What is God doing in creation? What is He aiming to achieve? The answer shapes how we think about what the world needs, what the church’s purpose is, and what it means for Christians to live on mission. The answer also has to account for where we find ourselves in history, within the pattern of creation, fall, and redemption. It brings us to consider our goals as the church living this side of Christ’s return.
The concept of missio Dei (God’s mission) addresses these very issues. The question, properly speaking, focuses on what God is doing and what His purposes are. So, it also has great bearing on what His church is supposed to be doing. Missio Dei invites the question, “How does God’s mission relate to and shape the church’s mission?”
The stakes in the question concern whether the church pursues the right goals or not. We are the institution that Christ Himself left on earth to carry out His business. The traveler who leaves his home in the care of a housesitter expects it to be in good order when he returns. You would not be pleased to return to find all your furniture rearranged. We are left as stewards in Christ’s house as He is building it on earth. We cannot afford to chase the wrong objectives. Read more»
Harrison Perkins | “What Is “Missio Dei” and Does It Matter?” | June 16, 2025
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Harrison Perkins
Harrison Perkins (PhD, Queen’s University Belfast; MDiv, Westminster Seminary California) is pastor of Oakland Hills Community Church (OPC), a member of the of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, a Senior Research Fellow at the Craig Center for the Study of the Westminster Standards, associate online instructor in church history at Westminster Theological Seminary, a visiting lecturer in systematic theology at Edinburgh Theological Seminary, and author of Reformed Covenant Theology: A Systematic Introduction.
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