Is the Era of Christian Mission Over? Redefining the Church’s Purpose

Last summer at the local movie theater, the usher took my ticket and handed me the cinema’s mission statement: “To enrich lives and enhance the cultural vitality of the community by exhibiting the art of film in a welcoming environment.” It seems every institution these days has a clear idea of what it’s for … with the possible exception of the church. 

At the 2025 annual meeting of the American Society of Missiology, a panel discussed missiology as a “contested” discipline. The validity of mission has been called into question, the panelists agreed, largely because of its complicity with European colonialism and cultural imperialism. 

When mission comes in contact with the imperialist impulse of humans, it can quickly be warped.

Mission to Mars

Jesuits, a Catholic order, sent out missionaries too. Mary Doria Russell’s novel, The Sparrow, imagines them at it again. When the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute receives a message from Alpha Centauri, the first expedition to the new world is organized by Jesuits. This cross-cultural, interplanetary mission too has tragic consequences. The book serves as a poignant critique of Western paternalistic colonial mission in general.

Fans of the original Star Trek will recall its premise: a five-year mission to go where no man has gone before to “explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations.” a certain tension between their mission and Starfleet’s Prime Directive not to interfere with the natural development of alien civilizations (aka other cultures) always existed.

Back to the present, which is what sci-fi is really about. What was once science fiction is becoming science fact. As more and more nations jockey for position in what we might describe as a “sky rush,” there is growing concern that the perennial lust for imperial conquest, colonial expansion and militarized competition will relocate to outer space.

In response, the 1967 Outer Space Treaty stipulates that outer space is “for all mankind.” The 1979 Moon Agreement similarly states that lunar resources are the “common heritage” of humanity. In 2021, the U.N. Office for Outer Space Affairs produced guidelines for long-term stellar sustainability.