What Is the Mission of the Church?

The church exists because of God’s mission.

The Father sends the Son.

The Father and Son send the Spirit.

The risen Christ sends His disciples.

The church’s mission is to glorify God by bearing witness to Jesus, making disciples, worshiping, teaching, forming holy communities, serving neighbors, and participating in God’s redemptive work among all nations.

No single activity exhausts the mission.

The Great Commission provides its central shape.

Proclaim the Gospel

The church announces that Jesus:

• is Lord
• died for sins
• rose from the dead
• offers forgiveness
• calls all people to repent and believe
• will return

Social service, moral influence, and community presence are important.

Without Gospel proclamation, the church does not fulfill its distinctive witness.

Make Disciples

Jesus commands more than obtaining decisions.

Disciple-making includes:

• going
• baptizing
• teaching obedience
• continuing presence

The mission aims at people who trust Christ, learn His ways, join His people, and help others follow Him.

Baptize

Baptism publicly identifies believers with the triune God, Christ’s death and resurrection, and the church.

Traditions differ about subjects and mode.

All agree baptism belongs to the church’s mission and should not be treated as an optional private symbol detached from discipleship.

Teach Obedience

The church teaches everything Jesus commanded.

Teaching includes doctrine and practice.

Christians learn:

• who God is
• what the Gospel means
• how to pray
• how to love
• how to resist sin
• how to use gifts
• how to suffer
• how to witness

Information should lead toward faithful life.

Worship

The church exists to glorify God.

Worship is both the goal and fuel of mission.

People are invited from false worship into joyful allegiance to the triune God.

Gathered worship forms believers through Scripture, prayer, song, preaching, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper.

Form a Holy People

Mission cannot be separated from sanctification.

A church that proclaims Jesus while tolerating abuse, deception, greed, or sexual misconduct contradicts its message.

The church is called to display God’s character through communal holiness.

Love God and Neighbor

The Great Commandment shapes the Great Commission.

Mission without love becomes conquest or marketing.

Love without Gospel truth withholds the message of reconciliation.

Neighbor-love includes practical service, mercy, hospitality, and concern for justice.

Care for the Vulnerable

Scripture repeatedly emphasizes:

• poor people
• widows
• orphans
• immigrants
• prisoners
• sick people
• excluded people

The church’s mercy reflects God’s compassion.

Care should not be conditional upon conversion.

It can create trustworthy contexts for witness without becoming bait.

Seek Justice

The church should teach and practice justice.

This includes truthful treatment, protection from abuse, impartiality, fair stewardship, and advocacy for vulnerable people.

Christians disagree about which policies best achieve public justice.

They should not disagree that God hates exploitation and commands love of neighbor.

Build Christian Community

Acts portrays believers sharing teaching, fellowship, meals, prayer, generosity, and witness.

The church’s communal life is part of its mission.

A lonely and fragmented world should encounter a family formed by grace.

Equip Every Believer

Pastors and teachers equip the saints for ministry.

Mission is not reserved for clergy or professional missionaries.

Every Christian represents Christ in:

• home
• work
• school
• neighborhood
• public life
• digital spaces

The gathered church equips the scattered church.

Send Across Cultures

Jesus commands disciple-making among all nations.

Cross-cultural mission requires:

• language learning
• humility
• contextualization
• local partnership
• indigenous leadership
• long-term commitment

The Gospel belongs to no single culture.

Plant and Strengthen Churches

The New Testament missionary pattern includes forming local congregations and appointing leaders.

Evangelism should lead toward stable communities where believers worship, learn, receive care, and participate in mission.

Pray

Mission depends upon God.

The church prays for:

• workers
• open doors
• courage
• clarity
• protection
• conversion
• justice
• endurance

Prayer is not passivity. It accompanies obedient action.

What Is Not the Mission?

The church’s mission is not:

• preserving one institution at any cost
• gaining political control
• entertaining consumers
• building a leader’s brand
• reproducing one culture
• pursuing numbers without formation
• replacing Christ with social respectability

These temptations can redirect energy from faithfulness.

Narrow and Broad Definitions

Some Christians define mission narrowly as Gospel proclamation and disciple-making.

Others use mission broadly for everything the church does in God’s name.

A helpful distinction is:

• the church’s central mission is making disciples through Gospel witness
• this mission is embodied through worship, mercy, justice, community, and holy life

The activities should not be separated or confused.

Christ’s Presence

The Great Commission ends with a promise.

Jesus is with His people to the end of the age.

Mission does not depend upon human confidence alone.

The One who possesses all authority accompanies the church.

The mission is therefore urgent but not desperate.

Christ builds His church, and His people participate through faithful proclamation, embodied love, and multiplying discipleship.