Lesallan | November 18, 2025
Sent and Serving: Biblical Foundations and a Personal Call to Global Missions
Lesallan Bostron
Ohio Christian University
MIS1010 Introduction to Global Missions (ONL25F4)
Professor Jessica Davis
November 18, 2025
Sent and Serving: Biblical Foundations and a Personal Call to Global Missions
The readings from Bosch and Tucker reoriented my understanding of missions from an activity performed by a few specialists to an expression of God’s character that summons the whole church to witness, serve, and reconcile. Bosch frames mission theologically as rooted in the triune sending of God, so that mission is participation in God’s redemptive work rather than merely human initiative (Bosch, 2011). Tucker’s historical sketches show how that theological impulse has been embodied in diverse, often messy, human stories across centuries (Tucker, 1983). Together, they press me to hold both doctrine and history: mission is grounded in Scripture and shaped by concrete contexts and persons.
To me, “missions” now means the church’s faithful engagement in God’s reconciling purpose across cultural, social, and geographic boundaries—proclaiming Christ’s lordship, embodying compassionate service, and working toward structural justice. The Bible calls the church to this work through the sending motif: the Father sends the Son, the Father and Son send the Spirit, and the church is sent into the world with the commission to make disciples of all nations, to love neighbors, and to seek the flourishing of creation. This scriptural sending gives mission both proclamation and presence as inseparable calls.
Global missions matter for every Christian because they expand our imagination of the church as a worldwide, diverse body and challenge parochialism. Engaging globally sharpens theological humility, cultivates solidarity with the poor and persecuted, and reminds us that the gospel addresses spiritual and material brokenness alike (Bosch, 2011). My own church involvement—local outreach and short-term partnerships—has taught me that effective mission requires listening, long-term relationships, and attentiveness to historical harms recorded by writers like Tucker (1983). I leave these readings with questions about how to cultivate sustained partnerships that honor local leadership and how to teach students to practice mission as mutual witness rather than unilateral aid.
References:
Bosch, D. J. (2011). Transforming mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission (20th
Anniversary ed.). Orbis Books.
Tucker, R. A. (1983). From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya: A biographical history of Christian
Missions. Zondervan.
