- Outreach
- Mission to the World
- Theology of Missions
- Short-term Mission Trips
- Local Outreach & Evangelism
- Why Word & Deed
- Church of Irresistible Influence
World Missions at Church of the Covenant
The good news is for all nations. God promises that “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” Not by a sword does Jesus bring nations to their knees, but by the grace of the gospel. Because all authority has been given to him, he will have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth!
It is a great joy to us to know that God’s salvation is not ethnically limited. When Jesus died on the cross, he ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. One of the goals we have is to help every believer become a “world Christian.” John Piper explains this in his chapter on Missions in Desiring God.
I would like to believe that many of you who read this chapter are on the brink of setting a new course of commitment to missions: some a new commitment to go to a frontier people, others a new path of education, others a new use of your vocation in a culture less saturated by the church, others a new lifestyle and a new pattern of giving and praying and reading. I want to push you over the brink. I would like to make the cause of missions so attractive that you will no longer be able to resist its magnetism.
Not that I believe everyone will become a missionary, or even should become one. But I pray that every reader of this book might become what David Bryant calls a World Christian—that you would reorder your life around God's global cause. In his inspiring book, In the Gap, Bryant defines World Christians as that group of Christians who say,
We want to accept personal responsibility for reaching some of earth's unreached, especially from among the billions at the widest end of the Gap who can only be reached through major new efforts by God's people. Among every people-group where there is no vital, evangelizing Christian community there should be one, there must be one, there shall be one. Together we want to help make this happen.
Your Opportunity To Be Involved
God asks all of his people to be World Christians, and we hope to help equip you for involvement in this glorious cause.
- Read John Piper’s Book, Let The Nations Be Glad!
- Read true Missionary Stories such as those by or about John Paton, Don Richardson, or Ruth Tucker
- Read Gordon Olson’s What In World Is God Doing?
- Attend a Missions Conference (Our next one is scheduled for early 2010. Check the calendar for exact dates.)
- Meet a missionary in person and ask them to tell you about how God is working in their life
Praying for Missionaries
Not every Christian can go on the mission field, but everyone can pray. At Church of the Covenant, we regularly pray for the missionaries we support. The first Sunday of each month, for example, we highlight the work of one of “our” missionaries and pray for them during the morning service. Additionally, we encourage our congregation to pray regularly for missions.
One very useful tool for prayer for missions is the Operation World Web site. You can even set one of your homepage tabs to the Operations World Web site and a different country will be shown you each day along with specific items for prayer.
Giving to Missionaries and Mission Works
We also participate in World Missions by giving financially. At Church of the Covenant, we give a portion of our budget each year to support missionaries. Currently, we are giving to:
- The Brauers, serving in UK/Ireland
- The Pfeils, serving in Japan | CLICK HERE for the Pfeils' Recent Newsletter in PDF
- The Wroughtons, serving in Peru
- The Wegeners, serving in Zambia | CLICK HERE for the Wegeners' Recent Newsletter in PDF
Additionally, we give to our Denominational Mission agency, for they provide a tremendous amount of infrastructure and assistance for PCA Missionaries.
More information on Mission to the World
Mission to the World is the mission-sending agency of the Presbyterian Church in America, helping to fulfill the Great Commission by advancing Reformed and covenantal church-planting movements through word and deed in strategic areas worldwide.
Mission Sending Agency of the PCA
MTW advances the work of the body of Christ worldwide through a wide variety of word and deed ministries by identifying, selecting, training and sending men and women and integrating these into church-planting movements. We minister among unreached people groups in world-class cities as well as hinterland areas, partnering with national churches and indigenous leaders whenever possible. MTW also partners with local PCA churches to glorify God through the discovery and engagement of their unique potential, purpose and passion for cross-cultural ministry.
Reformed and Covenantal
MTW upholds the doctrines of sovereign grace and the truth that God saves His people as described in the Westminster Standards. The Holy Scriptures are inerrant and authoritative, relating the reliable history of God’s covenantal relationship with His children. In regard to that relationship, it is clear that missions is a divine enterprise in which God commands and graciously accepts the obedience of His children. Our foundation for missions is the dual truth that God chose in eternity those who will be saved and that He also uses us as instruments in the process of saving them.
Church Planting Movements A church-planting movement is a Spirit-directed, vision-driven, sustained expansion of Christ's Kingdom among a particular geographic or ethnic people. This is accomplished through indigenously led churches resulting in ongoing church multiplication and renewal that significantly impacts all levels of society-spiritually, socially and culturally. We will advance church-planting movements by partnering with an existing group or denomination that is Reformed and covenantal. When there is no such group we may establish a new Reformed and covenantal denomination. As the Holy Spirit leads we will also take opportunities to impact others from our Reformed and covenantal perspective.
MTW believes that the Church is God's instrument to complete the missionary task. Our approach is to advance movements of the gospel through the planting of self-propagating, self-supporting, and self-governing churches, which live out a dynamic Reformed and covenantal faith through trained and empowered leadership.
Word And Deed
Word: the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ in all of its fullness.
Deed: the demonstration of the gospel of Jesus Christ through meeting physical, emotional, social or cultural needs, in the context of church planting.