Riad A. Kassis - Breath and Bone: Living Out the Mission of God in the World

International Executive Director Langham Partnership

In September 2006, my wife and I had an outing with Chris and Liz Wright to Cambridge. The weather was magnificent, and we explored meaningful places dating from Chriss days there as a student. When he learned of the day trip, John Stott pronounced that once we had been to Cambridge, our education would be complete. At one point during the day, I took a photograph of Chris standing next to a blue plaque that commemorated the discovery of the DNA double helix by Watson and Crick in 1953. On our return to London, I used Photoshop to modify the plaque to make it celebrate the discovery of the Old Testament triangular ethic by Christopher J. H. Wright in 1973. It was our private joke, but somehow it felt appropriate that Chriss work should be recognized, even if its significance was missed by the purveyors of blue plaques.

Six years later I discovered that our prank was prescient, though the focus now was on The Mission of God rather than Living as the People of God. In 2012 the Society of Biblical Literature held its annual conference in Chicago, and attending the session on missional hermeneutics disabused me of any thoughts that Chriss work may have gone unnoticed. Starting with the first paper, references to his thinking on this topic abounded. Clearly Chriss writing was held in high esteem by his academic peers, and I suspect a number of those present attended the session more to meet Chris and hear his response than to listen to the papers being read.

The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bibles Grand Narrative, without a doubt Chriss most critically acclaimed book, was the reason for his warm reception at the Chicago conference. In it he develops a hermeneutic for understanding the Bible that is built upon seeing the Bible as a statement of Gods mission in the world. From this perspective, he explores how Gods plan shapes what his people are called to be and do. This approach to Scripture provides a unifying theme in which Gods agenda to redeem his world touches every aspect of our lives. We discover in fresh ways, perhaps for the first time, that Scripture has much to tell us about how God calls us to interact with political, economic, social, and spiritual realities.

Over the years I have taken particular pleasure in hearing Chris take a subject and trace its connection to and development in the overarching story of Scripture. Typically, we begin in Genesis, often with Gods great promise to bless every nation through Abraham, and in five or ten minutes we emerge in Revelation with an entirely new perspective on the issue at hand. This is such a hallmark of Chriss preaching and speaking that his family and friends sometimes tease him about the appearance of Abraham in every sermon. The exercise of seeing the world in this way seems effortless for Chris, and often results in a new and moving understanding of both the subject at hand and the biblical text. A perfect example of this took place during the November 2015 International Council for Evangelical Theological Education Consultation in Antalya, Turkey. Chris spoke at the opening session on the topic of effectiveness and impact in theological education from a biblical perspective. Hardly a promising topic to consider our call to participate in Gods mission, but as Chris took his listeners on a journey from Genesis to the writings of Paul, they came away convinced that theological education outcomes are significant to Gods mission.

Chris has written many books, some academic and others for a more popular audience. His work resonates with both audiences because his approach provides a means to affirm that the whole of Scripture speaks to the issues that confront and trouble us each day. We live in an era in which the world seems broken at many levels. At times governments on every continent seem more taken with their own wealth and power than with the good of the people. While an increasing number of people at the global level are rising above abject poverty, vast numbers continue to barely subsist. Human slavery is at its highest level in human history. The natural world faces growing ecological crises. Should Christians be addressing these issues, and does Scripture provide any direction as to how we should respond? Chris responds with an unequivocal yes, and his thinking and writing provide models for doing this.

For most of his life Chris has focused his energy on global theological education. For five years, he taught at Union Biblical Seminary in Pune, India. He served as dean and principal at All Nations Christian College, located in Hertfordshire. As the name implies, the purpose of this school is to train and equip individuals for cross-cultural mission. When John Stott approached Chris to become the International Ministries Director for Langham Partnership, it was a good and natural fit. In 2005 The Lausanne Movement asked Chris to chair their theological working group, a position John Stott held during the 1974 Lausanne Conference on World Evangelization. For the next several years Chris led an international team through many working sessions that resulted in the publication of The Cape Town Commitment: A Confession of Faith and a Call to Action. This long history of interacting with friends from a diversity of cultures and backgrounds challenged and shaped Chriss thinking. While widely appreciated for the skills he brought to these discussions, Chris is quick to acknowledge the expertise and insights brought by his global colleagues.