Missio dei

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missio Dei is a Latin theological term that can be translated as "Mission of God". Mission is understood as being derived from the very nature of God. The missionary initiative comes from God alone.

Mission is not primarily an activity of the church, but an attribute of God. God is a missionary God. "It is not the church that has a mission of salvation to fulfill in the world; it is the mission of the Son and the Spirit through the Father that includes the church" (Moltmann 1977:64). There is church because there is mission, not vice versa.^[1]

The church's mission is a subset of a larger whole mission that is it is both part of God's mission to the world and not the entirety of God's work in the world. Missio Dei as a term and concept became increasingly popular in the church from the second half of the 20th century and is a key concept in missiology being used by theologians such as David Bosch, Andrew Jones, and William Storrar.