Calvin Community Church

(Presbyterian)

25 Robertson Street, Gore, New Zealand.

Ph. 64 3 208 9973,    Fax 64 3 208 0891,    Email: Office@calvin.org.nz

 

Calvin's Mission Statement

 

Our mission is:

Helping People Follow Jesus

 

 

The expanded version is...

Helping People Follow Jesus

Comments on our Mission Statement

We understand "mission" and "purpose" to mean the same thing i.e. what we exist for; what God calls us to do.

 

The invitation to follow Him was one of the most common and fundamental ways Jesus talked about discipleship. We believe being a Christian is essentially about following Jesus. It focuses on the person of Jesus who asks that we follow Him.

 

Our mission as a church is to help people do that. That means reaching out to those who don't yet know Jesus as well as helping those who do, to follow Him better.

 

The Great Commission in Matthew 28 says our task is to make disciples. Disciples are students who are following Jesus and learning from Him. The components of that task, outlines in Matthew 28, are 1) by going, 2) by baptising, which indicates the task of evangelism and bringing people into a relationship with Jesus, and 3) "teaching them to obey all that [Jesus] has commanded."

 

We want to take all three components seriously. We want to be outward looking and not just concerned about ourselves. We want to help people come to faith. We want to help train those who do choose to follow Jesus.

 

The five bullet points help to spell out what following Jesus entails. You might recognise them as the five purposes of the church identified by Rick Warren. They may be a slight simplification but they are an enormously useful framework for thinking about the mission of the church, we think.

 

Worshipping God is pretty straightforward

 

Caring for each other is the "fellowship" aspect of church life, i.e. it is about being a family in which everybody is loved, encouraged, nurtured, and cared for at all times but especially when life is rough.

 

Becoming like Jesus is what is often called "discipleship" meaning our own growth to spiritual maturity.

 

Serving others (or "ministry") picks up the church's responsibility to help people in need, both within the church and outside.

 

Sharing the Good News is evangelism. The word "gospel" literally means "Good News" and refers to the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. The message of God's love for the world expressed in the giving of His Son to save the world is fantastic and revolutionary. It is certainly good news.

 

You might notice that the mission of the church is directed towards God, towards other members of our church family, towards ourselves and towards those outside the church.