The Great Things Of God

Every believers is called to active participation in the missio dei as servants, or making earth as is in heaven. We have a very real Eschatological hope and expectation, which causes us as the church to engage the lost and pursue those in darkness in anticipation for that day. We await the “fulfillment of God’s universal love, justice, and peace on earth as in heaven,” and act as forerunners, similar to John the Baptist, preparing the way of the Lord and acting as emissaries of His Kingdom which is coming. The Bible describes us as servants who are, “created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” The Discipline also agrees that servant ministry both a holy privilege and obligation. It is our privilege as believers to serve others as Christ has served us, and is our obligation to live as he commanded us, which hinges on love based service to our neighbors.

Last Sunday at church Father Ron said something that hit home for me. He said that a mission begins with an invitation. I grew up in a rural area in the highlands of Nairobi, Kenya. Life was not easy and I always made a point of maximizing the opportunities I got. I grew up knowing that I wanted to be in a profession that really helped people improve their wellbeing. When I got the opportunity to go to university I choose to do Biomedical Science because I was very good at science and I thought that being a scientist was my calling. However, becoming an adult and having varying experiences like volunteering in a children’s home, working in the field doing research, working in a laboratory and currently working as a nurse aide has taught me

Mission was very important in the development of the early church. The goal during this time was to spread the Christian Faith and to help those in need, just as Jesus did. The people that undertook this mission were sent out by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Jesus and God.

World missions has been brought up as a desired form of outreach but specifics as to where and how has not been shown or provided for. My own personal work with various countries has been of the attention of the senior pastor but he has not asked about getting involved with this.

# Mission is not just another task that the church should engage in, but is the very essence of its nature. Christ “founded his church as the sacrament of salvation and sent his apostles into the entire world just as he himself had been sent by his Father.” (#5) The Word became incarnate in order for humankind to share in the life of GOD. Through Christ and in the Spirit we are knit together and taken up as one people into the love of God. We must walk the path paved by our founder, Christ, a path of poverty, obedience, service and self-sacrifice. We walk in hope, knowing that even in trials and sufferings, our sacrifices will serve as a seed to bring about the plan of GOD, which is a plan for unity. The church becomes itself as it participates in the mission of the Trinity—going out in love to others.

Not everyone is suited to be a missionary, the career takes patience, endurance, as well as a passion to take on any task at hand. This occupation presents an opportunity to travel to foreign nations and be immersed in exotic cultures. Although missionaries are not paid well -if paid at all- the worldly knowledge and gratitude received is reward enough. This is more than a career, it’s an all-consuming life style. The goal of a missionary is to enlighten non-believers of Jesus Christ and integrate new-believers into the community of God-fearing people. Mission work is the most intrinsically rewarding field because it grants the experience to travel the world while spreading the love of God, build personal relationship with other missionaries

Jesus says, “Open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest” (John 4:35). As a disciple of Jesus, I am to imitate his example. Therefore when He says, “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15) it is my duty to go and proclaim to all of the world just as He did. Van Rheenen agrees and says that the basic message for a Christian should be the unashamed declaration of Jesus Christ. Paul reminds us of this truth when he said, “I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor.

Missions is seen as an “add-on” ministry of the church. In fact, it is the essence of the church.

However, I ascertained that the ultimate level that was made about missions is that we are to build disciples. Mathew 28:19-20, "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. The disciples taught them to keep all that was required. The Lord let them known Leo, I am with you always, even to the close of the historic period. "According to Gailey, this would be the missionary station. Missions and so would be the things we do to reach our mission (Feeding the poor, clothing the naked)

The church is in need of major renovation when it comes to making disciples. The concept of making disciples to follow the Lord Jesus Christ seems completely foreign to the church today. In order to achieve the desired goal of making disciples for Christ, training others to go out and proclaim gospel, and helping others to train people to disciple one another, one needs to go back to foundation of the Word of God. It is in God’s Word where multiple examples are found of how to make disciples to follow Jesus Christ. It is my desire to see more people in the church have a passion for discipleship. Therefore, this paper will examine in detail how to make disciples in a ministry context. This will be accomplished by examining the 5 V’s of discipleship—vision, values, views, vehicles, and verifiers. It is my purpose to examine each area in order to have a detailed plan of discipleship that will be used in my own ministry context to make disciples for Christ. I hope that this plan can and will be used to train others in the church to make disciples, and disciple one another, for the glory of God.

My personal mission theology is disciplining and proclaiming the pure word of God in the correct context to those that claim to be abiding in Jesus Christ. This includes pointing out and warning them against false doctrine and belief systems. Contrasting what the modern institutions preach about what it means to be a child of God against what scripture actually says it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

The work of a missionary can be summarized as one who is sent into a region (neighborhood, city, state or country) to engage in evangelism. One who promotes a ministry of service that educates in areas like literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. A calling by God that is referenced by many religious organizations as the Great Commission in the book of Matthew, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the

John Piper’s Let the Nations Be Glad more than lives up to its reputation as one of the most important books on missions. It is biblically based and rich in scriptural references with many relevant supporting stories and extensive explanatory foot notes. This book guides the reader through the core issues of missions in seven chapters which are grouped into three parts. In part 1, Piper discusses missions as means of worshipping God (ch.1) followed by the power of prayer and the price of suffering in missions (ch.2 & 3). Part 2 is devoted to answering two very important questions of whether Jesus Christ is the only way to

“My mission is to assist and encourage people to live better lives by building their hopes and expectations.” The idea is to build or strengthen their hopes to turn their dreams, desires and cares into their reality. By driving their fears, past hurts and rejections out and building a bridge to their goals and purpose; their real future and possibly a future in Christ. My mission is to bring hope to life, where there once was life that was derailed. This personal mission statement was derived from several sources, one is the ‘Developing Mission Statements’ (Johnson, 2015)

No matter what path God calls a missionary to, the initial goals are the same. These goals are: 1) Build and edify the church, 2) Meeting needs, and 3) Spread the Gospel. The task of utmost importance is that of building the church, a community of believers. It is through evangelizing that men come to hear, know, and accept the redemptive plan of God through Jesus Christ. This is done by preaching and teaching this message when opportunity arises. It is also done by living out your faith in the day to day of mission life. We are to make the book of Acts our living example in growing and edifying a body of believers (Warren 26-31) (Hodges 61-62)