THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH AT TRACE CROSSING
Matthew
28:18-20 makes the mission of the Church abundantly clear. The Great Commission
compels us and commands us to “make disciples” of everyone everywhere.
Then
Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has
been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and
teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you
always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew
28:18-20
One of the
driving passions behind our faith family is the desire to be a church that is
globally active, locally active, and personally active in making disciples. As
a church, we know that it is our responsibility as Christians to take the good
news of Christ to our neighbors and to the nations. As a church in the United States,
we know that is our incredible opportunity to use the resources God has blessed
us with to spread a passion for God as far and wide as possible. That's why we
seek to be involved in God's Mission
of redeeming mankind: Globally, Locally, Personally.
The Great Commission gives
us three clear responsibilities:
- We are
Personally Responsible for this Mission
The Great
Commission is an individual command, not an institutional command. Christ never
intended the outsourcing of our missional responsibilities to a church staff or
to a missions organization. He intended that all of us be actively engaged in
this disciple-making process. We cannot say that we fulfill the Great
Commission because we contribute financially to an organization that fulfills
the Great Commission. We must be actively engaged ourselves.
- We are
Locally Responsible for this Mission
In Acts
1:8 Jesus instructed his disciples to be his witnesses “in Jerusalem,
and in all Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth.” If we are going to take seriously the command to
make disciples, it must begin within our local context. We must share Christ’s
love and show Christ love to our neighbors. Every relationship we have from
family members to friendships to co-workers must become an opportunity to
spread the gospel.
- We are
Globally Responsible for this Mission
The final
piece of this three-part responsibility is a particularly unique passion of
Trace Crossing. It is our earnest desire to be a faith family that takes the
gospel to the ends of the earth. In 2007, we have seen a desire in our church
to just go somewhere. We focus right now
primarily on Honduras and Ukraine because
of longstanding relationships with people there. In 2008, we journeyed to Honduras twice, to Ukraine and to Houston, Texas. In 2009 and beyond, we hope to
expand that heart from going somewhere (Ukraine,
Honduras) to going anywhere
(Sudan, China, etc.).
We believe that the Church in the United States is uniquely
positioned both historically and financially to facilitate this expansion
faster than any other church body in two thousand years. We must make the best
use of our time and resources to see that we seize that opportunity.