Missio Dei and the Means of Grace: A Theology of Participation

The missio Dei concept has shifted missiological thinking from an anthropocentric view of mission to the understanding that the church and persons are participants in the missio Dei. A Wesleyan perspective of grace and the means of grace inform the development of a theology of participation in the missio Dei that overcomes the repetitive articulations of mission as simply being human action or divine action. Through the means of grace Christian disciples participate in the missio Dei as those transformed by Gods love and those through whom that love embraces and transforms the world. Missio Dei and the Means of Grace: A Theology of Participation offers a profoundly simple approach and understanding to twenty-first-century missiology that is applicable for all persons all ages and all ecclesial expressions of the Christian church as participation in the missio Dei through the means of grace is understood to be a holistic way of life where spiritual formation is understood as inseparable from justice ministries. If mission is a divine activity how do humans participate in it? Drawing on Wesleys relational theology of grace Whitworth persuasively argues that to participate in the means of grace is to participate in the mission of God. This is a profoundly important insight that should have a major impact on both missiology and Wesleyan studies. --Henry H. Knight III Saint Paul School of Theology Leawood Kansas David Martin Whitworth is the Bishop Cornelius & Dorthye Henderson Chair and E. Stanley Jones Asst. Professor of Evangelism at The Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta Georgia. He also serves as the Global Director of One Kingdom Mission a transformational leadership ministry that inspires equips and empowers disciple-makers of Kingdom building movements for whole-life discipleship.