"Saving the lost and securing the saved.” The church’s outreach ministry gives special attention to bringing. We bring lost sinners to a place where they can be taught and kept. We create programs and methodologies that help develop prospects that can be reached. And we select mission points where members can land and work to bring more seekers to living water. Once brought, our objective is extended to the service of securing by ensuring that they continue to benefit from the admonition of the Lord.
Missions
The Mission in Description
The Method in Action
"Every part does it share.” The Bible says this leads to “growth of the body” (Eph. 4:11-16). In other words, the mission cannot be accomplished adequately by one person or even a small team of people. Our mission requires each member of His Son’s Body being equipped for the work of seeking and securing the lost. This means leaders in the ministry are tasked with equipping followers for the work of ministry, and followers are tasked with carrying out the works of the ministry.
The Means to Soul-Winning
LOVE: Jesus said, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). Reaching the lost and working together starts with love. It is the why and how of our outreach. We reach out with love. We reach out because we love. Strategy and methodology are only vessels by which we seek to love the heart and soul of the lost, and fellowship together in our striving to do so.
TRUTH: As inspiring as many good conversion stories may be told, and as wonderful as our relationships with others may be, our greatest mission is not achieved through human experience or storytelling. Our mission is achieved through the good news about Jesus Christ who died for our sins, was buried, and rose again. This testimony has served the church well for almost 2000 years, and it will serve the church well for another 2000 years, as long as this world continues (1 Cor. 15:1-11). The Missions Ministry will endeavor to value the means and message of the gospel above all others and make it front and center in what we tell others about.
RELATIONSHIP: We’re told in John 4 that the world’s greatest Evangelist sat down by a well and conversed with a woman from Samaria. Through this brief encounter, Jesus was able to communicate with the Samaritan woman and enlighten her eyes to the truth about His identity and salvation. While preaching and teaching “from a distance” has its value (sermons, classes, videos, etc.), the lost are most reachable through personal relationship, usually entailing one on one conversations. Building relationship in evangelism has been coined at times as friendship evangelism. It may be slow to progress, and may not be the only or most effective way at times, but often it will be the only way by which the lost can be reached. And it is never a wrong way.