Mission
Mission
We will accomplish our vision by:
- Challenging attendees to authentic discipleship
- Offering irresistible gatherings
- Aligning with the activities of the community
- Sending an equipped church to love the community
Overview of Mission and Strategy
Vision is simply answering the question, “What does God want us to accomplish?” So once we understand the goal we then need to formulate a plan to accomplish that goal. We need to develop a mission or strategy. So the question is:
How do we accomplish this vision?
The heart of our vision is for authentic disciples to be involved in the lives of people who don’t know Jesus. The goal sounds pretty simple. However, if you think about it, there are a lot of components that need to come together to actually accomplish this goal. So we sketched a diagram that outlines the major components of our mission. The diagram is not a complete description it just helps carry the idea.
The Unified Church
Our mission begins with the “Unified Church.” The scripture teaches clearly that when the church truly loves each other then the outside world will see God displayed. (1 John 4:12). A God given mission can not be accomplished without the church being united under the leadership of Christ. We have to be a Christ-centered church that genuinely loves one another. We have to be a family that is involved in each other’s lives. If the church is not unified then the ministry model falls apart for one simple reason. When the church is not unified then the outside world will not see God.
The Congested Life
We have already established that we live in a busy culture. We have to recognize that people’s lives are congested, in many cases too congested. Nevertheless, we have to realize that the busy culture of Wilmington is our ministry context and we have to respond accordingly. In other words, we can do very little about the activities of our culture, but we still have the responsibility to lead people to God in a way that they can understand.
The Impact Zone
The impact zone is at the heart of our strategy. It is an occurrence in life where a Christian finds common interest with a seeker and they begin to spend time together. After some time a unique friendship forms and a trust is built. The Christian can then leverage that friendship to lead the seeker to an intimate relationship with God and His family. An impact zone can happen almost anywhere and anytime in life. Impact Zones can happen through work, school, sports, or children. Our strategy as a church is to intentionally create impact zones based on opportunity and the giftedness of the individuals in our church.
The “Big Picture” Tasks
As you can imagine it is very difficult to comprehend all the aspects of such a big strategy. So it helps if we divide the strategy into several “Big Picture” tasks. For this strategy we have divided up our approach into four distinct steps:
Challenge Attendees to Authentic Discipleship
In order for a local church to be unified the attendees have to be authentic disciples. Many people understand the concept of discipleship as an educational program in the church or as a Bible study of some form. However, Jesus had a different idea when it came to discipleship. In Jesus’ day discipleship was not a program but a way of life. A Rabbi (or teacher) would actually select a small group of students and teach them by living life with them. Discipleship is not just sitting in the classroom learning Bible stories, but giving your entire life to be just like your teacher (Jesus). Paul makes it clear that the more mature in Christ are to teach (or disciple) the younger ones. Our first step in accomplishing our vision is to create environments where authentic disciples are being formed.
Offer Irresistible Gatherings
When Jesus walked on the earth He was irresistible to many. The scriptures record clearly that almost everywhere Jesus went a crowd followed Him. Matthew 4:25
Align with the Activities of the Community
Send an Equipped Church to Love the Community
Watch our elders talk about the Mission in our Impact! Video