There’s a phrase the emerging generations use often—“I identify as…” Sometimes it’s serious, sometimes playful, sometimes exploratory. It’s part of our culture: people naming themselves out loud. Sociologists (and Instagram bios) show that identity is now performed, curated, and actively stated.
But here’s the spiritual question beneath the cultural noise: What do we identify as? And even more pointedly, Who do we identify with?
How We Usually Name Ourselves
We name ourselves by role: daughter, father, colleague, pastor. We name ourselves by profession: teacher, nurse, engineer. These labels matter—they help others understand where we fit in the world.
But before our job title, our deepest identity is given by God. Scripture invites us into a grander self-understanding: we are sent—participants in the missio Dei. As theologian David Bosch famously insists, “mission is not primarily an activity of the church, but an attribute of God. God is a missionary God.” This shifts everything: mission becomes God’s initiative that we are invited to join, not a program we invent. (Bosch 1992)
When you say “I identify as…,” what if your truest answer were: I identify as one sent by God—an ambassador, a witness, a missional professional?
Words, Creation, and Calling
Our God is a speaking, creative God. The Bible begins with God’s voice: “And God said…” (Genesis 1). Creation answers to the Word. God’s speech shapes reality.
If God spoke and created, then words matter. We, created in God’s image, are also given the task of speaking truth, naming, forming, and stewarding reality. That’s why training in communication matters. In ENG1000 Foundations of Professional Writing, you learn how to craft words that steward truth and reflect God’s creative speech—academic writing, public communication, and digital engagement done with integrity and beauty. Your words can invite life or confuse, heal or wound. As missional professionals we learn to let them carry life.
This loops back to identity: when you say “I identify as…,” the way you say it—your vocabulary, tone, clarity—matters. The course will help you express who you are with excellence and faithfulness.
Theology of Work: Work as Gift, Not Curse
Work existed before sin. Humanity’s first calling was to tend the garden (Genesis 2:15)—work as stewardship and joy. Work is not a result of the Fall alone; it is part of God’s original design. When the gospel comes, work is one of the places the Kingdom of God is restored and expressed.
So the missional professional doesn’t treat work as a necessary evil. Rather, work is redeemed: it becomes a way to “participate in building God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.” In practice that means we carry gospel virtues—honesty, excellence, care—into our professional spaces. Work becomes worship.
Missio Dei, Identity, and Practical Competency
To be a missional professional is to integrate identity and skill. Missional University’s Global Pre-Ministry Studies intentionally links identity formation with competency—so that who you are and what you do flow together.
This includes:
- Research-informed practice: not guessing, but learning cultural nuance before acting.
- Media and communication skills: crafting online posts, newsletters, and sermons that are clear, contextual, and life-giving.
- Ethics and critical thinking: applying biblical principles to professional dilemmas.
- Contextual awareness: learning to estimate cultural distance and speak faithfully into different worldviews.
When David Bosch insists that mission is an attribute of God, he reminds us that our skills—our writing, our research, our design—become instruments of God’s movement in the world. (Bosch 1992)
Faithful Words, Powerful Effect
Dietrich Bonhoeffer pushes the seriousness of discipleship: “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” That stark sentence is a theological prod—discipleship costs, and being sent into God’s mission often demands humility, loss, and the willing surrender of our comforts. Bonhoeffer’s clarion call helps the missional professional remember that competency without cost can become mere professionalism, not ministry. (Bonhoeffer 1949)
Bonhoeffer also warns against easy answers: “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance… Cheap grace is grace without discipleship.” His words expose any temptation to make work or identity a superficial performance rather than sacrificial service. (Goodreads Quotes)
Emerging Generations and Identity
Kenda Creasy Dean, summarising years of youth research, names a cultural pattern: many young people embody what scholars call “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism” and the “cult of nice”—a watered-down faith that prioritises feeling good over costly discipleship. Dean’s diagnosis is sobering: the church often communicates a version of faith that is congenial but not formative. She challenges leaders to reclaim a robust discipleship that forms identity, not merely comfort. (Dean 2010)
For missional professionals, Dean’s insight is a call to craft communication that forms—not merely informs; to write with theological depth and pastoral care so the next generation’s identity is formed by God’s Story, not cultural shallowness.
Practical Tips: How to Live and Work Missional
- Speak intentionally. Practice a short identity statement: “I am _______—but foremost, I am sent.”
- Work with excellence. Treat your craft as worship—whether an email, a lesson plan, or a proposal.
- Learn context. Before launching a programme, do a listening exercise: walk, ask, and observe.
- Write missionally. Use clear language, specific stories, and questions that invite reflection.
- Stay humble. Bonhoeffer’s warning reminds us that competence must be matched by cost.
Identity Statements from the Scripture
- Chosen — “You did not choose me, but I chose you.” (John 15:16)
- God’s child — “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God!” (1 John 3:1)
- New creation — “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
- Ambassador — “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors.” (2 Corinthians 5:20)
- Sent — “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” (John 20:21)
A Short Prayer
Lord, form our identity in You. Let our work be worship, our words shape life, and our skills honour Your mission. Teach us to speak with the creativity of a Creator, to serve with the cost of discipleship, and to live as those sent into the world with humility and conviction. Amen.
Sources & Further Reading
- David J. Bosch, Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission, Orbis Books (1991 / 2011). — “mission is not primarily an activity of the church, but an attribute of God. God is a missionary God.” (Bosch 1992)
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (English trans. R.H. Fuller, SCM Press / Macmillan). — “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”; “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance…” (Bonhoeffer 1949)
- Kenda Creasy Dean, Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers Is Telling the American Church, Oxford University Press (2010). — on “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism” / the “cult of nice.” (Dean 2010)
- Missional University Catalogue — Global Pre-Ministry Studies and ENG1000.
Eljoh Hartzer is combining theology and art to nurture faith journeys across generations. She is a masters-level practical theologian with the University of Stellenbosch. She is also a writer and editor in the niche of Christianity and children’s content and she illustrates children’s books. Eljoh resides in the Swartland area in the Western Cape province of South Africa. She is a staff writer at Missional University focusing on missional theology and practice.
