"If you take missions out of the Bible, you won't have anything left but the covers" -- Nina Gunter
Those are strong words from Nina Gunter. If what she said "nothing left but the covers" -- is true, then world mission involvement is not just one option among many good things for believers to do.
However, was Gunter simply overstating things to pound home a point? I know people who think the Bible would be only a tiny bit smaller if you took everything out of it that relates to world evangelism. In that vein, I envision an acquaintance or two thinking that and pointing to random Bible verses while saying, "Tell me what this verse has to do with missions. Or, how about this verse over here?"
Perhaps Gunter purposefully overstated things. However, I believe "nothing left but the covers" is more than hyperbole. Think of how world missions outreach colors "the whole sweep of Scripture," to use a phrase from Bible scholar N.T. Wright. We often say the entire Bible is one story. Indeed, it is. The Bible is the story of God seeking to reclaim His lost Creation from all over the earth. It is the story of the unfolding of John 3:16. It is about God seeking as well as sending to seek.
Gunter's statement "If you take missions out of the Bible, you won't have anything left but the covers" clearly springs from how the Bible recounts God's "incredible rescue operation," as Linda Seaman titled her book about the beginnings of Nazarene work in Martinique.
Nina Gunter is right. If we take missions out of the Bible, there would be more misusing than a verse here or there. Scripture repeatedly speaks of God's desire that news of His justice, grace and love be published in all the earth. If we take everything out of the Bible relevant to the cause of world evangelism, we will indeed be left holding not much more than its covers.
-- Howard Culbertson
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36 mini-essays on missions passages
Jonah, reluctant missionary Lecture:
Biblical foundations
Black Americans involvement in world missions
World mission history crossword
puzzle Historic world missions
slogans Missionaries who exemplify important
characteristics Brief overview of world
missions history Monastic missionary
strategy Ideas shaping world mission
outreach today Nazarene Missions
International history PowerPoint: Epoches of
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from 1600 to the present Mission history
course syllabus
Year-by-year timeline of world missions outreach
What happened today in world missions history
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William Borden's story