Today I saw a website that all kinds of resources on missiology. I wondered why anyone would look to these resources if they had been reading what the word of God said about missiology. I don't think that God's intent for missiology is so biblically obscure that we need volumes written by 'experts' to explain it to the rest of us. Don't get me wrong, the personal study of missiology is a good thing and I know some people whose heart is broken over those who are lost who have made a study of it.
There are two potential problems that can arise when there is an unhealthy focus on the study of missiology. The first is that we create missiological experts which can intimidate (probably unintentionally) the average christian into a missional paralysis because of fear they won't do it right. The second is the we can get so caught up in the study that we lose sight of the action required to accomplish missions. Knowledge of approaches to missions and a variety theologies of missions doesn't mean a thing if we aren't bringing Jesus to our everyday living exposing the people around us to the gospel as exhibited by the hope, love, joy, and grace in our lives.
I guess the bottom line is this if we are spending more time studying what people have written about missiology than we have spent studying scripture concerning missiology I doubt whether we will ever become truly biblically missional. Stated another way: If we can't develop a solid theology of missions from the bible alone, we probably aren't really paying that close of attention to what it says.
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