Welcome to Missions Mandate!
August 18, 2008 – 7:00 am
Welcome to Missions Mandate! Missions Mandate is a missions mobilization ministry that exists to equip local churches for God-centered missions mobilization.
The title “Missions Mandate” is derived from our Lord’s Great Commission to “go…and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them…teaching them” (Matt.28.19-20). This is the overarching mandate for all of Jesus’ disciples.
The ministry of Missions Mandate is God-centered. God does all things for His glory. He created and sustains the heavens so that they might declare His glory (Ps. 19); the earth is full of it (Is.6.3); He is jealous of it and will not share it with anyone/anything (Is. 42.8); it is the supreme purpose of redemption (Eph.1.12); its fullest expression is found in Jesus Christ (John 1.14; 2 Cor. 4.6; Heb. 1.3), specifically in the death of Christ on the cross (John 17.1). Therefore, our ministry is focused on exalting God’s glory.
Missions Mandate is a missions mobilization ministry. Missions mobilization is best defined as “any process by which God’s people are awakened and kept moving and growing until they find their place for strategic involvement in the task of completing world evangelization.”1 As a missions mobilization ministry, we desire to help both senders and goers fulfill their role in obedience to the Great Commission. Three aspects are essential elements if a church is to have a healthy, biblical vision for missions: ministering by reaching the unreached, aiding those reaching the unreached, and providing resources needed to sustain those reaching the unreached. Missions Mandate desires to stand behind the local church and help them accomplish these three goals, to the glory of God. This desire explains the double appearance of the phrase “missions mobilization” in our mission statement. We desire to help mobilize local churches in order that they might perpetually mobilize their members for the cause of missions.
We purpose to aid in missions mobilization by equipping local churches. We do not offer any “new-fangled” methods or quick-fix solutions-just clear, biblical, God-centered resources that focus us back on the main things: God, the gospel, and the Great Commission for God’s glory. The best information that we can offer is proven, biblically-based ideas and examples that will complement the missions vision of a local church. Some of the resources offered on our website are excerpts from past missions books and biographies, which provide a historical framework to enable better understanding of current issues. Finally, all resources and information will be presented with the assumption that the Bible is our sole standard (sola Scriptura), final authority, and sufficient guide to provide answers to the toughest questions that we might ask about missions.
The end goal of Missions Mandate is the mobilization of the local church. God established one institution for the purpose of uniting, protecting, encouraging, equipping, and sending believers-the local church. Any missions efforts that circumvent the primacy of the local church go against the principles of God’s Word and will not last. Jesus’ promise of protection from the “gates of Hades” (Matt. 16.18) is given to the local church alone.
The gospel is the core of our faith: the good news of who God is, what His purpose is, who we are, what our purpose is, who Jesus is, and how we can be rightly related to God only as we are united to Jesus by faith through His substitutionary death, burial, and resurrection. Though the term is not found in our mission statement, it is the implicit substance of our message to the nations; we have no other. To be “God-centered” in our missions endeavors is ultimately to be “gospel-centered.” A true understanding of the gospel causes us to hold high the banner of God’s supremacy over all things. John Piper has stated, “Missions exists because worship doesn’t.”2 The gospel is the good news that through Jesus Christ and his mediatory position between mankind and God the Father we can worship God, thereby glorifying Him, fulfilling our purpose for existence, and obtaining true, everlasting joy.
1Ralph Winter. The Process of Mobilization. Missions Mobilization Handbook. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 1996.
2John Piper. Let the Nations Be Glad! (Grand Rapids, Baker: 1993, 2003), p. 17.
