RESEARCH ESSAY

ON
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE TRIUNE GOD
AND
THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH

Erica Heitke
THEO 5533 & 5543 - Systematic Theology I & II
July 2, 2020
Professor: Dr. A. J. Swoboda (Ph.D., University of Birmingham, UK)
professor, author, and pastor
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Introduction

Many people struggle to understand the very God they worship, especially with the

complexity of the Trinity. In this essay, we explore the relationship between God as the Trinity

and the church’s mission. In the first section, this paper shows how God determines the church’s

nature by exploring how the church views God and how mission emerges out of the church’s

view of God. Next, it explains that God is a missionary God, and therefore the church must be a

missionary church that engages in the same kind of sentness as the Trinity. Then it looks at how

God desires to transform the world, and therefore the church must participate in the restoring of

all creation, including the cosmos and social reconciliation and not just humanity. Next, it looks

at the unified Trinity and how the church should be unified as well. Finally, it explains the

church’s necessity to be a social community as the Trinity is a social community. All of this will

show that the Triune God’s mission must be the church’s mission, and these are the primary

attributes of the Trinity that the church should be engaged in. This paper’s thesis is that the

church is mission as God is mission, and therefore the attributes of the church’s mission pour

forth from the Triune God’s attributes.

Church’s Nature Determined by the Triune God

To understand the church’s mission, we must first understand the nature of God. The

church’s nature must be determined by the God that brought it into existence. This Triune God

made each person in his image, and in the same way, “the church emulates this dynamic in the

world as the very image of God and by so doing participates in God’s mission for the world.” 1

Thus, understanding the Trinity’s nature is an essential aspect of determining the church’s

1
David E Fitch and Geoffrey Holsclaw, “Mission amid Empire: Relating Trinity, Mission and Political
Formation,” Missiology 41, no. 4 (October 2013): 391.
 2

mission, and one every church and denomination should take part in. Matthias Haudel believes

that “in God’s self-revelation as the Trinity, church and mission are inseparably related to one

another.”2 He explains that as churches remember that God exists as three persons in one in a

Holy Trinity, they are also rediscovering their mission in God’s mission.

Therefore, the church’s view of God and the doctrine of the Trinity significantly affect

both what the church is and what it does. If the church incorrectly views God as “monarchical,

imperial and authoritarian,” then “patterns of domination, judgement and exclusion” will

permeate the church’s mission.3 On the other hand, if the church views God as entirely merciful

and not just, they may focus on God’s love and acceptance to the detriment of conveying the

need for salvation. A church that leaves salvation out of its mission is missing a crucial part of

God’s mission to redeem the world. It is as David Ranson says, “the imagination we have of God

makes all the difference.”4 Thus the view the church has of God makes a massive impact on how

the church defines itself, affecting its mission.

A church’s view of God stems from its view of the Trinity, for the Christian God is

Triune. Historically, churches have developed different images to explain the Trinity. Some have

used a triangle, but this can lead one to envision an “overemphasis on the Father” with

“subordination of Son and Spirit to him,” which “can cause a corresponding ecclesiological

imbalance” as most churches using this image place the Father on the top point. 5 Other churches

or denominations may incorrectly place the Son or even the Holy Spirit at the top point, but all

2
Matthias Haudel, “The Relation between Trinity and Ecclesiology as an Ecumenical Challenge and Its
Consequences for the Understanding of Mission,” International Review of Mission 90, no. 359 (October 2001): 406.
3
David Ranson, “The Trinity: Source of Ministry,” The Furrow 56, no. 5 (2005): 286.
4
Ibid.
5
Matthias Haudel, “The Relation between Trinity and Ecclesiology as an Ecumenical Challenge and Its
Consequences for the Understanding of Mission,” International Review of Mission 90, no. 359 (October 2001): 402.
 3

result in inequality between the three persons in the Trinity. We see equality between the Trinity

is encouraged in the Nicene Creed as each of the three Persons of the Trinity equally receives

worship and glorification. The Nicene Creed is a faith profession developed almost seventeen

hundred years ago to resolve heretical issues and encourage correct belief. It shows the need for

the three persons of the Trinity to be balanced and kept in equilibrium to prevent heresies from

developing.

The Trinity has also been “frequently pictured as a ‘divine dance’ in much of

contemporary theology.”6 This dance gives a beautiful image of equality with interaction in the

Trinity. Hippolytus, in the second century, suggested that this “eternal round dance … longs to

sweep all into its rhythm.”7 Thus bringing the church and all that it gathers into a social

relationship with the Triune God. However, some argue that this diminishes the distinction

between Creator and creature, which results in the need to “conceptualize out of our own social

experience what it means to live socially as God does.” 8 These issues can be overcome with just

a few guidelines to hold the concept in check. First, the church can surmount them by

determining that it will always remain distinct as a created entity from the eternal Trinity of God.

Second, the church must see any image given to describe the Trinity as an imperfect metaphor.

Therefore, the social concepts implied should be considered a loose reflection and not a perfect

fit.

6
Seng-Kong Tan, “A Trinitarian Ontology of Missions,” International Review of Mission 93, no. 369
(April 2004): 291.
7
David Ranson, “The Trinity: Source of Ministry,” The Furrow 56, no. 5 (2005): 287.
8
David E Fitch and Geoffrey Holsclaw, “Mission amid Empire: Relating Trinity, Mission and Political
Formation,” Missiology 41, no. 4 (October 2013): 392.
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One can see another image of the Trinity in “the classic icon of Andre Rublev in 1425,”

where “the divine mystery is realized as a festive banquet in which there is eternally the exercise

of hospitality.”9 Rublev based the icon on Genesis 18, where God appeared to Abraham by the

Oak of Mamre. The story speaks of three men that Abraham shows excellent hospitality. In the

icon, the same face is used for each, showing equality within the Trinity. The icon also has an

unusual three-dimensional hole drawn on the front of the table. Typically icons are two-

dimensional. Steve Seamands of Asbury Seminary believes the hole in the table is an opening to

the world. Thus it can be seen as symbolically inviting the world to join on that side of the table

and experience fellowship with the Triune God. Jürgen Moltmann describes this icon as

symbolizing “the ‘open circle’ of the three persons of the Trinity in free and loving ‘inclination

towards one another.’”10 The Triune God then extends this openness and love towards the world

through the hole in the table’s front.

While many more images and views of the Trinity could be reflected upon here, these

three of the triangle, dance, and open table show how the church might interact with the Trinity.

They also show how the Trinity extends fellowship to the world through the church. Yŏng-gi

Hong defines the church as a “community of people called and redeemed by the triune God.” 11

The Triune God must then define the church’s nature, and the church’s mission must flow out of

the Trinity’s mission. Annemarie Mayer, a Roman Catholic theologian and university professor,

believes that “theologically it is impossible to separate Church and mission.”12 The church must

9
David Ranson, “The Trinity: Source of Ministry,” The Furrow 56, no. 5 (2005): 287.
10
Anne Murphy, “Contemporary Theologies of the Cross I,” The Way 28, no. 2 (April 1988): 155.
11
Yŏng-gi Hong, “Church and Mission: A Pentecostal Perspective,” International Review of Mission 90,
no. 358 (July 2001): 289.
12
Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu et al., “The Church as Mission in Its Very Life,” International Review of
Mission 101, no. 1 (April 2012): 105, italics original.
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then look to the Trinity for this mission since “imitation becomes one of the chief ways by which

human beings learn to appropriate things.” 13 Humans need someone to imitate, and God has

provided himself in his Trinity as the perfect example.

A Missionary God must result in a Missionary Church

Traditionally in the Western church, mission or missions has been about sending out

missionaries from the West to far-off lands. The West saw itself as Christian and most of the rest

of the world, particularly third world countries, as pagan. Even the United States commonly

referred to itself as a Christian nation. However, as culture has changed, the West’s original

sending nations are no longer as Christian as they used to be. Moreover, many questioned this

idea of the mission of the church merely to be expanding itself. The world often saw it as

imperialistic, and many missionaries acted this way by imposing Western culture on other

cultures. In the last century, the church leaders challenged this concept, and a new God-centered

“concept of mission emerged.”14 This new concept places God’s mission to the world as the

primary focus.

Karl Hartenstein coined the term missio Dei and he “played a major role in” the

“International Missionary Council at Willingen, Germany” in 1952. 15 Missio is Latin for

sending, and Dei means God, so literally, this term is the sending God. Willingen shifted the

focus from the church’s mission to God’s mission. It moved from just sending the Son by the

Father and the Spirit by the Father and Son to include the sending of the Church by the Father,

13
John Dadosky, “Ecclesia de Trinitate: Ecclesial Foundations from Above,” New Blackfriars 94, no. 1049
(2013): 69.
14
Chul‐Ho Youn, “Missio Dei Trinitatis and Missio Ecclesiae: A Public Theological Perspective,”
International Review of Mission 107, no. 1 (June 2018): 226.
15
Johannes Gerhardus Jacobus Swart et al., “Toward a Missional Theology of Participation: Ecumenical
Reflections on Contributions to Trinity, Mission, and Church,” Missiology 37, no. 1 (January 2009): 76.
 6

Son, and Holy Spirit. Missio Dei brought about the idea that “mission was understood as being

derived from the very nature of God.”16 They found the Triune God to be active in the world

instead of static and thus with a missionary nature. This missionary or sending nature of God is

demonstrated first in creation, then after the fall through the redemptive process, and finally will

be shown again through the consummation of all creation. Christ was sent, delivered to the cross,

and resurrected through the Father to the Spirit to the Son. Then the Lord exalted Christ, and the

Spirit was sent through the Father to the Son to the Spirit. Finally, consummation will be through

the Spirit to the Son to the Father. Craig Van Gelder expounds that this sending action shows

“the Triune God is a missionary God.” 17

As a missionary God, God is more than just sent into the world, but each person of the

Trinity also interacts in the world in context. God meets Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in their

Ancient Near Eastern cultures in the Old Testament. He then meets Moses and the Israelites in

their Egyptian culture as he has Moses begin to write down his revelation in a way that corrects

their Egyptian misunderstandings and guides them towards his mission for the world. He

continues to reveal himself to them throughout the Old Testament in a way they can understand.

In the New Testament, we see that Jesus was born into a Jewish family and grew up to learn their

language and culture. He then interacted in context with that culture. Then at Pentecost, we

watch as “the Holy Spirit enables people of each culture to understand the gospel in their own

native language in the context of their own cultural life.” 18 Likewise, as the church enters each

16
Yŏng-gi Hong, “Church and Mission: A Pentecostal Perspective,” International Review of Mission 90,
no. 358 (July 2001): 293.
17
Craig Van Gelder, The Essence of the Church: A Community Created by the Spirit (Grand Rapids, MI:
Baker Books, 2000), 43.
18
Chul‐Ho Youn, “Missio Dei Trinitatis and Missio Ecclesiae: A Public Theological Perspective,”
International Review of Mission 107, no. 1 (June 2018): 237.
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new culture, whether that is from generational changes or travel to a new land, the church must

engage in context as it plays its part in the sentness of God’s mission.

Ross Hastings, a Regent College professor, believes that “the sentness of the Son implies

the sentness of the church!”19 The church must apply the missionary God’s nature to itself as the

church is the result of the redemptive process, and God has intimately connected its purpose to

his mission to the point that one cannot separate the two. Chul‐Ho Youn, a Systematic Theology

professor at Presbyterian University and Theological Seminary in South Korea, tells us that “the

church is a missional community.”20 He goes on to explain that “in the church, mission is not a

secondary function peripheral to worship, but the very essence that makes the church true

church.”21

The Triune God Transforms the World and the Church must Participate

A vital component of the mission of the Triune God is the redemption of the world

through transformation. One can see this component at work when the Father sent Christ to

redeem the world and announce God’s reign. Then the Holy Spirit was sent to transform the

world and empower the church to share the gospel. The church was empowered and sent by the

Holy Spirit to participate in this transforming work in the world. This coming of the Holy Spirit

means, as Stephen Bevans, a priest, professor, and missionary, explains, “the Spirit is the

principal agent of mission,” and for this reason, “mission is finding out where the Spirit is

working, and joining in.”22 The church can look to Jesus Christ’s example during his earthly

19
Ross Hastings, “Ecstasy, Embrace, Effulgence: The Trinity and the Mission-Shaped Church in the
Twenty-First Century,” Crux 45, no. 2 (2009): 3.
20
Chul‐Ho Youn, “Missio Dei Trinitatis and Missio Ecclesiae: A Public Theological Perspective,”
International Review of Mission 107, no. 1 (June 2018): 225.
21
Ibid.
22
Stephen B Bevans, “Mission of the Spirit,” International Review of Mission 103, no. 1 (April 2014): 33.
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ministry to understand how to engage in the Spirit’s work. Jesus demonstrated in his ministry the

importance of reaching out to the marginalized. He spent time with those rejected by society,

including sinners, foreigners, sick people, and the highly despised tax collectors. At the same

time, Jesus spent time with the rich and answered questions from the religious leaders as well.

He saw all people in need of God’s transformation power.

The church must also recognize that God’s reign and redemption is for the whole world

and not just humanity. The Triune God wants to transform all of creation. Daniel Miller, a Ph.D.

graduate of The University of Edinburgh, tells us that “any Christian action that works toward

the healing of the world is only a participation in the cosmic restoration that the triune God has

already initiated.”23 Therefore, by participating in the restoration of the cosmos, the church has

found another area the Spirit is already at work that it must join in participation with to be on the

Triune God’s mission. Nevertheless, the church must keep God as the focal point. The church

must not be tempted to put humanity or the environment in God’s place, especially since the

church’s role is to preserve or protect the environment and transform it through renewing and

healing as this is in line with the work of the Holy Spirit.

Ross Hastings explains that the church’s mission must be “about participation in the

mission of God with his glory in mind as the goal.” 24 He encourages Christ-followers to become

“intoxicated with the triune God” instead of declining “into activism that can lead to an angry

edge, burnout, and disillusionment.”25 The church must keep God’s worship central, as the

23
Daniel Miller, “The Doctrine of the Trinity and Christian Environmental Action,” New Blackfriars 94,
no. 1049 (2013): 22.
24
Ross Hastings, “Ecstasy, Embrace, Effulgence: The Trinity and the Mission-Shaped Church in the
Twenty-First Century,” Crux 45, no. 2 (2009): 9.
25
Ibid.
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reason for participation with the Triune God in mission. It is out of this deep relational worship

of God that the desire to be the church is developed, and out of that relationship, then pours out

the mission to participate with God. In working toward the reconciliation of all things, the church

discovers “the most compelling way of expressing the meaning of the gospel today.” 26 When the

church understands God’s eschatological perspective of renewing the earth and not just

humanity, it will realize that “humanity cannot be saved alone while the rest of the created world

perishes” because “eco-justice cannot be separated from salvation, and salvation cannot come

without a new humility that respects the needs of all life on earth.” 27

Paul John Isaak, a professor, dean, and ordained Lutheran theologian, believes that this

reconciliation extends beyond the environment. He believes it also includes the “challenges

brought about by damaging effects of sexism, racism, cultural and religious clashes, and

economic and political boundaries.”28 For God’s practical mission, “of healing and reconciliation

means serving, healing, and reconciling a wounded and broken humanity and world.” 29 It is

evident in Christ’s ministry that he engages in these areas of needed social reconciliation. He

treats women and foreigners with love and dignity. He fearlessly confronts the cultural, political,

and religious issues of his day. He takes steps towards encouraging changes in these areas as he

ushers in God’s Kingdom. Peter Althouse, a Southeastern University professor, agrees that “the

Church is called to participate in God’s mission in humility as it works to demonstrate the good

26
Paul John Isaak, “God’s Mission as Praxis for Healing and Reconciliation,” International Review of
Mission 100, no. 2 (November 2011): 335.
27
Commission on World Mission and Evangelism and World Council of Churches. Central Committee.,
“Together towards Life: Mission and Evangelism in Changing Landscapes: A New WCC Affirmation on Mission
and Evangelism,” International Review of Mission 101, no. 2 (November 2012): 256.
28
Paul John Isaak, “God’s Mission as Praxis for Healing and Reconciliation,” International Review of
Mission 100, no. 2 (November 2011): 336.
29
Ibid.
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news of righteousness through social action, social justice, and the changing of unjust social

structures in the Church and world.”30

A Unified Trinity must result in a Unified Church for successful Mission

As the church participates in God’s mission, it needs to discover a unified way of doing

so for the Triune God is unified. Jesus prayed to the Father concerning the chosen people of God

“that they may be one as we are one.”31 Jesus’ prayer shows both unity within the Trinity’s

oneness and his desire for the church to be unified as one. Annemarie Mayer states, “a lack of

unity is detrimental to the witness and mission of the Church.”32 Jesus desired the church not just

to be one because the Trinity is one, but also because the church must join together in unity for

the success of the mission. Christ, as the head of the church, needs an undivided body in order to

reach the world effectively. The unfortunate “fragmentation of churches and the competing spirit

of mission in the contemporary church” can result from “competing non-trinitarian models of the

church’s life.”33 Thus a trinitarian view of the mission of the church with unity is essential.

As Christ desires the church’s unity, then it is part of the Trinity’s mission. One can see

the Holy Spirit’s ministry as a unifying way that equips “the Church to experience unity in

diversity both proactively and constructively” and thus “becomes the helper who transforms the

problem of difference into the promise of diversity.”34 Unity does not mean that every part of the

30
Peter Althouse, “Towards a Pentecostal Ecclesiology: Participation in the Missional Life of the Triune
God,” Journal of Pentecostal Theology 18, no. 2 (2009): 243.
31
The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Jn 17:22.
32
Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu et al., “The Church as Mission in Its Very Life,” International Review of
Mission 101, no. 1 (April 2012): 106, italics original.
33
Yŏng-gi Hong, “Church and Mission: A Pentecostal Perspective,” International Review of Mission 90,
no. 358 (July 2001): 294.
34
Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu et al., “The Church as Mission in Its Very Life,” International Review of
Mission 101, no. 1 (April 2012): 128.
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church needs to be the same. Dana L. Robert, a professor at Boston University School of

Theology, believes that “the voices of many diverse witnesses can create public unity in

Christ.”35 These diverse voices of personal testimony connect all members of the body with their

shared connection to Christ while enculturating the gospel message to all while still maintaining

differences on various points of doctrine as long as their dogma agrees on the non-negotiable

beliefs.

Diversity is seen within the Trinity as the persons of the Godhead engage in different

elements of the one shared mission. For Augustine, “this differentiated work of the Trinity in

divine mission … presupposes unity in the substance of the Godhead and hence the equality of

the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” 36 However, some have argued for inequality by defining the

Father as more significant than the Son because He sent the Son and both greater than the Holy

Spirit since they sent the Holy Spirit. Augustine refutes these claims “that sending implies

inequality” as he argues for inseparability, which “entails that sending (missio) is the activity of

all three persons of the Godhead.” 37 The result is that the unity present in the Trinity confirms

their equality.

Therefore, the diversity and equality seen in the Trinity must also be present in the church

not just as a reflection of the Trinity’s unity but also because of the church’s unity with the

Trinity. The church is united to the triune God through Christ for “the Son who unites human

nature to himself in his incarnation is also the one who, through his own mediatory work, unites

35
Dana L. Robert, “One Christ—Many Witnesses: Visions of Mission and Unity, Edinburgh and Beyond,”
Transformation 33, no. 4 (2016): 276.
36
P. V. Joseph, “The Trinity and Mission: Missio Dei in St. Augustine’s De Trinitate,” Evangelical Review
of Theology 44, no. 2 (April 2020): 177.
37
Ibid., 176.
 12

the Church with the triune God.” 38 The church has been united to Christ as his body with him as

the head. Further, the church will be united to Christ, the bridegroom, as the bride in the

consummation of the Kingdom of God. Scripture is full of many more metaphors that show how

the church is one with Christ and, therefore, one with the Trinity of God. Thus a church united in

one with Christ must be united within itself as it is united with the Triune God.

While Augustine shows the unity through the inseparability of the Trinity, Thomas

Aquinas confirms it through his argument “that God’s will is equivalent with his existence” and

“the three divine persons have one divine will, which is identical with their one essence and

substance.”39 Thus the mission of God flows out of a common will in the Trinity. Jared Staudt, a

Catholic theologian, confirms this truth by explaining that the Son “does not act in obedience to

Father as though there was a distinction of wills between them.” 40 Thus the Son’s sentness is

from one will out of the unity of the Trinity. This unified will also confirms each member of the

Trinity’s equality as again sentness being from one unified will does not denote that any person

in the Trinity is greater than the other. The Triune God’s mission is always to act through the

three persons of the Trinity instead of acting apart from each other.

One can also observe a “growing recognition of the doctrine of the Trinity as an

ecumenical basis for the churches’ search for unity.”41 Much of this started with “India

38
P. V. Joseph, “The Trinity and Mission: Missio Dei in St. Augustine’s De Trinitate,” Evangelical Review
of Theology 44, no. 2 (April 2020): 183.
39
R. Jared Staudt, “For the Holy Trinity: The Mission of Christ and the Order of His Human Soul,”
Angelicum 91, no. 3 (2014): 592.
40
Ibid., 595.
41
Matthias Haudel, “The Relation between Trinity and Ecclesiology as an Ecumenical Challenge and Its
Consequences for the Understanding of Mission,” International Review of Mission 90, no. 359 (October 2001): 401.
 13

42
missionary Lesslie Newbigin, head of the International Missionary Council (IMC).” He

believed that missions needed to change from flowing out of individual denominations to

developing out of an “understanding of the global unity of the church, not the separate

activities.”43 Newbigin fought for one mission within the one world with one church. He brought

about a paradigm shift where “mission was” now “from everywhere to everywhere, not from the

West to the rest.”44 He ushered in the idea of the church’s unity in Christ as necessary for the

church’s mission.

Trinity as Social Community must result in Church as Social Community

The church can then translate this unity as a whole to a type of unity within the local

church. Churches are increasingly defining “themselves with reference to the New Testament

understanding of ‘communion’ (koinonia, communio), in which believers’ communion with God

and one another is anchored in the trinitarian communion of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” 45 As

the church sees the Trinity as a social community and recognizes the relational aspects of the

Trinity, the church understands that part of its nature is to be a community with reconciled

relationships among one another. This idea of social community conjures back up the idea of the

Trinity as a dance or an open table at a banquet. God has a community within and wants the

church to join in that community. God also desires the church’s nature to be the same as an open

community ever gathering more humanity to join in fellowship with God and one another.

42
Dana L. Robert, “One Christ—Many Witnesses: Visions of Mission and Unity, Edinburgh and Beyond,”
Transformation 33, no. 4 (2016): 272.
43
Ibid.
44
Ibid.
45
Matthias Haudel, “The Relation between Trinity and Ecclesiology as an Ecumenical Challenge and Its
Consequences for the Understanding of Mission,” International Review of Mission 90, no. 359 (October 2001): 401.
 14

This community of the church is part of the nature of the church. The gathering required

to form this community is then part of the church’s mission. In this community, the church must

be collaborative, hold open dialog, and inclusive. Through this relational community, the church

accomplishes God’s mission as it allows for a place of reconciliation, healing, and

connectedness. It composes a group that comes together to participate in God’s mission side by

side. The formation of these local communities is especially crucial now because the “apparent

crisis of faith in the West is at root a crisis of community and … the way into a revitalized faith

is through the re-imagination of community.”46 In today’s world, people feel ever isolated and

have a deep desire to find a real connection with others. God designed all humans for

relationships, and it is within his church that they find these deep connections that he can use to

grow each of his children.

In order to gather people into these local communities, the church needs to engage in

hospitality. A friendly, welcoming, and inviting church will encourage people to take the steps

needed to connect with the people of God and ultimately God himself. People are much more

likely to attend a church if someone invites them, and if they build new relationships at that

church, they are much more likely to continue attending. Plus, Jesus explains in Matthew 25:36-

40 how hospitality to strangers results ultimately in hospitality to him. For he says, “whatever

you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” 47 Therefore, in

showing hospitality to strangers, the church shows hospitality to Christ the Lord.

In addition to hospitality, the gathering of people as God’s mission “has as its aim not

merely a going-out of himself in self-giving, but a drawing-in of those who are the loving object

46
David Ranson, “The Trinity: Source of Ministry,” The Furrow 56, no. 5 (2005): 289.
47
The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Mt 25:40.
 15

of his mission.”48 This gathering mission is why “God became one with us that we might become

one with him.”49 The sending of the Triune God led to the gathering of all to him. This “desire to

extend” the Triune God’s “own loving fellowship to the whole of humanity provides an analogy

for the mission of the Church.” 50 That as he sends and gathers, so must the church send and

gather to engage in the Triune God’s mission. For “one cannot understand mission without

understanding that” the communion in the Trinity continues on to humanity to draw us into an

intimate relationship with God while preserving the distinct difference between the Creator and

his creation.51

Therefore, this community involves an intimate relationship with God. Kevin Daugherty,

a missionary and professor, expounds that “God does not just want humans to know that he is

relational, he wants to have relationships with them.”52 As such, he believes that God first called

the church to “enter into relationship with God, and then to join God’s mission to bring others

into relationship with him.”53 The Triune God has entered into our context and repeatedly

revealed himself to humanity to form this relationship. Similarly, the church on mission

continually re-contextualizes the gospel for every generation and culture to bring others into a

48
Ross Hastings, “Ecstasy, Embrace, Effulgence: The Trinity and the Mission-Shaped Church in the
Twenty-First Century,” Crux 45, no. 2 (2009): 4.
49
Ibid.
50
John Dadosky, “Ecclesia de Trinitate: Ecclesial Foundations from Above,” New Blackfriars 94, no. 1049
(2013): 66.
51
Ross Hastings, “Ecstasy, Embrace, Effulgence: The Trinity and the Mission-Shaped Church in the
Twenty-First Century,” Crux 45, no. 2 (2009): 7.
52
Kevin Daugherty, “Missio Dei: The Trinity and Christian Missions,” Evangelical Review of Theology 31,
no. 2 (April 2007): 163, italics original.
53
Ibid.
 16

relationship with God. Daugherty warns that this “contextualization is costly” as “it requires

meeting people where they are.”54

In addition to contextualization to share God’s relationship with others, each Christ-

follower must fully live out this relationship with God through a conversation with him. Seng-

Kong Tan, a doctoral candidate at Princeton Theological Seminary, tells us that mission is

“inseparable from prayer.”55 Before creation, God was all-sufficient and capable of unceasingly

conversing within himself. God did not need to create humans to have relationships or dialog.

However, God chose to create humanity, and “the Trinity chose to include us in this

conversation.”56 Tan takes a look at Martin Luther’s depiction of each of the three persons of the

Trinity. Luther sees their “inner nature as a speaker, a word, and a listener.” 57 The Holy Spirit

allows us to enter a receptive posture as a listener. This listening allows the Holy Spirit to

illuminate God through the Word, Jesus Christ, which engages us with the speaker, God the

Father. The conversation can also go in the opposite direction with the “Spirit speaking within

us, through Christ, to the Father, who is always listening.” 58 In this way, the church can dialogue

with God and continually discern the direction and mission that God places the church on.

In addition to dialog, every relationship needs love. Simon Chan, a Singaporean

Pentecostal theologian and professor, defines “the mission of the Trinity” as “communion.” 59 He

54
Kevin Daugherty, “Missio Dei: The Trinity and Christian Missions,” Evangelical Review of Theology 31,
no. 2 (April 2007): 165.
55
Seng-Kong Tan, “A Trinitarian Ontology of Missions,” International Review of Mission 93, no. 369
(April 2004): 288.
56
Ibid.
57
Ibid., 287.
58
Ibid.
59
Andy Crouch, “The Mission of the Trinity,” Christianity Today 51, no. 6 (June 2007): 48.
 17

explains this is because “ultimately, all things are to be brought back into communion with the

triune God.”60 He wants the church to recognize the importance of communion with God as well

as each other as “communion is not just introspection or fellowship among ourselves,” but

“involves, ultimately, seeing God and seeing the heart of God as well, which is his love for the

world.”61 Therefore, communion with God is connected with his love for each person in the

world.

God’s love pours out of the Trinity in the same way that “from eternity the Father and

Son have, with the Holy spirit, given and received love to and from each other.” 62 This same love

is revealed in the gospel and throughout God’s revelation to humanity. As we examine the

Triune God, we see “that in loving each other the divine Persons wish to share this love with the

entire created order - their love overflows, not only into the creation, but into an offer to the

entire created order to share and participate in this supernatural reality.” 63 This love that

overflows from the Trinity is what binds the three divine Persons together. As it comes to each

Christ-follower, it draws them into a loving community with God and each other.

Conclusion

This essay shows that the relationship between the Triune God and the church’s mission

is one of the shared mission where the church’s mission must be determined by God’s mission

and match his attributes. First, it showed how the church’s nature is determined by how it views

God, and this view must correctly understand the Trinity for the correct nature to be applied. The

60
Andy Crouch, “The Mission of the Trinity,” Christianity Today 51, no. 6 (June 2007): 48.
61
Ibid.
62
Adam Dodds, “Newbigin’s Trinitarian Missiology: The Doctrine of the Trinity as Good News for
Western Culture,” International Review of Mission 99, no. 1 (April 2010): 71.
63
John Dadosky, “Ecclesia de Trinitate: Ecclesial Foundations from Above,” New Blackfriars 94, no. 1049
(2013): 76.
 18

mission of the church then emanates from this nature. Next, this essay explained how God is a

missionary God, and thus the church must be a missionary church. Then it revealed that God’s

mission is to transform all of creation with the church participating in sharing this mission with

God. Next, it emphasized the importance of a unified church to match the Trinity’s unity and the

need for unity to fulfill his mission successfully. Finally, it confirmed that the Trinity exists as a

social community, and therefore, the church must be a social community that gathers the people

of the world into a relationship with each other and the Triune God.

As this paper is limited, it was necessary to restrict the Triune God’s selected attributes to

the primary ones, but there are many more as an infinite God is vast. As this essay’s scope was

constrained to examining the Triune God’s relationship and the church’s mission, additional

works could consider how the Triune God relates to the church’s more practical aspects. These

might include its organizational structure, leadership development, and people’s deployment

based on their specific gifts. The nature of the Trinity of God can teach the church about many

diverse aspects.
 19

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