The Symphony of Mission: Playing Your Part in God’s Work in the World
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
This book is designed to help all people understand the broad scope of God’s mission. Michael Goheen and Jim Mullins explain that everyone can live intentionally into God’s mission by understanding its many facets and focusing on a particular calling. Just like different instruments of a symphony harmonize together, each aspect of human participation in mission—evangelism, justice initiatives, poverty alleviation, faithful work in the marketplace, art—can help people play their part in God’s work in the world. Combining expertise from a mission scholar and a working pastor, the book includes practical examples and tools to help readers imagine their part in God’s mission.
- Addresses common questions about the church’s mission in the world
- Examines the role of individual Christians in daily life
- Provides examples of tangible practices to help our readers envision ways to participate in God’s mission
- Story: Listening to the Symphony
- Simplicity: Learning the Notes
- Intentionality: The Movements of Mission
- Stewardship: Displaying the Glory of the Father through the Work of Our Hands
- Service: Displaying the Love of Christ by Washing the Feet of the World
- The Spoken Word: Displaying the Power of the Holy Spirit by Opening Our Mouths
- Listening: Finding Your Place in God’s Symphony
- Performing: Participating in God’s Symphony
- Sustaining: Persevering in God’s Symphony
Top Highlights
“The Genesis story ends with a small tribe of Abraham’s people making their way to Egypt to escape famine. Exodus opens four hundred years later and describes a vast number of people living in bondage to the Egyptian Pharaoh and the gods he represents. If Abraham’s descendants are to be a people of blessing to the nations, they must first be liberated from the Egyptian gods.” (Page 15)
“When Jeremiah mentions the word welfare or peace in Jeremiah 29:7, he’s using the Hebrew word shalom. Again, shalom refers to a flourishing world of right relationships among God, people, and the nonhuman creation. God’s people were called to bear witness to the steadfast love of God by seeking the flourishing of the same people who killed their families and carried them into a foreign land. They were called to seek the good of Babylon even as Jerusalem lay in ruins. They were called to love and bless their most hostile enemies as they cultivated a small plot of God’s garden in the heart of the city. They were called to live such distinctly good lives that they provided a taste of God’s kingdom amid a buffet of idolatry, oppression, and injustice.” (Page 20)
“First, the ultimate end would continue to be held off (Acts 1:7). Second, the Spirit would be given as a foretaste, down payment, and firstfruits of end-time shalom. The power of God’s ultimate salvation would be given already in a provisional way in the midst of history. Third, this gift of salvation would constitute his followers’ very identity as a witnessing community. ‘You will be my witnesses’ was not a command but a declaration of fact. Having received a foretaste of the coming salvation, they would thereafter witness to it with their lives, and that witness would overflow into words and deeds that also pointed to what Jesus accomplished. And finally, this witness would begin in Jerusalem and move to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).” (Page 25)
Are you concerned about justice but overwhelmed by the mess of the world around you? Do you wonder what God wants you to do with your life? Don’t despair—read this book! Goheen and Mullins are virtuosos and wise counselors in this biblical, hopeful, and practical book about our participation in God’s mission.
—Stephanie Summers, CEO, Center for Public Justice
Ever since recognizing the call of Psalm 96 to ‘Sing a new song . . . all the earth . . . among the nations . . . among all peoples’ as a glorious picture of the music of mission, I have advocated a musical metaphor as a valid biblical way of thinking about mission, in contrast to the more common military images (though they have biblical warrant too). And here it is! A whole book on the music of mission! I just love the fertile imagery of mission as God’s great symphony for the whole creation. But Goheen and Mullins do far more than exploit a metaphor. Their book is richly biblical, filled with inspiring and challenging real-life experience, and stands out as one of the most down-to-earth, practical guidebooks I have read on how all so-called ordinary Christians can and should be playing their part in God’s mission. We are not the audience applauding the professional (missionary) musicians. We are the orchestra itself, God is the composer, and his is the glorious music we are invited to play together.
—Christopher J. H. Wright, Langham Partnership; author of The Mission of God
The Symphony of Mission is a magnificent contribution to current conversations about the nature of Christian mission. Bringing a rare blend of theological expertise and ministry experience to the table, Goheen and Mullins provide a narrative-based biblical theology and a holistic approach to mission from which pastors, students, and professors alike will benefit. Highly recommended.
—Bruce Ashford, provost and professor of theology and culture, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
Michael W. Goheen (PhD, University of Utrecht) is director of theological education at the Missional Training Center, scholar-in-residence for the Surge Network of Churches-Phoenix, and professor of missional theology at Covenant Theological Seminary. Goheen is the author or coauthor of several books, including The Drama of Scripture, Living at the Crossroads, and A Light to the Nations. He splits his time between Surrey, British Columbia, and Tempe, Arizona.
Jim Mullins is pastor of vocational and theological formation at Redemption Church in Tempe, Arizona, and director of faith, work, and rest at the Surge Network of Churches-Phoenix. He is also cofounder and vice president of Peace Catalyst International, an organization that builds bridges between Christian and Muslim communities though interfaith dialogue, interfaith volunteer events, and cultural intelligence training.
Reviews
2 ratings
David Vasquez
10/12/2022
David Vasquez
4/15/2022
