Faith And Mission: God’s Call To The Laity -- By: Findley B. Edge

Journal: Faith and Mission
Volume: FM 01:1 (Fall 1983)
Article: Faith And Mission: God’s Call To The Laity
Author: Findley B. Edge


Faith And Mission:
God’s Call To The Laity

Findley B. Edge

Senior Professor of Religious Education,
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

I would like to commend the Faculty of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary for their decision to begin the publication of a theological journal. I would also like to commend them for their choice of a title for this journal: “FAITH AND MISSION.” In the briefest possible manner the title sums up the essence of what God’s people are to be and what they are to do. God calls his people to be a people of faith. God calls his people to be a people of mission. In personal experience and in the experience of the corporate body, the Church, these two aspects of God’s call in our lives are so inextricably intertwined that it is virtually impossible to separate them. But for purposes of investigation and analysis I will separate them with a view to seeking to understand them more clearly and more fully with a particular emphasis on how these two aspects of the gospel relate to the lives of “ordinary Christians,” the laity.

Faith

Southern Baptists and others who hold an evangelical understanding of the gospel recognize that “faith” is a fundamental part of “being saved.” Indeed it is the essential ingredient in one’s salvation relationship. Scripture after scripture points to the centrality and necessity of faith in the salvation relationship with God through Christ. One’s eternal destiny is determined by the reality and authenticity of this relationship, therefore there probably is nothing in one’s total religious experience that is of more decisive importance. It is understandable why “faith” has been a central emphasis in the preaching and teaching that has been done in our churches.

However, the emphasis in our churches has been primarily on exhortation rather than on explanation. The emphasis has been on exercising faith rather than on understanding faith. In the preaching and teaching in our churches we have exhorted people to “have faith,” “to trust,” “to believe” as though everyone understood quite clearly what it meant “to have faith,” “to trust,” and “to believe.” It is this assumption that I would like to challenge. Although our emphasis upon the necessity of “having faith” has been strong and quite sincere, it is my conclusion that our understanding of what the New Testament means by “having faith” has tended to be much too superficial and therefore tragically limited.

What, then, does the New Testament mean by “faith”? If God calls us to be a people of faith, what does he call us to be and do? If our eternal destiny is determined by having a right relationship with God and if “faith” is t...

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