Elders and mission
This part of the course explores what mission
means; how mission is actually God’s agenda and how the
spirit can support and define mission, for us as individuals, and for the wider church.
3. What does mission mean?
Mission
is God’s agenda. It is what God wants us
to be involved with and DO! God
challenges each and every one of us consistently. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we are
collectively responsible for the delivery of God’s plan both locally and
further afield. Local churches are not
focused solely on the needs of members, but also on service within the wider
communities to which we belong.
The section of the United Reformed Church Manual that deals with Elders' states that among the various functions of the Elders' meeting it has a responsibility to:
‘… foster in the congregation concern for witness and service to the community [and] evangelism at home and abroad …’
from: The URC Manual Section B 2.(2)(i) page 4
Mission can, however, be considered at several levels:
- it may be personal mission that God calls individuals to address or,
- it may be that groups within the church are called to take forward a specific aspect of God’s agenda such as support for older people, delivery of food to the hungry, or support for asylum seekers. And,
- in some cases, mission may be taken on by the church as a whole body.
In every case, individual, group, or church-wide, mission results in action! To put this another way, mission is the purpose of the church and shapes its practice – how we do things. Fulfilling the mission that God has set is the way God’s kingdom of justice and joy will be realised.
Footnote - has your church, or Eldership, thought about doing the URC's discipleship development programme Stepwise as part of their mission work? You can find more details of what Stepwise offers by clicking on the 'Take a Look...' tab on your dashboard (find it next to the tab for Exploring Eldership when you log in to the Learning Hub).