“The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission”
By: Lesslie Newbigin
“The Open Secret” was recommended by our friends and mentors at ENLACE. The author, Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), was an internationally esteemed British missionary, pastor, and theologian. The material presented in this book was developed over the four years he spent lecturing in theology to men and women preparing for missionary service. 
“The open secret” refers to God’s purpose in the world as revealed through Christ, which Newbigin describes as – open in that it is preached to all nations and secret in that it is manifest only to the eyes of faith (p.188). Through addressing contemporary issues and expounding on the nature and purpose of “The Open Secret”, Newbigin aims to establish a theological paradigm for understanding mission in today’s world.
Essential to his discourse on the Christian mission and what he identifies as fundamental to the Christian faith is the revelation of God as a Triune Being – Father, Son, and Spirit, which was given “to those who are called” to receive it (1 Cor. 1:22-25). The church is founded on Peter’s confession of Jesus as “the Christ”, a confession that Jesus says was not revealed through “flesh and blood” but by “my father in heaven” (Matt 16:16-18). Therefore it should be understood that faith is given freely by God and cannot be earned, and recipients of faith are to act as stewards and not owners of what is revealed to them. Newbigin makes the point that it is God who reveals the kingdom, who calls us into obedience and the role of faithful witness, and it is God’s mission at work in us and the world, not ours.
Newbigin suggests that as the Spirit works through followers of Christ to convert new believers, the church receives greater revelation of Christ and is transformed. Newbigin supports this through repeated reference to Cornelius’ conversion in Acts (10:1-11:18) and the impact it had on Peter and the church. Newbigin says, “What the story makes clear, and what is spelled out in more theological terms in the Fourth Gospel, is that mission changes not only the world but also the church…It is the action of the Holy Spirit, who in his sovereign freedom both convicts the world (John 16:8-11) and leads the church toward the fullness of the truth that it has not yet grasped (John 16:12-15)” (p.59).
Newbigin urges the Western church to move against the imperial tide of the previous centuries and to distinguish its mission from the cause of Western nations. He goes further to say that Western ideology, namely free-market capitalism, is a “form of idolatry” that “can be met and mastered only at the level of religious faith” (p.95). Newbigin argues that Western churches must be checked and corrected by other cultures as new believers are incorporated into the body of Christ. Newbigin views cultural dominance by Western nations as an enemy to this process, which serves to bring the entire body of believers into greater revelation of Christ.
“The power given to the church to meet the power of evil is just the power to follow Jesus on the road that leads through suffering” (p.108). Newbigin emphasizes that it is distinctly through “suffering with” (Rom. 8:17) and “acts of compassion” that Christians live out their calling and participate in “the victory of the lamb” (p. 108). Newbigin views the church as a body of followers chosen not to be set above or apart from the world but to serve the world. It is not through the will of the church but through its submission to the will of the Father, through bearing witness to the Spirit and sharing in the life of the son, that God’s mission for the salvation of the world is achieved. The church is not as Newbigin says “the community of the righteous in a sinful world” (p.53), but rather “It is the place where the reign of God is present as love shared among the unlovely” (p. 54).
