The great privilege of the church is to go on mission together. Mission is where we take the worship of God and community with each other, and share it with others. Listen to Jesus proclaim the mission in Acts 1, verse 8: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
We cannot be weak in our witness. Our mission is critical. We have a purpose statement— transforming people into dedicated disciples of Jesus Christ — but that is not our mission. It is an expression of our mission: sharing Christ with people who do not yet know Him. We gather for worship. We gather for community. Then we scatter to impact people eternally with the good news that they can be right with God. That’s why we define mission as loving more people.
We do mission because there are people who have not yet responded to God. We do mission because there are people who have not yet entered the community of Christ.
Jesus said we would be His witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. At Grace we will attempt to reach our Jerusalem (Tyler, Lindale and Athens) by engaging the people in our relationship networks with the message of Christ. We will use our multi-site strategy and partner with local ministries such as Celebrate Recovery, Habitat for Humanity, and Kairos Prison Ministry to reach our Judea and Samaria (East Texas and the United States). Finally, we will be proactive about raising up and supporting international missionaries to reach our world.
So how does one align themselves with the value of mission at Grace?
Begin to pray for open doors for you to share your faith. Be willing to create friendships with those who don’t share our beliefs or standards. Live out your faith in such a way that you are connecting with people and being able to point them to a connection with God. Do it so they might come to know Christ as their savior.
