Reach the World

First of all, this commission is great in its magnitude. Accord ing to the International Mission Board, there are more than 11,500 people groups and over 5,500 of them are considered to be unreached people groups. A people group is any group of people who identify with each other based on common ancestry, ethnicity, culture, and language. An unreached people group is any people group with less than two percent of its population “reached” with the gospel. Currently, there are more than five billion people that don’t know the gospel.

This is a great task that we have before us. Our Lord has commissioned His church for this great task, and with His help we can reach the whole world with the good news of the gospel. Think about this... Jesus initially gave this commission to eleven ordinary guys. These eleven guys were not kings or rulers with far-reaching power and authority. These guys were just your everyday, regular guys who were faithful to leverage their lives for the name of Christ. And now, look how far the work of the gospel has come.

Jesus has always had the multiplication of the church in mind. If today there was only one Christian and he or she discipled eight people in one year, and then, the next year all eight of those discipled eight more people, you would have 64 disciples. And then, if the next year all 64 of those new disciples effectively discipled eight people and this went on and on and on. With this pattern of discipling, we would reach every person on the Earth in approximately ten years. This is doable. We can do this. We could see this happen in our lifetime.

Secondly, this commission is great because it is the work of God. God has commanded us to join him in a precious and beautiful task, and it is the greatest responsibility that we could ever have because eternity with God is at stake for every human on the earth.

We want everything that we do at Christ Covenant to be focused on God’s gospel, God’s kingdom, and God’s mission. We want to be a church where every member knows and can apply the gospel to life. We want to be a church where every member knows they are part of a kingdom family that gathers for corporate worship and scatters to our respective areas of responsibility throughout the week. We want to be a church full of good neighbors who seek to be a blessing to our city. However, when we talk about “missions” and “reaching the world” we are talking about making disciples beyond our city.

A good way to think about the Great Commission is to think about it in terms of heavenly colonization. God is bringing little colonies of heaven to earth, and in these colonies the kingdom of Christ is seen, experienced, and known. Jesus introduced the first heavenly colony through His disciples. Through these men, we see and understand the world’s first church. Christ told these disciples to go and make more disciples and by implication to start new churches. These churches, or heavenly colonies, would work together to make even more disciples and start new churches from Jerusalem to Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. This is the pattern we see throughout the New Testament - disciples making disciples and churches planting churches. Eventually, this movement came all the way over here to Atlanta, Georgia where our church was planted. And now, disciples are being made and we are experiencing a taste of the kingdom of Christ.

Participating in the Great Commission and reaching the world with the gospel is to engage in the greatest movement the world has ever known. We want our church members to take the gospel to places in the world where the gospel has not yet to be heard. We want to be a part of God’s work of establishing healthy churches (colonies of heaven) all over the world. We want to be a church that plants churches where no church exists, revitalizes churches that have grown weak, and help strong churches grow stronger in their mission and work.

There are many ways to engage with the Great Commission. First and foremost, it is important for you to be a disciple maker where you are. Be praying for people that don’t know the Lord that you are around every day and seek to engage with them for disciple making. Beyond the city of Atlanta, there are three basic ways to engage with what God is doing around the world.

1. Pray

Here are a couple great ways to pray for missionaries and church planters all over the world:

www.imb.org/pray

www.namb.net/pray

2. Give

One of the best ways to engage with what God is doing around the world is to be generous to our church. Individual and corporate generosity will allow us to support a wide range of ministries all over the world. We currently support broader networks that facilitate church planting, revitalization, and the strengthening of churches all over the world. Additionally, we have direct partnerships with various strategic churches and ministries. Some of you may be lead to support some of these ministries directly, but we believe the most strategic pathway for deep impact is that we give collectively to ministries and partners that we prayerfully support and trust. Our Missions Team works diligently to channel resources in the most strategic way possible.

3. Go

The final way to engage with what God is doing outside of Atlanta is to actually break the rhythm of normalcy and go. Go for the purpose and with the intent of partnering with faithful churches, church planters, or missionaries beyond our city.

Short Term:

A short-term missions trip could be anywhere from three days to two weeks with the purpose of engaging and supporting a ministry outside of our city.

Mid Term:

A mid-term missions trip could be anywhere from a couple of months to a year with the purpose of being a strategic partner on a global missions team or church planting team.

Long Term:

Long-term missions is a call to the mission field through North American church planting or global missions work on a long-term basis.

All members are expected to support missions by volunteering with local partners at least two times per year, participating in a short term missions trip at least once every three years, and giving to missions through the general fund. God is building His church throughout the world and he has invited you to participate in this work.