The Outrageous Idea of the Missional Professor. Paul M. Gould
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mission with all we do as scholars and teachers.”26 In short, we must live missional lives. Wherever Christ is denied or shalom is violated, the mission of God’s people exists. Thus, missional living is not just about going on a “mission trip” with a church (however important this may be). For professors, the university context is front and center as a mission field, a place where people are in need of redemption and ideas are taught that either further or hinder the progress of the gospel.
Secondly, we must never lose sight of the fact that we need the gospel as much as the lost do. Prior to conversion, our greatest need is the gospel. Once converted, our greatest need is still the gospel. Consider the great truth that “it is by grace you have been saved, through faith” found in Ephesians 2:8. What is interesting is that Paul was writing to believers, not unbelievers. The gospel is not just the way to enter the Kingdom of God; it is also the way of growth and grace in the Kingdom of God. As Tim Keller states,
The gospel is not just the “ABCs” but the “A–to–Z” of the Christian life. The gospel is the way that anything is renewed and transformed by Christ—whether a heart, a relationship, a church, or a community. All our problems come from a lack of orientation to the gospel. Put positively, the gospel transforms our hearts, our thinking and our approach to absolutely everything. The gospel of justifying faith means that while Christians are, in themselves still sinful and sinning, yet in Christ, in God’s sight, they are accepted and righteous. So we can say that we are more wicked than we ever dared believe, but more loved and accepted in Christ than we ever dared hope—at the very same time.27
Restoration: The Making of All Things New
The climactic vision of the Bible found in Revelation 21 and 22 pulls together all the plotlines and sub-themes found in both the Old and New Testament: all things are renewed/reconciled in Christ (Eph 1:9–10; Col 1:19–20); there will be a renewed heaven and earth (2 Pet 3:13, Rev 21:1); and mankind will once again experience perfect intimacy with God and each other (Rev 21:3–4). God will bring heaven—his presence—to earth. And we will delight in God. Man has gone from a garden (the garden of delights) to a city (Jerusalem). Shalom in all of its dimensions will be fully restored. We will (once again) experience life as it is meant to be—intimacy with God and harmony with self, others, and the created order as man eternally lives out his purposes. This great story, full of promise, intrigue, real violence, and real heroes, ends with all things made new:
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” (Rev 21:3–5)
One final implication for the Christian scholar in light of the restoration of all things is this. Since man’s chief end is shalom (in all its dimensions), the activities of the Christian scholar find further justification in terms of their contribution to the cause of shalom. If part of shalom is being rightly related to reality—possessing true knowledge about God, self and the world—then the pursuit of all knowledge, both theoretical and practical, is justified and worthwhile. Both kinds of knowledge are important and should be pursued as part of our vocation as Christian scholars in service to God and man.
Entering God’s Story
As Author, the triune God invites us to join his story. This is why a self-centered life built on the pursuit of prestige, success, money, or power will leave us unfulfilled. When Jesus said we must lose ourselves for his sake in order to find life (Matt 16:25), he was recounting what the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have been doing for eternity. A life built on self-interest, self-advancement, and self-preservation is a life contrary to human nature. We were not meant to function with everything and everyone revolving around us. As Tim Keller states, “self-centeredness destroys the fabric of what God has made.”28 We were made to join in to his story, his drama, his dance: “The whole dance, or drama, or pattern of this three-Personal life is to be played out in each one of us: or (putting it the other way round) each one of us has got to enter that pattern, take his place in that dance. There is no other way to the happiness for which we were made.”29 God is inviting us to this eternal dance as we locate our lives within the great story of God in the Bible. I close this chapter with two practical steps we can take toward finding our places in God’s story.
First, our response to God begins with faith. Faith allows us to enter into the story, right now in the twenty-first century (we’ll discuss the virtue of faith in chapter 6). The Bible presents us with an alternative reality—a story of the world that is subversive, running counter to the Western story we imbibe from the world. Faith requires that we step into the story. Faith requires that we act. Faith requires that we join the dance, entering a trust-relationship with the triune God. In doing so, we find out that the story itself is self-validating and self-reinforcing. In fact, Jesus argued as much in John 8:31: “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” We must step into it and personally participate in it in order to see its truth most clearly.
Second, we are to follow Jesus. His standard invitation in the New Testament is “follow me.” To follow Jesus is to step into the big story of God, to make the story of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration our story as well. It is to make Jesus’ mission our mission. It is to reorient and restructure our lives to be consistent with the ways of Jesus. It is to live a life of brokenness and humility, broken as Jesus was broken, humble as Jesus is humble, and to allow the grace of God, the music of the gospel, to flow from within our souls to a lost world.
Being a missional professor is not just about “getting the missionary job done.” It is first and foremost about being a certain kind of person. As Christopher Wright states, “If our mission is to share good news [in all its dimensions], we need to be good news people. If we preach a gospel of transformation, we need to show some evidence of what transformation looks like . . . The biblical word . . . ‘holiness’ . . . is as much a part of our missional identity as of our personal sanctification.”30 In short, we need to become whole people. We need to integrate all that we are and do as Christians with all that we are and do as university professors. The gospel is not just something to believe, it is also something to obey. In the next chapter, we will consider what kind of person we ought to be. As we shall see, the Bible is passionately concerned about the character of God’s people and their commitment to the God whose mission they are called to share.
Questions for Personal Reflection or Group Discussion
1. Think of your favorite story. Why are you drawn to the story? How does the story invite participation? What does the story reveal about the storyteller?
2. Gould suggests that there is a three-way battle between Christian monotheism, naturalism, and postmodernism for your allegiance. Do you agree or disagree? Why or why not? What is the dominant story of your academic discipline?
3. Discuss the implications for Christian scholarship in light of the doctrine of creation. Do you agree that all truths discovered somehow point back and illuminate the divine? What might this look like in your academic discipline?
4. What is the “received role” of the university professor? In what ways is this received role good and useful? In what ways is it fallen and in need of correction?
5. Gould states that the university is a mission field. Do you agree or disagree? Why or why not?
6. Do you agree that you need the gospel as much as the non-believer? How is the gospel not just the “ABC” but the “A–to–Z” of the Christian life?
7. How can you more fully enter the story of God as a university professor?