They started to teach the ‘Good news ‘of their Master to the world. From the book ‘the act of apostles’ we can trace the history of the transition of Christianity from Jewish sect (as it was in the time of Jesus) to a world faith. “Peter who had the leadership position in the early church gradually carried the good news beyond the boundaries of the Jewish culture into the gentile world. Paul, then, took over the leadership of the church and the mantle of apostle to the gentiles. While the first 12 chapters of the disciples in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, chapter 13 to 28 narrate Paul’s missionary journeys. The famous Christian scholar and writer, Eusebius, ‘the father of church history\’, tells us the apostles ‘divided the world ‘and set forth to all points of the compas. At the beginning of the book III of his History of Christianity, after having described the fall of Jerusalem, Eusebius says that ‘the inhabited world ‘was divided in to zones of influence among the apostles; Thomas in the region of the Parthian (boundary of Parthia was from Euphrates to the bank of river Sindhu), John in Asia, Peter in Pontus and Rome, Andrew in Scythia. Although the statement seems to contain a certain measure of historical truth, it is difficult to verify whether division of labour was planned in this way. In the book Christianity in India Through the Centuries it is mentioned that the aprocryphal writings of the New Testament seemed to be divided in to geographical cycles: “The cycle of Thomas, the cycle of Philip, and the cycle of John. It seemed the Judaeo-Christian mission at the beginning of the second century took different forms: Mesopotamia linked to James and Thomas, Asiatic Christianity to Philip and John, and Phoenicia, Pontus, Achaea and Rome to Peter and his associates.” (Dr. K.M. George, Christianity in India Through the Centuries).
Was there any vision behind the Christian missions? Yes, there was definitely a vision, vision of the ‘Good News’ of the master; salvation through social justice; the building up of the Kingdom of God through love and peace; communion with Jesus through identifying his essence, i.e., his meakness and emptiness. This was the spirit of missions; and this should be the spirit of Christians. But unfortunately, the spirituality has been displaced by churchianity. The established and ritualistic nature of life among Christians and Christian leaders helped the displacement. Now a days, almost all the churches are administrated and controlled by some or other kind of ‘gangs’ having selfishness and vested interests. As a result the churches and church leaders take a strong position against all Christian values such as love, peace, spirituality, meakness, emptiness, social justice, unselfish service and salvation. Accumulated riches, levity and pomp of Christians and Christian institutions do not fit into the values of Christ. So Christ leaves off the church; the people seek the Christ out side the church. The churches cannot exist in the present or future without regaining the vision of the Christian missions of the past. Let us hope that we can weave a prosperous future with the noble thread of the past.