Mobilizing with holy urgency, apostolic passion and the Missio Dei

Dear friends,

I recently returned from Cluj-Napoca, Romania, where I had the privilege of serving and attending the Pentecostal European Mission consultation. I’m grateful for the opportunity to connect with Pentecostal leaders from across Europe and for the laser-focus on reaching the unreached.

I was also deeply challenged by the presentations, particularly the sessions addressing some of the current theological and missiological errors we face.

It was also a special moment as I joined the core team and was appointed task force leader for Unreached People Groups (UPGs).

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Here are your bullets: thoughts, concepts, and questions to guide your leadership in mission, discipleship, and renewal.

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1. On apocalyptic eschatology, consecration and mission:

I recently started reading Hudson Taylor’s autobiography and was struck by his understanding of (premillennial) eschatology as a driver for discipleship and mission. He writes:

“I saw, further, that all through the New Testament the coming of the Lord was the great hope of His people, and was always appealed to as the strongest motive for consecration and service, and as the greatest comfort in trial and affliction.”

— Hudson Taylor, A Retrospect

Hudson Taylor’s insight is echoed by New Testament scholar Richard Hays, who emphasizes the role of apocalyptic (first century jewish) eschatology in mission. He writes:

“The church needs apocalyptic eschatology to ground its mission. The resurrection and ascension of Jesus was a sign that Israel’s restoration was indeed at hand (Acts 1:11). Yet it was also a call to engage in witness to the expanding kingdom. That witnessing inevitably brings the witnesses into conflict with a world hostile to the message of the lordship of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit empowers the church and forms the community as a missional organism that works out God’s purposes for redemption and judgment. Without this endtime perspective the content and urgency of the Christian mission is greatly retarded.”

— Dr. Richard B. Hays (as summarized by Michael F. Bird), ‘Why Do You Stand Looking Up Toward Heaven?’ New Testament Eschatology at the Turn of the Millennium

Contemporary missiologists Alan Hirsch and Tim Catchim in The Permanent Revolution highlight “the holy, eschatologically loaded urgency of the Lord’s return” as a key motive for mobilizing mission. They specifically trace this theme in the apostle Peter's writings:

“It is interesting to see how eschatology plays itself out in Peter’s writings. One can even say that he works teleologically, beginning with the end in mind, leading the church from (and into) its own future. Mobilizers understand the importance of urgency. Apostolically led movements operate in the unremitting tension of the now and not yet and allow this tension to infuse all that they do with holy urgency.”

This eschatological holy urgency is implicit in the Great Comission itself:

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me”.

The One with all authority commands us to go and make disciples of all nations, in anticipation of His soon-coming kingdom and the nations’ future judgment.

Mobilizers: do not shy away from the holy urgency of the Lord's return.

If there’s one thing I see underemphasized in missions mobilization, it’s the eschatological, apocalyptic framework of Scripture. It's Maranatha.

After all, we preach the One who came and is coming. Soon.

2. On Lausanne 4: 

As I prepare for Lausanne Spain's national gathering this weekend, I've been rereading some of the best posts about the Congress that took place in Seoul.

This post on X links to some of the best writings and reflections on the congress (the author also kindly included my reflections — read here):

3. On unchurchly mission and unmissionary churches:

“An unchurchly mission is as much a monstrosity as an unmissionary church.”

— Lesslie Newbigin, The Household of God

4. On apostolic ambition and the unreached:

“For the ambition to reach out from centers already occupied to regions beyond, even when those very centers are undermanned and in need of reinforcement, is not Quixotic or fantastic, but truly apostolic.”

— Samuel Zwemer, The Glory of the Impossible

“‘Apostolic Passion,’ therefore, is a deliberate, intentional choice to live for the worship of Jesus in the nations. It has to do with being committed to the point of death to spreading His glory. It's the quality of those who are on fire for Jesus, who dream of the whole earth being covered with the Glory of the Lord.”

— Floyd McClung, Apostolic Passion

5. On the Missio Dei framework, everything is mission and more by Ted Esler:

“A missiology in which everything is missions empties missions of any meaning. Missio Dei has been a significant contributor to this form of deconstruction.”

“Missio Dei provides little distinction between the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.”

(I’ve also highly enjoyed his book The Innovation Crisis)

Thank you for reading!

Timo Anzalone
timoanzalone.com