The beauty and comprehensiveness of Kirk’s “mission is the Christian life” definition is to be admired. It appears to adequately describe the transformed life and task of a true disciple of Christ. 2.2.4 Radical Discipleship Mission
The fourth stream is called radical discipleship mission. This viewpoint has a strong socio-political emphasis, maintaining that social justice and evangelism are equally important but genuinely distinct aspects of the total mission of the church. This position also refuses to differentiate any priority between evangelism and social responsibility. The best-known evangelical representative of this position, Ron Sider, says, “The time has come for all biblical Christians to refuse to use the sentence: ‘The primary task of the church is. . . . ’ I do not care if you complete the sentence with evangelism or social action, either way it is unbiblical and misleading” (Ronald J. Sider: 1977, 17-18). Radical discipleship mission has a right and left wing that
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This provides important continuity between Old Testament covenantal commands, for instance, the cultural mandate in Gn 1:28 and Christian mission in the New Testament era. Jesus declared that he had not come to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them (Mt 5:17). Christian discipleship ethics are based on the call to righteousness found in the law and the prophets: “be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48 and Lev 19:2).
Jesus’ instructions to his disciples to “teach everything I have commanded” is foundational to the concept of making future disciples, and therefore important for understanding how evangelism and social justice are to be integrated in mission. It is helpful to see the five discourses in the gospel of Matthew as a complete summary of Jesus’