Discipling All the Nations

Our intention is to faithfully make disciples of all nations in accordance with Christ’s command (Matt. 28:18-20). We do this through communicating the Gospel and biblical training both locally and internationally in either primary or supporting roles; and by preparing and sending the next generation.

The opportunities for making disciples are expressed biblically in four dimensions. We believe that all Christians should be practicing personal disciple making in one or more of these venues with the intention to have a consciousness of all. We find this biblical truth expressed in Christ’s commissioning of the 1st century disciples before His return to heaven.

Acts 1:8: “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

As we compare the various geographical communities that Jesus commissioned His disciples to reach we note community, cultural, and language distinctions between them. This is certainly helpful as we attempt to maintain a balance in our outreach effort, while at the same time maintaining an active sending mentality-aggressively pursuing the ends of the earth with our best leaders (Acts 13:1-4).

Note carefully the distinctions:

• “in Jerusalem” (in my community)
• “in all Judea” (in my culture)
• “Samaria” (outside of my cultural comforts, but not outside of my language limitations)
• “to the end of the earth” (outside of my cultural comforts and outside of my language limitations)

1-Our Community

It is our desire to equip, encourage, and exhort all of our believers to be ready (1 Pet 3:15) and active in their sharing of the Gospel with those around them. Our holiday services: Christmas Eve Candlelight and Journey with Jesus at Easter provide opportunities for the Gospel to be presented via music and drama.

2-Our Culture

We believe that the ever-widening circles of the first century church provide an excellent pattern for how we can takes steps to reach the end of the earth. Some venues in neighboring communities are culturally similar to us, but these folks will not travel to us, we will need to travel to them. We acknowledge a weakness here in the history of our church and we want to become pro-active in this dimension. Possible realms of ministry or partnering with other churches in our surrounding communities, small group Bible studies in these communities, and eventually a church plant in a designated community.

3- Outside of our Culture

We define this as reaching outside of my cultural comforts, but not outside of my language limitations.

We see this opportunity for sharing the Gospel, as essential in fulfilling Christ’s command, but also as a significant step in preparing some of our people for that final step of going to the end of the earth with the Gospel. The opportunities for our church in the geographical location of South Jersey are numerous. The city of Philadelphia provides multiple opportunities with ethnic groups that are English speaking. With nearly 1.5 million people in this the 5th largest city in America. We believe that we should be actively pursuing the outreach opportunities that lie at our doorstep. We recognize that we will need to partner with like-minded churches in this regard, but are hopeful that we will have teams actively pursuing ethnic groups (outside of our cultural comforts).

4-End of the Earth

We define the “end of the earth” as reaching outside of my cultural comforts and outside of my language limitations.

In 21st century the end of the earth (EOE) dimension can further be understood by breaking it down into the people group’s receptivity to the Gospel. It is our desire to raise up a group of missionaries that are embracing all three aspects of the EOE dimension.

• EOE1- Cultural/Language Barrier and Open to the Gospel preaching.
• EOE2-Cultural/Language Barrier and the Gospel preaching must be done in connection with a humanitarian aid effort. This group is somewhat open to the Gospel.
• EOE3- Cultural/Language Barrier and the preaching of the Gospel is forbidden either politically, ethnically, or by nationality. The preaching of the Gospel here must be done subversively.

It is our persuasion that the various dimensions of Evangelistic Outreach could more effectively be done over a year-long emphasis rather than our traditional one week missions’ conference. This would provide a better balance for our outreach, and also give opportunity for more to be involved in mission projects and evangelistic outreaches. Each of the four mission’s dimensions is given a thirteen week sequence. One weekend during the thirteen week quarter will be set apart to concentrate on that particular mission opportunity. The Sunday evening prayer gatherings that quarter will highlight missionaries, and outreach opportunities of that particular focus. Mission’s events and trips will be promoted during that quarter, and we will actively pray for the Lord to send worker’s into the harvest of that field.

We believe that our focus on missions could be improved with a three-fold emphasis: Caring, Praying, and Going. We acknowledge there is room for improvement in all of these realms. We will attempt to include every supported missionary personally in our prayer gatherings this year – even when we have to bring them in via a web-cam. We want them to know that we have heard their requests and we want them to have heard us pray on their behalf.

We are confident that the going aspect of missions will be greatly enhanced as we give opportunity in each of the 4 dimensions of missions. Our short-term goal is to get as many involved in missions as we can; our long term goal is to send our people to each of those end-of-the-earth opportunities.