Local and Global Mission
This is the final post in our series looking at the Seven Foundations at Christ the King. You can also read about our new Mission and Vision statements.
Today, we will consider our seventh and final foundation: Local and Global Mission.
The Mission of the Church
Christ Jesus, the only King and Head of the church, gives his church its mission—make disciples. The Great Commission at the end of Matthew’s gospel is the mission of the Church. And every particular and local church, throughout time and around the world, shares in that same mission.
At Christ the King, we summed up our particular church’s Mission Statement by saying that we exist to minister the King’s gifts to His people. This is our way of restating the Great Commission, that we will make disciples as we give people Jesus’ gifts of Word and Sacrament—teaching and baptizing—as Jesus called us to do.
Ultimately, we are in the business of making disciples. That is the mission of the universal church, and is our mission as well. When we consider our mission, we start with our community and we branch out from there. That’s why we’ve described this final foundation as both a local and global mission.
The Local Mission
The first calling CTK has as a church is to our community in the Joplin area. That is where Jesus planted us and the people to whom we are called. We desire to see our local community believe the gospel of Jesus Christ that saves sinners, to behold the whole counsel of God contained in his Word, and become more like Christ through the sanctifying grace of his Spirit. All of that is summarized in our Vision Statement, and we want to see that happen in Joplin.
That mission will naturally occur through our weekly worship services centered around the ordinary means of Word and Sacrament. But it also looks like constant prayer and desire to see more faithful churches planted in the Ozarks. We are actively supporting church planting efforts and are continuing to pray about future church plants.
The session of CTK is blessed to serve as the temporary governing structure of the PCA church plant in Springfield, Gospel Fellowship PCA. Pastor Dustin Ray is the church planter and pastor of this church, and we encourage you to visit their website and join them for worship on Sunday if you are in the Springfield area. You can also learn more about our churches and what makes us distinct by listening to Reforming the Ozarks, hosted by myself (Levi) and Dustin. We provide updates on our churches and discuss various topics to help support and encourage faithful, confessional and reformed churches in SWMO.
This area of the country is ripe for the harvest. We are earnestly praying for and desire to see more churches planted in our area, particularly in the Carthage and Neosho communities. If you are interested in learning more about our church and our church planting efforts, please reach out! We would love to hear from you.
The Global Mission
None of our churches exist in isolation. Neither is our calling restricted only to our geographical area. Rather, we are part of the global, universal church. We belong to the body of Christ that exists across all nations, peoples, and tongues.
It is our joy to partner with and financially support missionaries. We primarily do this through the PCA’s mission sending agency, Mission to the World. We have also supported one time groups and ministries, short and long term projects, and other missions works.
Though we cannot always support financially to the extent we would want, we value missions and continue to pray that God will raise up more faithful men and women to do the hard gospel work around the world.
Thy Kingdom Come
In all of this, our prayer is as our Lord taught us, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.” We want to see King Jesus’ kingdom advance in our lives, in our community, and around the world. We have complete confidence because we know that his own Spirit is at work, and he will complete his work on that great day when he returns. By his grace, may we be faithful to the mission he has given us, all to his glory.
