Opinion ¢ Soundings Dr Roland Chia is Chew Hock Hin Professor of Christian Doctrine at Trinity Theological College and Theological and Research Advisor at the Ethos Institute for Public Christianity (http://ethosinstitute.sg).
By suffering and blood “Soundings” is a series of essays that, like the waves of a sonogram, explore issues in society, culture and the church in light of the Gospel and Christian understanding.
O
ne of the dangers in the way that Christian mission is sometimes presented in some Christian circles is that it tends towards a triumphalism that dangerously distorts this vital work of the Church. Some of these accounts sound very much like Disney fairy tales where the hero always emerges victorious, while the villains are always vanquished. However, when we take a hard and truthful look at the (un-cosmesticised) history of Christian mission from its inception in the book of Acts to the present day, we will be confronted by a different and more complex picture. To be sure, the history of Christian mission does testify to the triumph of God’s grace. But let us not forget that it also tells the stories of countless missionaries and ordinary
Christians who have lost their lives because of the Gospel. The history of Christian mission is a bloodstained history. It is a history of suffering, sacrifice and martyrdom. A number of theologians and missionaries have warned against religious triumphalism. In his influential book Transforming Mission, the South African theologian David Bosch writes that “Mission is not a triumphalistic enterprise. It is by definition done in weakness”. 1 In a similar vein, Leslie Newbigin, the bishop-theologian who served in India as a missionary for more than 40 years, urges the Church to learn from the New Testament “what it means to bear witness to the gospel from a position not of strength but of weakness”. 2
