What does it mean to be a community of disciples making disciples?
Believing that since "Jesus Christ laid down his life for us we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers", we witness to the Lordship of Jesus by enabling the growth of transformational communities empowered by the Holy Spirit through meaningful worship, thanksgiving, and purposeful praise resulting in overflowing love for God and neighbor.
As Jesus demonstrated in his ministry, the environment of redemption incorporates, spiritual, mental, social, economic, and natural spheres. But he also made clear that the redemptive order begins with "the water I give him [that] will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (John 4:14). In the redemptive order, transformation begins in the spirit by the Holy Spirit enabling "worship in spirit and in truth" (v.24).
On the other hand, Jesus commanded us to make disciples—not to save disembodied souls. Thus, we follow Jesus in a ministry of integral renewal by enabling redemptive synergies of the spiritual, psychological, social, and material spheres as these involve, enfold and incorporate the community of the redeemed in the kingdom of God.
We do not usher in the kingdom of God (see " not yet" below), but Jesus commands to seek it and to expect its manifestation to a significant degree where the community of the redeemed acts in the obedience of faith.
The biblical mandate for this is clear. For example, Since in love we "have been given fullness in Christ" through his triumph "by the cross," we act in love upon the authority, power and purpose in this triumph to partner with believers around the world so that together we may become "mature and complete, not lacking anything" in spirit, mind, body, and material resources. Until all have been made complete, the task is not done.
Our mission, then, is merely Jesus' mission ongoing, which in fact is the mission of the church as an instrument of the kingdom of God. Further, since the kingdom is both "already, but not yet," in part the the Mission is to show by manifesting the "already" what the "not yet" will be.
Further, since the "not yet" of the kingdom awaits Jesus' return in glory and power, the Mission in the present is to witness faithfully to the power of the gospel and the Lordship of Jesus over all aspects of the creation. The task is not to usher in the kingdom of God, but to seek the kingdom and to live out and love others in the power of the kingdom. Thus, we present an integral witness to the Lordship of Jesus and redemptive power of the gospel, and thereby extend reconciliation to the world wherever it will be received.
As a practical matter, we invite the formation of Integral Mission Prayer and Action Teams. We then partner with these teams to impact people and communities at a grass roots level in order to impart the benefits of God's grace to their spiritual, social, material, and economic environments.
As a matter of practical strategy, we preach, teach, guide, and work together with indigenous IMPACT teams to develop contextual solutions for their local situations. The goal is to permeate the whole of a society through prayer empowered action to the largest extent possible in obedience to the sovereign guidance, power and purpose of God.
Millennium Mission | 2009 Why this is a ‘Millennium Mission’—Core Vision and Values
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