According to David Miller, the concept of Missio Dei (the Mission of God), which has it’s origin’s in Barth’s essay "Die Theologie und die Mission in der Gegenwart" (1932), is one of the key concepts in contemporary missiology. It sees the shift from the church doing the mission to the concept that the mission is something God does. Miroslav Volf (1998) in the images of the Trinity, supports this view of mission as the relationship between the Trinitarian God and the church. Clearly the church has a purpose in the world today but we cannot avoid the original message that God brought to us through the Bible. Church and mission cannot be separated. The mission of the church is mission. Religious institutions throughout the ages have struggled with the definition of mission. According to Lesslie Newbigin (1992), an Anglican theologian, the church is the mission. One of the first missions documented is that of Paul in the first century. His primary directive from God was to preach to the Gentiles. His mission was to bring people to an understanding of the teachings of Jesus and baptism into the Christian church. However, over the centuries, the definition of mission has been interpreted to mean different things. What one cannot forget is the church does not operate in a vacuum neither social, nor historical. Changes in technology, societal values, church size and location all have clear bearings on the mission of the church. To fulfill God’s missionary purpose is the church’s aim. The relationship between church and mission is very intimate because the same spirit of Christ who empowers the church in mission is also the life of the church. ‘At the same time as he sent the church into the world, Jesus Christ breathed the Holy Spirit into the church’. (John 20:19-23). Therefore, the church exists by mission and if it does not engage in mission, it ceases to be church. The historical church has undergone several paradigm shifts due to significant cultural changes to the churches and their communities. The missions of the 18th century sought to civilize unchurched cultures and the missionaries brought with them a sense of superiority and the belief that Western culture and technology was superior. In the 21st century, with technology, the world is linked and there is evidence that people live in a state of poverty, war and hunger. Many people lack hope and have no faith. The question is where has the church come from, where is it going now and how will it address these issues. One of the first missions was that of Paul. His primary directive from God was to preach to the gentiles. His mi