Missions Philosophy & Guidelines
Springs of Grace currently supports full time missionaries from our church family serving in the the Philippines, Albania and the Middle East as well as provided prayer support to missionaries in Ukraine. We also support missionaries in Mexico, China and Tanzania that have connections to our church family.
We believe that missions exists where the worship of God doesn’t exist. We are not God and compared to the ultimate reality of the Creator God we are not much. God forever is the I AM God. All humanity is derivative and secondary. God always was and has no beginning. Man was created to make much of God. All things were made by Him and for Him (Colossians 1:16). Man has fallen short of the glory of God by exchanging God’s glory for lesser things. Even more – man is guilty in having Adam’s sin imputed to him. There are no exceptions to human sinfulness. All who come from Adam are in need of the second Adam. There is only One, Jesus Christ. There is no other way for anyone to get right with God but through God’s one remedy: the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and the power of His Spirit through faith. No other religion teaches this remedy besides biblical Christianity. God has revealed to us the diagnosis and God has revealed to us the remedy. He has shown it to us. He has made us love it and rejoice in it. We believe it is to be our joy and our passion to spread a passion for the supremacy of Christ in all things from the neighborhoods to the nations. Missions is God’s strategy for calling out of every tribe and tongue and nation a chosen people for the praise of the glory of His grace.
I. Our mission is God-centered
3 John 3:6-7 “who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles.”
A. Missions is about magnifying God.
Missions is not the end goal of the Christian life or of the church but it is a means to the end goal of magnifying or glorifying God. Psalm 96:3 says, “Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among the peoples.” Psalm 57:5 says, “Be exalted O God above the heavens.” It is wrong for people to ignore God. “Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised.” We long for others to know the great God we know. So we declare that God is great and greatly to be praised and the message has to be God-centered. It is not about us. It is about God. Romans 3:23 says “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 1:18 says that the unrighteous have suppressed the truth (they have held down the truth of who God is). It goes on to say that they have exchanged the worship of the Creator with the worship of themselves – the worship of the creature.
Acts of benevolence express lives that are satisfied with God and these acts may open the door for the gospel. We love because He first loved us. We seek to have the acts of benevolence as directly associated with the God we love as possible so that the acts of love and kindness are seen as the overflow of our love from God and our satisfaction with God.
The incarnation of Christ not only has much to teach us about missionary methods but also about God’s aim as a missionary. Romans 15:8-9 says, Romans 15:8-9 – “Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision (God in Jesus Christ became a man – a servant – Why?) for the truth of God (to show God’s truthfulness), to confirm the promises made to the fathers, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy.”
Therefore the end and goal of world missions is that the nations might glorify God for His mercy. The aim of missions is always worship. The gap between God’s goal to glorify Himself in all that He does and the world of unbelief that denies Him that glory is being closed by God through the means of world missions. Jesus came to reveal to us the greatness of God. So God-centered missions is about magnifying God.
B. God centered missions is about displaying God’s mercy.
Romans 15:9 “…that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy…” Christ came to show that God is truthful and that God is glorious for His mercy. That’s our mission as well – to magnify God – to magnify His mercy – to show that God is truthful – to show that God is glorious – to show that God above all things is gracious. He came into this world as a servant and died on the cross. And so like Christ, our mission is to humble ourselves and to display the mercy of God to other people. Psalm 67:3-4 – “Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You. Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy!” Our mission is to call people in this city and in this nation and from all nations to give praise to God for the glory of His grace – to be glad that God is God.
II. Our mission is God motivated.
3 John 7 – Those traveling missionaries went out “for His name’s sake.”
A. Missions is about concern for Christ’s reputation
Philippians 2:10-11; Matthew 6:9-10 God must be recognized for who He is.
B. Missions is about loving Christ more than anything else.
Psalm 67:1-2; Romans 11:36 There are two ways you can look at your own life and see what God is worth to you: 1) by the depth of your sacrifice – Luke 21:4; 2) by the height of your joy – Matthew 13:44.
III. Our mission is God called
A. We believe in the high calling of sending out missionaries.
Titus 3:13; Matthew 10:41
B. We believe in the high calling of going out as missionaries.
Matthew 16:18; Psalm 86:9; John 10:16
Missionary Support
Missionary candidates seeking support from Springs of Grace Church must:
- Give evidence of regeneration and the marks of a worshipper who pursues their joy in God.
- Affirm the profession of their faith through baptism
- Read and affirm the core doctrines and philosophy of Springs of Grace Church as expressed in the doctrinal statement and the Eight Pillars document.
Further – it is recommended that missionary candidates seeking support from Springs of Grace Church:
- Have served at Springs of Grace for multiple years and/or attended Springs of Grace Church Preacher School for at least 2 years.
- Have participated in our inner city ministry intern program for at least 1 summer.
Church support for missionaries includes:
- The extent of financial and physical support for missionaries will be determined by the elders and the missions committee.
- Each missionary will be evaluated individually for what level of support the church will seek to provide.
- Priority will be given to those missionaries who come out from us – either from our preacher school, intern program, or those raised up in the church body.
- Each missionary will have a support team of at least 5 people within the church who will serve to coordinate the church’s support to them. This includes correspondence, prayer needs, physical and personnel needs, and updating the rest of the church body regarding this particular ministry.