Toward a Missions Homiletic -- By: Marshall Wicks

Journal: Journal of Ministry and Theology
Volume: JMAT 05:1 (Spring 2001)
Article: Toward a Missions Homiletic
Author: Marshall Wicks


Toward a Missions Homiletic

Marshall Wicks

Professor Of Bible
Word Of Life Bible Institute, Pottersville, New York

Introduction

As Christianity stands on the shore preparing for the new millennium, it might be helpful to review a few of the basics. If missions is the work of God, then a most basic matter is that of sufficiency. Has Christ provided a sufficient message? Is that message sufficient to be understood? Is Christ sufficient to empower His messengers to complete the task? This is part three in a three-part series which will attempt to provide some answers: Part One: Toward a Missions Apologetic; Part Two: Toward a Missions Hermeneutic; and Part Three: Toward a Missions Homiletic.

The Dilemma Of Application

A correct interpretation of a text in no way guarantees a biblical application. Haddon Robinson suggests that more heresy results via application than ever emerges from interpretation.1 This is a direct result of the pressure that presently exists in Christendom to have a significant message for all communities. It is no longer good enough to tell people what the Bible says. It is now incumbent upon the preacher, whether at home or abroad, to bring the text to life in such a way that the listener is both entertained and enlightened. As one writer has suggested, the biblical expositor must preach, as John Grisham writes.2

This process of applying Scriptures is particularly acute in missions. If application in one’s native culture is difficult, how

much greater the dilemma when one ministers cross-culturally. As the complexity of application increases, so also does the opportunity for miscalculation. It is missions that is called upon to perform the most intricate of tasks in the theological continuum, and yet it is often the missionary who is most ignored in the preparation cycle. Pastors who minister at home are expected to attain sufficient education and practical training. Missionaries are often deemed equipped if they have simply been called. This is not meant to demean missions or missionaries. It is meant to encourage the church in America to raise those called to preach the gospel cross-culturally to at least equal status with those who preach in our own pulpits. It is low expectation that demeans those who have given their lives to reach the lost.

Postmodernity: The Deification Of Application

Consumerism is a hallmark of postmodernity.3 Because truth is in the eye of the beholding individual or community,

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