Remember those Mac vs. PC commercials that were so popular in the early 2000s? It was simply two guys: Mac, the young, casual guy who personified Apple computers, and then PC, the stiff, socially awkward guy in a suit with glasses, personifying Microsoft Windows computers.
I’m not trying to start a debate here about which company is superior. My point is to highlight the tremendous contrast that’s not just in technology, but in us.
There are two hemispheres or sides to the brain, each of which manages certain functions in the body. The left brain is more analytical and orderly than the right brain. It’s better at things like reading, writing, logic, facts, and problem-solving. Think black and white, like PC.
The right brain is more creative and disorderly. It helps us with things like imagination, emotion, art, dreams, and beauty. Think colorful, like Mac.
By God’s divine design both sides of the brain are meant to be integrated and complement one another. The reality is, however, that one side tends to develop a stronger network than the other, kind of like being left-handed or right-handed.
Christian author Curt Thompson has taken that reality a step further and talks about how entire groups and even cultures can become dominant in one side or the other. In fact, he says that due to the Enlightenment, “the past 400-500 years our culture has been dominated by a left-brain way of being in the world”—that is, “viewing the world primarily as a problem to be solved instead of beauty to be created.”1
If this is true for North American culture, then could it also be true for North American missiology?
Is it possible that—without us realizing it—our primary way of being on mission in the world is sometimes marked less by the curiosity of joining God in the beautiful things He’s doing, and more by the anxiety of trying to do the problem-solving for Him?
Wherever this is the case, it’s likely that our starting line for missions has fixated on a problem. But Genesis 3 isn’t the beginning of our story.
The Gospel for All Creation Explained
The starting line of the gospel is not sinful humanity but a good Creator.
God didn’t simply create a man and a woman for a garden paradise. God sent Adam and Eve into Eden with a mission: ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth (Genesis 1:28 ESV). That was a whole person, whole world vision of flourishing that would only be possible through God’s ever-growing global family.
There was no anxiety, no micromanagement. Within the responsibility to be fruitful and multiply, God offered the freedom to be curious and explore and discover fruitfulness. This is what we call the Great Mandate and it is the foundation for healthy missiology.
When sin became the truly worst problem to be solved, God’s solution arrived in the most beautiful way possible: the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Notice how our reentry into God’s mission is then mostly clearly connected to the Great Mandate in Mark’s version of the Great Commission: “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15 ESV, emphasis mine).
Paul picks up on this later when he writes, “Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing” (Colossians 1:5-6 ESV). Yes, a problem is being solved, but also something profoundly beautiful is being created. Jesus is making all things news. That’s enough to engage the whole brain.
The Gospel for All Creation Celebrated
To see God’s mission in this way makes room for both sorrow and joy. Yes, we are rightly troubled for a lost humanity and a creation in bondage. But our starting point is celebratory wonder. Our very existence as Christians is a testimony to a global phenomenon. God is gathering his redeemed family from all nations, and we get to be part of it.
Consider this:
In the last thirty years, and especially the last ten, more Muslims are turning to Christ than at any time in human history.2
Christianity is growing the most rapidly in Africa. Statistically it is now the most Christian continent in the world (670 million).3
By 2050, most Christians (50.4%) around the world will live in non-majority Christian nations.4
Is there a massive problem of more people to be reached and discipled? Absolutely! Do we have a responsibility based on the commands of Christ to extend the gospel in all times and places? Certainly! But this also means that God is inviting us into something beautiful; within our obedience he’s offering us the freedom to be curious and explore and discover fruitfulness alongside God’s ever-growing global family.
This is the starting line that Jesus aims to restore us to: chosen and appointed to go and bear fruit so that “my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11 ESV).
The Gospel for All Creation Applied
As North Americans we are often most driven by problem solving. But as humans we are most compelled by beauty. So how can we be whole-brain participants in God’s mission? Here are three ideas to consider.
1) Be aware of your left-brain-dominant world.
When you find yourself fixated on problems and your missional creativity limited by anxieties, consider that you may be living as a product of your cultural formation. Research shows that the number one means of re-integrating your left and right brain is encounters with nature.5 No wonder Jesus often withdrew and gave consideration to sparrows and lilies! Consider following his example to re-open your imagination to the bigger story playing out all around you.
2) Be delighted in your ever-growing global family.
Have you felt the weight of the need to “finish the task” of missions? Then also allow yourself the relief of having a family to share the burden. Multiply your gospel joy by thinking beyond the confines of one little ethnic kingdom. Invite yourself to the celebration! Rejoice when you hear of God’s movement among Africans and Asians and Latinos; and befriend them when they walk into your midst. Or better, walk into their midst!
3) Be curious about your fruitfulness as a sent one.
Not everyone may be called to missions in a vocational way or for an entire career. But because God is a “sending God,” all Christians are “sent ones,” their very existence a testimony to a global phenomenon. So explore and discover and learn your unique fruitfulness. Hear Jesus saying, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you”—on his mission in your whole life: at your home and in your neighborhood and in your classroom and in your workplace. Go into all creation with the gospel, and create something beautiful to God’s glory.
- Curt Thompson and Pepper Sweeney, “You’re Right. You’re Left. And In That Order,” The Being Known Podcast, July 6, 2021, https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s2e4-youre-right-youre-left-and-in-that-order/id1556261828?i=1000528014960 ↩︎
- Daniel Pipes, “More Muslims Convert to Christianity Than Ever Before,” July 14, 2021, https://organiser.org/2021/07/14/22715/bharat/islam/ ↩︎
- Gina A. Zurlo, Global Christianity: A Guide to the World’s Largest Religion from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2022) ↩︎
- Aaron Earls, “7 Encouraging Trends of Global Christianity in 2022,” January 31, 2022, https://research.lifeway.com/2022/01/31/7-encouraging-trends-of-global-christianity-in-2022/ ↩︎
- Curt Thompson and Pepper Sweeney, “You’re Right. You’re Left. And In That Order,” The Being Known Podcast, July 6, 2021, https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s2e4-youre-right-youre-left-and-in-that-order/id1556261828?i=1000528014960 ↩︎
