Mission is Ministry in the Dimension of Difference: A Definition for the Twenty-First Century
October 2010 Titus Presler is an Episcopal priest and missiologist with experience in India and Zimbabwe. He chaired the Episcopal Church’s Standing Commission on World Mission and was a researcher for the Global Anglicanism Project. Former president of the Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas, he is the author of Horizons of Mission (Cowley Publications, 2001). —www.tituspresler.com M is ministry in the dimension of difference. This definition of mission assists reflection in a number of ways. It makes explicit the distinctive character of mission that is implicit but unacknowledged in many discussions of mission that focus on particular theological or practical emphases. By articulating an empirical category—difference—rather than theological content, the definition provides a relatively neutral criterion of analysis and comparison in the practice of churches and in mission thought. Yet the criterion of difference has substantial biblical warrant and theological import. Furthermore, the definition provides a measure for assessing and comparing mission emphases across a range of religions. The proposed definition distinguishes mission as a particular kind of ministry and thereby clarifies a common confusion of these two concepts. It is a simple formulation, rather than complex and esoteric. Members of Christian churches readily understand it, for it focuses a commonplace impression about mission, namely, that it concerns engagement with the other. It provides a marker for types of ministry in local and global settings alike, for it applies equally to work around the corner and to work across the world. It applies equally to churches based on all continents in distinguishing their mission work, whether in Caracas or Cameroun, Cambodia or California. In highlighting difference as the marker, it connects missiology with postmodern discourse in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.