According to The United Methodist Book of Discipline paragraph 120 “the mission of the Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Local churches provide the most significant arena through which disciple-making occurs.” The rational of the mission statement goes on to indicate that “proclaiming the good news of God’s grace and by exemplifying Jesus’ command to love God and neighbor” aids in pursuing the satisfaction of God’s supremacy and reign of the entire world.
The mission statement of the United Methodist Church ties in with Matthew 28:19-20 (CEB) as Jesus tells his disciples “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” This is the charge that Jesus gave to all people, not just to ministers. The commandment was for all believers to make disciples of all people regardless of their sex, race or where they live. “Jesus did not tell us to go into the world and discover disciples or evoke disciples” thus indicating that we are not born as disciples but are developed into disciples. A pastor therefore, “works with Christ to form the church.”
In the United Methodist denomination the official statement is that the mission of the church is to make disciples for Jesus Christ and at the same time, Jesus is telling people that they are to make disciples for Christ, then the mission statement is pretty much the same for the church as it is the people. This is an interesting thought as so often people forget that the church belongs to Jesus Christ and not to the people. Jesus Christ i...
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...an life, your life will tend to run more smooth. Although a persons like is not promised to be a smooth journey, a journey that incorporates the Trinity in it will certainly be an easier journey.
As I serve God as the pastor of Buckner United Methodist Church I take my understanding of the mission of the Church, the knowledge of the Trinity and the lead that God provides to minister to the people in the town and the community. I stress to the people that we are called to love and offer God’s grace to all, regardless of where they live, their religious preferences, their color or the government preferences. A good part of the community I serve is Republican and feel that it is probably best if white people live in the community. I utilize my understanding of God’s grace to reach out to all people and to model the behavior that I feel God is calling me to model.
United Methodists are not supposed to contradict the church's doctrinal standards, but can "go beyond and expand
After his conversion to Christianity, Paul traveled throughout the Roman Empire and preached the Gospel, similar to Jesus’ own ministry across Galilee. Paul’s teachings were more focused on the community and the relationships of its members with each other and with non-Christians, whereas Jesus’ teachings were geared towards the individual and his/her personal relationship to God. Despite this discrepancy in their doctrines, Paul’s teachings remain consistent with those of Jesus. In his First Letter to the Corinthians, Paul’s teachings, such as unity in the community and love for others, echo the teachings of Jesus as depicted in the Gospel of Mark and Matthew. Paul essentially reiterates the teachings of Jesus, and applies them to the lives of the people he preaches to, so that they may understand Jesus’ teachings and embrace Christianity.
The African Methodist Episcopal Church also known as the AME Church, represents a long history of people going from struggles to success, from embarrassment to pride, from slaves to free. It is my intention to prove that the name African Methodist Episcopal represents equality and freedom to worship God, no matter what color skin a person was blessed to be born with. The thesis is this: While both Whites and Africans believed in the worship of God, whites believed in the oppression of the Africans’ freedom to serve God in their own way, blacks defended their own right to worship by the development of their own church. According to Andrew White, a well- known author for the AME denomination, “The word African means that our church was organized by people of African descent Heritage, The word “Methodist” means that our church is a member of the family of Methodist Churches, The word “Episcopal refers to the form of government under which our church operates.”
No chapter in this book is more convincing than the very first one. In chapter one Bryant and Brunson address God’s call to preach. “The church may call a man to be its pastor, but God calls a man to preach.” (Bryant and Brunson 2007, 14). The authors make it clear that preaching the Word of God is at the core of the pastoral ministry. They suggest that the call to preach is a calling from God, which may result in the obedient one pastoring a church; but, will always result in that man preaching the Word of God. All that is needed is a commitment to the Word from the one whom God has chosen. “You make the commitment. God will make away.” (Bryant and Brunson 2007, 15)
The church has more than one definition. The local church, which is a body of believers that have a specific place that they gather to worship and study the Word of God. The other definition is the Body of Christ, which includes every person that has accepted Christ as personal Lord and Savior. Both of these “organisms” preach and nurture Christians, which is missions.” God birthed the church, and when the church puts God at the center of the church, the focus of the church will change from being a church centered mission to a mission centered church and God will begin to use the church as His instrument for missions. Jesus after He was raised from the dead told all of His followers to proclaim that salvation was complete through His death burial and resurrection and it was/is free to those who will receive it. (Luke 24:44-48) The church has been divinely appointed by God to get the Gospel out into the world. The work of the church and God’s message of salvation will be for nothing if the church is not obedient and follow through with the instructions that God has tasked it with. (Acts 10:36) When the church is in line with God’s intention and is Spirit led, God the Father will be preparing hearts, Christ the Son will invite “whosoever will” and the Holy Spirit will convict and draw sinners to respond. (Rev.
In a survey conducted in 2012, LifeWay.com inquired about the importance of evangelism among members of the Christian faith. The results of the survey showed that 80 percent of people who claimed to follow Jesus Christ and had openly devoted themselves to the teaching of Christianity, felt that they had a “personal responsibility to share their religious views and beliefs about Jesus Christ with non-christians” (Wilke, LifeWay.com). Surveys such as this reflect the Christian doctrine of evangelism and the weight it holds within the Christian faith. As can be seen back in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus Christ commanded His followers “to go and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19).” However, Jesus never told His followers how doing this.
...hat share my faith and together worship Jesus. I believe that by being in fellowship with other believers I will have a strong opportunity to pursue and fulfill God’s purpose in my life, whether it is a daily or lifetime calling.
I must say that I learned a lot from this class both through the readings and through class discussion. I really, honestly do not have anything that I starkly disagreed with in either. I found it all to be very valuable information for me and this class was extremely helpful in assisting me to better understand the current paradigm shift the church is going through. There are three take-a-ways in particular that helped me to better understand the post modern shift in the church and my role as a minister in this changing paradigm. The first take-a-way is the understanding that there is a shift occurring towards focusing more on the congregational life of the church with more attention on the laity and its formation. Second, is how to plan, as a church and as pastors, to adjust to this shift towards congregational life and how to be better prepared as a postmodern church to be relevant in this changing time. Lastly, I received a better way of explaining the meaning of what truth is in this post modern time.
The church meeting is for worship and for the growth of the saved. The fellowship on the Sunday is to energize us to reach out to the lost. The primary elements of the Sunday worship is the Lord's Supper, prayer, and preaching. Singing and fellowship are important secondary elements of the Sunday service. However those aspects easily become the primary focus of the service. So I make them lesser and it is easier to achieve balance in the service. My preaching must be understandable to even the most uneducated Christian. Furthermore, preaching must be solidly exegetical. I must never afraid to preach the hard things of the Gospel. We should allow non-Christians in the Sunday service, but do not seek them out for that service.
Mark 8:34 is the only time on the Gospel when Jesus calls the crowd together with disciples because his message is of very high importance. The price for discipleship is a complete denial of yourself in the name of God . And the mission of Jesus is to bring this message to humankind through his suffering and death on the cross. In Mark's gospel Jesus provides his identity which becomes the turning point in the human history. Before He was teaching, healing the sick, had scraps with authorities and established a group of disciples . Was it his mission? No. Jesus is the Messiah.
It may seem a little bit strange, but my favorite place in town in none other than this beautiful Evangelic Church. However, it wasn’t always so.
Missio Dei is a Latin word that means “The Mission of God”; which means, “God’s redemptive initiative on behalf of His creation” (Tennent, 54). God’s Missions involves all of the triune: God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit. Each individual of the triune has a unique role to this redemptive initiative. Throughout scripture this mission is revealed from Genesis to Revelation, because applying the whole Bible reveals Holistic mission according to Wright (303). Which also includes O 'brien “The notion of mission is intimately bound up with his saving plan which moves from creation to new creation, and has to do with his salvation reaching the ends of the earth” (25).
Evangelism is one of the key component for changing people’s lives. McRaney states, “The word evangelism comes from a combination of Greek words for “good” and “messenger.” Evangelism involves bringing the goods. Kent Hunter reminded us that “when Christians witness, they tell how Jesus Christ has changed their own lives. The change in their own lives gives them the desires to share the Good News with others.” Christians must share their testimony to people and spread the gospel so that they can bring lost souls to Christ. God has commissioned every Christian to evangelize so that people will learn about Jesus Christ and accept Him as their personal savior. Matthew 28:19 states, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”. Christians are required to spread the Gospel throughout the world and can no longer just attend church. Christians must plant seeds and water the seeds so that lost souls will be saved.
Another aspect of the minister’s preaching is to preach with the intent to advance the kingdom of God. First and foremost, a pastor is to point his people to Christ. If there is no Christ-centered preaching, then there is no true biblical preaching. A shepherd leads and feeds his flock and that is primarily the pastor’s role. He is to direct