Mission
The gospel calls us out of the world and into a distinct Kingdom family where we are marked by our faith in Christ. As we gather together weekly to worship, we are also equipped to scatter back into the world on mission. At Christ Covenant, we believe that the local church is God’s primary agent for advancing His gospel to the nations. Therefore, it is our aim to equip our members to evangelize, make disciples, and contribute to the work of multiplying churches around the world.
Mission Convictions
As Christ Covenant seeks to be more faithful to the Great Commission and as we get more focused in our missions efforts, it is important that we are guided by principles that we can agree to as a congregation.
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Because we believe that prayer is designed by God to advance His kingdom, we are committed to praying that the gospel would move speedily ahead through our own church’s efforts and our partnerships around the world (2 Thess. 3:1). We will gather regularly and corporately to intercede on behalf of our members on mission in our city and our partners serving around the world.
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Because the local church is God’s primary agent for advancing His gospel to the nations, we are committed to church planting and strengthening as the primary work that we do in missions (Acts 14:22, 15:32, 15:41,16:5, 18:23)
Indigenous Churches
Our aim is to send planters and missionaries to strategic cities around the world in order to start new churches or strengthen existing ones. Our missionaries will look to disciple, train, and raise up indigenous pastors and leaders who will establish Kingdom outposts in their own contexts.
International English-Speaking Churches
We believe that the International English Speaking church is a great model for missions in global cities. The Lord is moving the nations into multi-cultural, multilingual global cities around the world. He is often reaching them through churches that meet and worship in world languages (lingua francas). Internationals are moving into these cities without native language expertise and by necessity have to worship in a second or third language, often English. We are committed to sending Elder-Qualified Missionaries and teams to lead these English speaking churches in order to reach the nations in these cities.
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Because the Lord is assembling the nations into urban centers around the world at a pace unprecedented in human history, we are committed to the work of church planting and strengthening in global cities. If we are serious about the Great Commission, then we have to be serious about reaching cities both in North America and across the world.
The Bible and the City
We also believe the reality of the city matters because the Bible has much to say about it. In scripture we are given this beautiful picture of redemptive hope in the reality of a future city, the new Jerusalem (Rev. 21). It is depicted as a place where the garden realities of Eden, in Genesis, are restored for the nations to enjoy God forever. Tim Keller wonderfully describes this “city is the Garden of Eden, remade. The City is the fulfillment of the purposes of the Eden of God. We began in a garden but will end in a city.”
The City and Culture
We believe that even in a fallen world, God in His kindness dispenses His common grace in cities for His glory and the benefit of His image-bearers. It can be easy to focus on the various maladies of cities, but there is much good in the urban places of our world. Cities are not only “harbors” of resource, innovation, and skill but they also shape the cultural standards of the age. As the church, we have the opportunity to display and proclaim the special restorative grace of the Gospel in cities around the world. We also have the opportunity to engage our own city through the distinctiveness of our witness in our neighborhoods, vocations, and civic life.
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Long-Term
Because God uses the means of the local church to accomplish His work of redemption around the world, we are committed to identifying, assessing, and developing qualified long- term missionaries from our own church to go to the nations. We aim to accomplish this objective by utilizing the mechanisms in Christ Covenant’s pipeline (cohorts, Covenant Institute Classes, Apprenticeship, and Residency)
Mid-Term
There are a number of opportunities in conjunction with our Reach the World Partners to provide further practical on the field training through 3 month to 1 year long internships. These opportunities will give prospective long-term missionaries the opportunity to gain further experience and assessment in an overseas context. (RTIM Global Internship, Mustard Seed Network Internships)
Short-Term
We are also committed to doing short term missions faithfully, sending our own teams to strengthen partners, mobilize future long term missionaries, and build missions awareness into our church.
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Because we are laborers together with the global Church (1 Cor. 3:9), we are committed to cooperating with macro organizations, entities, and networks that are church-centered and align with our core convictions. We believe that the right macro partnerships are effective for networking, collaborating and streamlining kingdom resources to churches around the world (ie. IMB, City to City, Acts 29, Upstream, Gospel City Network, European Collaboration, Duck & Goose, RTIM)
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Because the Lord has provided to Christ Covenant faithful leaders, generous members, and other great gifts, we are committed to sharing our resources for the advancement of the Kingdom around the world. We will do this with great reverence and responsibility, ensuring that we are stewarding our resources faithfully and effectively for the display of God’s glory among the nations. (Discipleship, Covenant Wheel, Institute, Corporate Worship, Community Groups, Biblical Counseling)
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Because God has called Christ Covenant to be a distinct Kingdom outpost in a secular place, we will seek to display His renewing power in our city. As we scatter across greater Atlanta during the week, we will seek to love our neighbors and co-workers by doing good works, showing mercy and pursuing justice. We will live out a distinct Kingdom ethic that will image Christ as we wait for His return. We believe that in order to live this out faithfully, we must equip our members to live as Kingdom ambassadors in the vulnerable spaces of our city. We also believe it is essential to establish and maintain meaningful Kingdom partnerships with organizations, ministries, schools, and churches in our communities.
Personal Evangelism
The primary purpose of the church gathered is to worship together, and in doing so, remind one another of who God is and what he has done for us in Christ. The primary purpose of the church scattered is that the glory of God, the power of the gospel, and the Kingdom of God would go out to a world that has been separated from God by sin. This is done so that God might restore all things to himself through the proclaimed gospel of Christ. This means that the primary purpose of pastors, elders, and other church leaders is to equip the church to that end; that the church would be mature and ready for making an impact in the world for Christ (see Ephesians 4:11-16).
Bless the City
Christ Covenant seeks to live out the Great Commandments through how we Bless the City (Matthew 22: 36-40). “Bless the City” is our scattering ministry to the city of Atlanta where we get to display the mercy and justice of our God through good works. We believe that the way we love our neighbor should overflow from faith in the true gospel (Ephesians 2:8-10). Consequently, the Lord uses our good deeds to open doors for the proclamation of the gospel. In light of the overwhelming physical and spiritual need in our city, we are committed to loving our neighbors by focusing our efforts into four areas: Community Flourishing, Family Restoration, Fighting Trafficking, and Refugee Care.
Reach the World
We believe that the local church is the engine of the missions enterprise. At Christ Covenant we look to engage in the Great Commission primarily in three ways:
1. Pray
It should be a regular rhythm of our lives as Christians to pray for the advance of the Gospel. We should pray for disciples to be made among unreached peoples and places and for churches to be planted and revitalized. While we obviously want this to happen in every place, we would strongly encourage you to pray for these things in specific places. Here are a few great ways to pray for missionaries and church planters all over the world:
Join our weekly mission prayer gathering on Tuesday mornings at 7:00 am at The Armour Collective.
Pray for our partner churches and missionaries by clicking “Learn More” below.
2. Give
Scripture calls churches to support the work of missions through financial, material, and relational provision. Financially, it has always been our commitment that at least 10% of everything we give financially as a church goes to ministry outside of Christ Covenant. Our goal, as we continue to mature as a congregation, is to give more than 10% of our budget to support missions. We use these funds to meet any material needs that surface through our partnerships, or to fund specific projects, and maintain healthy relationships with our partners through our missions conference, biblical counseling resources, and care teams. You can also give directly to many of these missions efforts.
3. Go
At Christ Covenant we talk often about gathering faithfully so that we can scatter well. Part of how we scatter well is to be ready and willing to “go” out into our workplaces, neighborhoods, and even to other nations with the Gospel. At Christ Covenant we encourage our members to consider going out to join in the ministry efforts of our church planters, missionaries, and churches beyond our city. We do this primarily through short-term, mid-term and long-term sending.