Overview
There is a growing body of literature about the missional church, but the word missional is often defined in competing ways with little attempt to ground it deeply in Scripture. Michael Goheen, a dynamic speaker and the coauthor of two popular texts on the biblical narrative, unpacks the missional identity of the church by tracing the role God's people are called to play in the biblical story. Goheen shows that the church's identity can be understood only when its role is articulated in the context of the whole biblical story--not just the New Testament, but the Old Testament as well. He also explores practical outworkings and implications, offering field-tested suggestions for contemporary churches.
Table of Contents
Contents
1. The Church's Identity and Role: Whose Story? Which Images?
2. God Forms Israel as a Missional People
3. Israel Embodies Its Missional Role and Identity amid the Nations
4. Jesus Gathers an Eschatological People to Take Up Their Missional Calling
5. The Death and Resurrection of Jesus and the Church's Missional Identity
6. The Missional Church in the New Testament Story
7. New Testament Images of the Missional Church
8. The Missional Church in the Biblical Story--A Summary
9. What Might This Look Like Today?
Indexes
1. The Church's Identity and Role: Whose Story? Which Images?
2. God Forms Israel as a Missional People
3. Israel Embodies Its Missional Role and Identity amid the Nations
4. Jesus Gathers an Eschatological People to Take Up Their Missional Calling
5. The Death and Resurrection of Jesus and the Church's Missional Identity
6. The Missional Church in the New Testament Story
7. New Testament Images of the Missional Church
8. The Missional Church in the Biblical Story--A Summary
9. What Might This Look Like Today?
Indexes
Endorsements
“Based on the whole biblical narrative, this book is a powerful presentation of what it takes for a missional church in the twenty-first century to be ‘a light to the nations.’ It is both compelling and persuasive!”
Gerald H. Anderson, director emeritus, Overseas Ministries Study Center, New Haven, CT
“In the face of the weakened ecclesiology of a church mired in a postmodern, consumeristic, entertainment-oriented morass, Michael Goheen in A Light to the Nations masterfully calls his readers to a renewed missional imagination. Goheen traces the missional theme through Scripture, enabling us to see that his vision is not really new but the rediscovery of the robust, missional ecclesiology that has always characterized the people of God at their best. Goheen leads us into an expansive vision of what it means to be God’s called, eschatological people embodying the new creation. If you long to understand what it really means to be a missional church, not as a simple slogan but as our deepest identity, then this book is the indispensable road map. I heartily recommend it!”
Timothy C. Tennent, president and professor of world Christianity, Asbury Theological Seminary
“Like a skillfully constructed symphony, the main theme of A Light to the Nations is announced in the first two chapters. Succeeding movements trace the triumphs and failures of God’s missional people in the Old and New Testaments. The final two chapters reprise the theme, showing its indispensable importance for the people of God today. Michael Goheen effectively blends careful scholarship and passion for full-bodied participation in God’s mission today.”
Wilbert R. Shenk, senior professor, Fuller Graduate School of Intercultural Studies
“The contemporary discussion of the ‘missional church’ has rapidly expanded and generated a confusing range of published treatments. Here is a book, however, that stands out from the crowd and merits careful attention. Michael Goheen’s A Light to the Nations is a much-needed and well-crafted basic text for the biblical study of the missional church. Based on careful reading and interpretation of an impressive range of biblical scholars, Goheen’s book engages the scholarly voices that merit serious interaction, lays out the major themes of a biblical theology of the missional church, and offers an integrative approach that will stimulate further investigation. Certainly it will become a staple of college and seminary syllabi dealing with the church and its mission. Pastors, congregations, and mission agencies will find in this book biblical orientation for faithful mission in a time of rapid and challenging change.”
Darrell L. Guder, Henry Winters Luce Professor of Missional and Ecumenical Theology, Princeton Theological Seminary
“Goheen expertly traces the continuities of and developments in the Bible’s grand story of the people of God, showing that at every stage God’s people exist for the sake of God’s mission to all the peoples of the world. Here is the biblical depth needed for the contemporary church’s reflection on and practice of its missional identity.”
Richard Bauckham, emeritus professor, New Testament studies, University of St. Andrews, Scotland; senior scholar, Ridley Hall, Cambridge
“It is so encouraging to see the revived interest in missional interpretation of the Bible flourishing and bearing fruit. This marvelous book by Mike Goheen moves the discipline significantly forward. It roots our understanding of the church’s role and mission in the whole of the Scriptures, showing how formative the Old Testament was for Jesus and his New Testament followers and remains for us. The nourishing meat of rich biblical reflection is sandwiched between a historical analysis of the cultural roots of the contemporary church and a challenging conclusion as to how a church today can be truly missional and biblical. This is biblical theology in the service of the mission of God through God’s people for the sake of God’s world.”
Christopher J. H. Wright, international director, Langham Partnership International; author, The Mission of God and The Mission of God’s People
“The renewed conversations about the ‘mission of God’ have begged for this book to be written! And there is none better equipped to write it than Goheen. His sweeping grasp of the biblical narrative and his pastoral sensitivity to the missional path today’s churches are traveling combine to tell the fascinating story of the people of God so thoroughly embedded in the story of God’s love-borne intentions for the world.”
George R. Hunsberger, professor of missiology, Western Theological Seminary, Holland, Michigan
Author
Michael W. Goheen
Michael W. Goheen (PhD, University of Utrecht) is professor of missional theology at Calvin Theological Seminary. He is also professor of missional theology and director of theological education at the Missional Training Center, Phoenix. Goheen is the author or coauthor of numerous books, including The True Story of the Whole World, The Drama of Scripture, Living at the Crossroads, A Light to the Nations, and The Church and Its Vocation. He splits his time between Vancouver, British Columbia, and Phoenix, Arizona.