Millions of Christians in many parts of the world still think the cross means “Jesus died for my sins so that I can go to heaven.” The “mission” of the church, then, becomes a matter of explaining to more and more people that he died for them too and urging them to believe this, so that they too can go to heaven. I have taken part in many events that have had that as their aim, some of which were explicitly called “missions.” True, in recent years several thinkers have made a distinction between “mission” (the broadest view of the church’s task in the world) and “evangelism” (the more specific
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