Darrell Bock: The Church Has a Mission to Take the Gospel into the World
- Updated Jan 20, 2015
Darrell Bock, a senior research professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, told Ed Stetzer in an exclusive interview with Christianity Today that the church has a mission to “take the gospel into the world.”
“That ultimately involves extending an invitation to consider what God has done and is doing through Jesus Christ in the face of also challenging people about the way they live. This tension between invitation and challenge means that even when you disagree with how someone sees things or how he or she is living, your ultimate goal is to extend to them a hand and invite them to consider seriously the grace of God,” he said.
Bock also said that some Christians are prone to become frustrated with nonbelievers, but we are supposed to mirror God’s love.
“It is God's love as seen through the cross that drew us to Him,” he said. “If a goal of our mission is reconciliation, as the passage in 2 Corinthians 5 shows, then our actions and words need to work toward that goal. It is all too easy to fall into a kind of contentious tribalism in the way we interact and in the process lose sight of the goal that seeks to draw a person into thinking differently about God and life—to win them to a different worldview through a style of engagement that mirrors God's character.”
Bock has a podcast called The Table, which covers culture, politics, theological issues and other issues.
Publication date: January 20, 2015
