Great Commission Church

6 SCALABLE STEPS FOR YOUR CHURCH TO BECOME A

Characteristics of Local Churches Engaged in God’s Mission

How can members of GMC congregations assess the ‘missional health’ of their church? The Local Church Mission Assessment Tool is available to assist churches in assessing missional health.’ Here is a summary of factors that will be present in missionally healthy/mature congregations:

1.  A biblical understanding of mission. 

2.  Hearts of gratitude that want to bring God glory.

3.  A daily dependence on the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit

4.  An understanding of both the global and the local nature of the church’s mission (Acts 1:8). 

5.  A call for disciples to declare and demonstrate the Good News in their daily lives in addition to special

efforts of the church.

6.  Ministry planning based on the most current information related to the mission.

7.  A pioneering and apostolic commitment to take ministry to underserved and unreached populations.

8.  Holistic compassion for the entire needs of people.

9.  A desire to address short-term and long-term needs.

10.  Courageous generosity for the cause of those outside the congregation.

11.  Humble interaction and collaboration with other churches and disciples seeking to serve in similar

areas.

Scalable Steps for Becoming a Great Commission Church.

Every local church can grow to become missionally healthy and mature – to become a “Great Commission Church.”

A. Key principles supported by Holy Scriptures providing the foundation for what we do in mission:

"For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." - Luke 19:10

  • People are the first and best resource for mission and every believer is called to God's mission (Gen 12:1-4, Matt 28:19-20, Acts 1:8)

  • Mission is the reason the church exists, and the local church is God's primary instrument carrying out His mission (Acts 13:1-4)

  • Every person is created in God's image, is a person of worth, and is to be treated with respect and dignity. It is to all people the church is called to take the good news and make disciples. (Acts 10:34-35, Acts 11:19-21)

    Because You [Jesus] were slain, and with Your blood You purchased persons for God from every tribe and language and people and nation." - Revelation 5:9

  • Mission is best carried out in partnership. (Phil 1:3-6)

  • A key component of discipleship is growth toward missional living fulfilling the calling as a priesthood of believers (I Pet 2:9) and ambassadors of Christ (II Cor 5:20).

B. Experiencing God's Passion for People

"When He [Jesus] saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field. - Matthew 9:36-38

  • Passion is the direct result of our intimacy with God, our love for Christ, and our commitment to Him. Passion results in no longer living for ourselves, but living for God's glory.

"For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that One died for all, and therefore all died. And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again." -2 Corinthians 5:14-15

  • Experiencing God's passion for people is a gift that God will give to those who will commit to becoming an ambassador for Christ.

  • In Ephesians 6:19-20, the apostle Paul requests prayer “for all the Lord’s people.” He then states,

“Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.”

Now is the time for a Global Methodist movement in which we will fearlessly make known the mystery of the Gospel.

6 Steps to Becoming a Missionally Healthy & Mature Church:

STEP 1: Create a Culture of Mission

Great Commission churches recognize that every believer needs to come to know and develop a passion for God’s mission and thereby grow in missional maturity. Therefore, they provide intentional instruct to all the church – adults, youth, and children – that God is a missionary God; His mission is motivated by His love for all peoples, and He invites all His followers to join His mission.

On that basis, they work to have missions permeate every aspect of church life. To them, missions is not something a local church does, it is who they are. This outlook affects every program and ministry in the church, causing everything to be viewed and carried out through the lens of God’s mission.

Recommended Resources: TMS Global’s Activate Training, Momentum Yes, MissionRev, Perspectives Course.

STEP 2: Develop Acts 1:8 Strategic Plans

Jesus not only gave us a Great Commission and a Great Commandment; He also gave us a Great Plan. That plan is expressed in Acts 1:8, “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.”

Great Commission churches recognize the uniqueness of their church with respect to gifts, graces, experience, leadership, culture, and location. With that uniqueness comes a unique calling from God that must first be discerned followed by the development of specific, strategic plans to be implemented.

For every local church, these plans will include the four areas of Acts 1:8 as they relate to the location of the local church (i.e. their Jerusalem). Additionally, the plans include to whom ministry is directed, how it will be carried out, any partners in the ministry, timing, and cost.

Resources: Developing a Global Outreach Plan, TMS-Global, Local Church Mission Assessment Tool

STEP 3: Pray Missionally.

The church is good at praying. However, most of that prayer is directed to and for us. Great Commission churches regularly incorporate prayer for missional discernment, for laborers to be called to the harvest fields, for the lost in their community, and for those unreached with the gospel around the world. They do more than tell the congregation they should engage in prayer for missions. They creatively provide means that will help their people do that effectively.

Andrew Murray said, “The man who mobilizes the Christian church to pray will make the greatest contribution to world evangelization in history.”

Resources: Joshua Project Prayer Resources, Global Prayer Digest, Operation World, Jason Mandryk, The Essentials of Prayer, E.M. Bounds, chapter 13.

STEP 4: Craft a Mission Policy.

Great Commission churches document administrative procedures that guide their efforts in fulfilling their mission. The purpose of the mission policy is to:

  • Enable the local church to stay on course in its mission

  • Avoid making decisions on an emotional or arbitrary basis

  • Maintain consistency as mission and church leadership changes

  • Ensure good stewardship in the allocation of mission funds

  • Establish boundaries for mission engagement

  • Incorporate metrics and accountability for kingdom outcomes

Resources: Mission Strategy by Tom Horn (PDF available online), Catalysts Services.

STEP 5: Form Strategic Partnerships.

Great Commission churches recognize that to be effective in reaching their community, nation, and the world they cannot do it alone. Forming strategic partnerships is crucial in effectively engaging in mission to the people and places a local church has discerned as a calling of God. For the local church, strategic partnerships can:

Provide the training needed to be strategic and significant

Provide critical skills/resources lacking in the local church

Enable the church to go where it otherwise could not go and reach people they otherwise could not reach.

Resources: Advancing the Gospel through Partnerships, Making Your Partnership Work, Daniel Rickett, Well-Connected, Phil Butler.

STEP 6: Celebrate God’s Work.

The church should always and by all means rejoice in what God is doing in and through them in the world. Testimonies of God’s grace and work should be ongoing via platform announcements, bulletin-boards, newsletters, internet, and other means available to the local church.

However, Acts 14:26-27 presents a picture of the church at Antioch gathering to celebrate the return of their missionaries and to hear what God had been doing in a close-up and personal way. In like manner, local church should, at least annually, lay aside all other activities and distractions to focus on what God is doing in their community, nation, and the world. This time of intense focus on the local church’s mission provides a time of celebration, challenge, re-visioning, fresh commitment, and for some a call to vocational ministry.

Resource: Playbook for Conducting a Global Impact Celebration, TMS-Global.