| Posted May 11, 2018 | By Al Tizon | Categorized under Missiology and Theory |

Those in touch with the debates in the last century over the nature of the Christian mission know that the language of "whole" has indeed been used at various times to recover the truly comprehensive scope of mission. I have a growing sense of the need for a new kind of whole.

We find ourselves living amid massive global changes, and contrary to the notion that holistic mission was forever settled and defined by the raging debates of the last hundred years concerning the relationship between evangelism and social concern, it is a dynamic reality that needs fresh formulations according to an ever-changing world. Indeed, a church that seeks to share good news amid increasingly volatile times faces new missional challenges.

In our diversifying, globalizing, and increasingly fracturing world, I have found it vitally important to consider the ministry of reconciliation as central to a contemporary understanding and practice of mission. I join others who have been urging the church to see reconciliation as the necessary paradigm of mission in the age of unprecedented global fragmentation. Since the turn of the twenty-first century, reconciliation has received renewed attention among missiologists and missionaries. After describing the sociopolitical, economic, and cultural consequences of colonialism, as well as the ubiquitous, disorienting effects of globalization, Robert Schreiter, a leading voice in reconciliation studies, writes, "It is out of this miasma of violence and division that the theme of reconciliation began to surface as a compelling response to all that was happening in terms of mission." To show that reconciliation is emerging as a paradigm of mission for the twenty-first century, he cites the British and Irish Association of Mission Studies (2002), the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism of the World Council of Churches (2005), the International Association of Mission Studies (2008), and the Lausanne Movement (2010), all of which took up the theme in their respective annual meetings.¹

I applaud this development and desire to reinforce the efforts of those who have seen the crucial importance of reconciliation as a way to think and do mission in today's world. Historically, amid the infamous fundamentalist-modernist split in North American Protestantism, holistic mission has referred to efforts on the part of a group of courageous evangelicals who dared to challenge a myopic evangelism-only missiology.² Their efforts sought to reintegrate social justice into the evangelical missionary agenda, to make whole again the mission of the church, especially but not exclusively among evangelicals around the world.

It is to build on the evangelism and social justice affirmation by understanding the ministry of reconciliation as the new whole in (w)holistic mission. In the age of intensified conflict on virtually every level, it can no longer be just about putting word and deed back together again (though it will take ongoing effort on the part of the church to keep them together); holistic mission also needs to be about joining God in putting the world back together again. It needs to be about participating with God in the healing of the nations.

From a biblical perspective, reconciliation flows out of God's big vision to transform-that is, mend, heal, restore, renew, re-create, and make whole-the whole world and everyone in it. Colossians 1:19-20 beautifully sums up God's agenda: "For in [Christ] all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross" (NRSV).

God's vision of reconciliation only makes sense in light of the biblical story of creation and fall, when in the beginning God created shalom-that is, a social order wherein perfect harmony existed between the Creator, creature, and ecosystem-but also when that shalom was shattered by sin (Gen. 1-3). Theologically, then, reconciliation means God's initiative to restore wholeness to a shattered creation. The ministry of reconciliation to which God has called the church (2 Cor. 5:18-20), therefore, participates in God's big vision to reconcile all things in Christ. Practically or missiologically, Brenda Salter McNeil defines "reconciliation" as "an ongoing spiritual process involving forgiveness, repentance and justice that restores broken relationships and systems to reflect God's original intention for all creation to flourish."³

We participate in God's vision of reconciliation as ambassadors. Emmanuel Katongole and Chris Rice explain what that means: "An ambassador is a representative who bears someone else's message in their absence. Ambassadors live in foreign countries, which they never really call home. Living within a country other than their own, their practices, loyalties, national interests and even their accent appear strange to the citizens of those countries where they are posted. So it is with Christ's ambassadors of reconciliation inside the world's brokenness."⁴ Practically, as Christ's ambassadors, our ministry of reconciliation includes the hard work of overcoming distrust, misunderstanding, bitterness, and even hatred between deeply conflicted parties in the power of the gospel. Reconciliation as God's way of redeeming creation and the church's way of representing Jesus Christ, bringing a message of peace to a broken world, is clearly missiological at the core.

As we shall see, reconciliation has social, ecclesial, cultural, ethnic, and political implications, but any biblical treatment of this ministry sees the reuniting of humanity to God as the basis of all other levels of reconciliation. This vertical reconciliation between God and humanity in the death and resurrection of Christ leads (or should lead) to horizontal reconciliation between warring factions within the human family. As the Cape Town Commitment plainly states, "Reconciliation to God is inseparable from reconciliation to one another."⁵

I am convinced that in today's fractured and fracturing world if the church does not operationalize this understanding of reconciliation, then it cannot claim to be engaged in holistic mission. The whole church, which desires to bear witness to the whole gospel throughout the whole world, therefore needs to be gripped anew by the vision of reconciliation in Christ. It needs to discover the compelling image of being God's reconciled and reconciling people, modeling for a fractured world the power of God to mend, heal, and make whole even the most intense of enmities. For what does it mean to be the whole church engaged in God's whole mission if it does not include the goal of reconciliation between men and women, rich and poor, and black, white, and brown in a broken world?

¹ Robert Schreiter, "The Emergence of Reconciliation as a Paradigm of Mission," in Mission as Ministry of Reconciliation, ed. Robert Schreiter and Knud Jorgensen (Oxford: Regnum, 2013), 11-12. See also his definition of reconciliation in "Reconciliation," in Dictionary of Mission, ed. Karl Müller, Theo Sundermeier, Stephen B. Bevans, and Richard H. Bliese (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1998), 381.

² For an overview of this split as background for the development of holistic mission among evangelicals, see my chapter "Precursors and Tensions in Holistic Mission: An Historical Overview," in Holistic Mission: God's Plan for God's People, ed. Brian Woolnough and Wonsuk Ma (Oxford: Regnum, 2010), 61-75.

³ Brenda Salter McNeil, Roadmap to Reconciliation: Moving Communities into Unity, Wholeness and Justice (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2015), 22.

⁴ Emmanuel Katongole and Chris Rice, Reconciling All Things: A Christian Vision for Justice, Peace, and Healing (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2008), 51-52.

⁵ Lausanne Movement, "The Cape Town Commitment: A Confession of Faith and a Call to Action," January 25, 2011, https://www.lausanne.org/content/ctc/ctcommitment.