Mission is always amidst afflictions

“Evangelical theology, from my perspective, insists that the church has a fundamentally spiritual mission; yet this is a mission that is realized not in withdrawal or detachment from the afflictions and the conflicts of humanity but in the very midst of these afflictions.”
— Donald G. Bloesch, The Church: Sacraments, Worship, Ministry, Mission (Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Books), 34.