Summary of the first three commandments

Love God
with all your hearts, with all your mind and with all
your strength.
 CFC 103: CATHOLIC FOUNDATION OF
MISSION
How can we love God?
By loving our neighbors as we love
ourselves.
What else?
By loving nature and treating it as part of
ourselves.

How can we do these?

That is now our mission!!!
 God is a Verb (Steven Bevans, SVD)
God is a verb because He/She is a God of action who is involved in the
world.
He/She created the world and continues to permeate it through
the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit

 CFE 103: CATHOLIC FOUNDATION OF MISSION
Mission = a fundamental expression of the life of the
Church
= the central activity of the Church
• Doing mission is an integral part of Christianity’s self
understanding
• It is a task for every member of the Church
Church: The people of God, the community of
believers
• God is a Verb so every believer should become
one.
Missiology: It is the systematic study of mission,
evangelization and missionary activity of the
Church.
= It is called practical theology since it deals with how
the people of God or the Church spreads and grow.

Functions of Missiology
1. Descriptive function: It studies the past
and present missionary activities of the
Church
2. Normative or evaluative function: It creates
criteria to evaluate and plan mission more
effective and it proposes priorities.
3. Animating functions: It wants to encourage and stimulate the
missionary activity of the Church
• It is a descriptive, critical, normative and animating science
• It is an interdisciplinary science (anthropology, economics)
• The science of Christianity on the move
 Viewpoint of Missiology
1. Extensive viewpoint: The special interest of
promoting God’s kingdom to all the needs of the
world

2. Intensive viewpoint: the interest of promoting

God’s kingdom deep inside the life of every human
person.

Missiology therefore must be open, critical,

ecumenical and anchored on strong faith in Jesus
Ecumenism
It is the movement within and among Christian
Churches to promote unity and cooperation.

Rationale:
• All Christians believe in Jesus. What for is the use
of believing in Him if we fight with each other.
• It is always a better choice to live in harmony than
in discord
 Lesson 1: The Ecclesio-centric and the Theo-
centric understanding of Mission
Ecclesiocentric Theocentric
It is the task of the church It is the task of God who reaches
out to His people

It is the obligation of the church

leaders and God’s role is not
emphasized

Non-church members are

excluded

Number of converts based on

baptism speaks of missionary
success
To sum up:
Mission is primarily connected to the God’s redemptive mission: the
Church source

Jesus: embodiment of God’s mission

Holy Spirit: the power for the mission

The Church: an instrument for the

mission

Cultures: context of the mission

Conclusion:
By shifting to a theo-centric understanding of mission, we are all
called to be active participants in God’s redemptive action in the
world and the whole of creation.

Challenge:
I can do this concretely by….