Core Values
August 18, 2008 – 5:15 pm
Missions Mandate’s mission is “to equip local churches for God-centered missions mobilization.” Six core values drive this mission. The following is an explanation of the core values:
1. The first is to “provide instructive missions material pertinent to the local church’s task of missions.” Organizing and supporting a cross-cultural church planting effort in another country is not a simple task. The issues facing churches in regards to missions are formidable. We desire to offer resources (written articles, blog entries, audio sermons and workshops, and videos) that will help local churches in their effort to develop a God-honoring missions focus.
2. If we are to carefully and thoughtfully navigate through missions issues today, we must do so with an understanding of the mistakes and successes of previous generations. Our second core value, seeking to “establish a historical and biblical perspective of missions,” points to this end. It would be naïve and foolish for us to neglect the wisdom of past missionaries, pastors, and missions leaders simply because their issues were slightly different from ours today (in fact, many are not different at all!). Through biographical highlights and excerpts from past missions works, we desire to encourage the reader to reflect upon these men and women and their helpful insights. These written resources from past missionaries will only be seen as valuable only as they mirror the principles of God’s Word, which remains our ultimate authority and the sole litmus test for missions ideology and practice.
3. One could verbalize the perfect missions philosophy, read and memorize every missionary biography available, attend every missions conference, blog about missions, and even take missions trips every year, without having the soil of his or her heart tender to God’s purpose for missions ministry. Failure in this area, on an individual and/or church-wide level, is failure to grasp God’s purpose for the world. To miss God’s purpose is to miss everything. “Stirring individuals to abandonment to God’s mission,” our third core value, shapes the selection of topics, the writing of articles, the posting of sermons and videos, and the very existence of the Missions Mandate ministry. Leading individuals and churches to devote their life to what God is doing in the world as a sender or goer is the worthy aspiration to which we strive.
4. Part of understanding what God is doing in the world involves knowing what is happening in the world. Our fourth core value is to “inform the reader of current world issues and their relation to missions.” Events that occur around the world have a profound effect on the mission of the church. Through a daily “Missions Beat” track, we will relay news events and provide commentary on their effect upon the world, specifically through the lens of church-planting efforts in these regions.
5. With volumes of missions works being penned every year, it is inevitable that new missions “buzz words” will arise. Many of these words are loaded with presuppositions and reflect a complex missions ideology which reveals the author’s theological grid. The fifth core value we hold is to “clarify missions terminology, the ideology behind the terms, and the impact the terminology has upon the local church’s task of missions.” The words and ideas found in academic and technical missions literature eventually trickle down and affect the pulpit and the pew. The phrase “seeker-sensitive church” is a classic example of this phenomenon. Though conceived in the minds of missions gurus, eventually it became one of the top “buzz words” of the past few decades. If churches and individuals are better informed and equipped as a result of this emphasis, then we will have fulfilled this aspect of our mission.
6. The final, overarching core value that acts as the helm of our mission is “to adhere to a God-centered philosophy in all things.” All that is offered through our website and other mediums is funneled through this principle. If we lose the center, we run the danger of fouling everything up. God is at the core of biblical missions, and it is our desire to lift high the God-centered banner through the opportunities that He graciously gives us.
May you and your church be edified and built up by these resources, as you Discover, Equip for, and strive to Fulfill the task of the Great Commission.
