What does mission in exile really look like? A response on behalf of SlipstrEAm

Author: Dr Krish Kandiah heads up Slipstream and is Executive Director: Churches in Mission at Evangelical Alliance.

Abstract

Dr Chris Wright has provided us with a masterclass in missional hermeneutics. Not only is his fourfold overview of current approaches to missionary readings of the canon extremely helpful, but his worked example of what this can look like by exploring the little-taught book of Jeremiah is a real gift to preachers and teachers alike. We are all indebted to Dr Wright for his excellent work.
One questioner pursued the issue of what mission in Babylon really looks like, and this is a vital question for today. This in my view was the only area of inadequacy in Dr Wright’s presentation as his lecture does not sufficiently define what mission looks like for the church today. It is only in the very last question that Dr Wright explores the challenge of individualism of many approaches to mission and evangelism. Some could hear Dr Wright’s call to mission and missional ethics in purely individualistic terms: “Don’t fiddle your expenses”, “be kind to the poor,” “be like Daniel”, etc. But what should exilic mission look like for the body of Christ? The challenge as always for the academy is how to connect with the church – not just to provide theoretical frameworks but to inspire, provoke, challenge and model missional practice so that orthodoxy remains connected with orthopraxy.

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