Missional Communities
God gave to us as followers of Jesus Christ the Great Commission. This is the mission to reach everyone, everywhere!
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
– Matthew 28:18-20 NIV
Usually we look at this scripture and identify 4 verbs namely go, make disciples, baptise and teach. Interesting is the fact that in the original Greek text there are only one verb with 3 adverbs. The verb is to make disciples; therefore Jesus sends us to reach out to all mankind, helping them to be His followers (and we do this by going, baptising and teaching).
This truth is as valid for today as it was when Jesus shared it. A legitimate question in 2023 will be to ask how do we take a 2000-year-old message to a diverse 21st century society? From the beginning, the Lord gave the Great Commission to His believers, collectively known as the Body of Christ and which today is called the Church. This community may be broken with many shortcomings, but it is still God’s plan and vehicle to reach the world for His glory. To honour the Lord’s Great Commission, the Body of Christ needs a very special focus and quality, namely to be essentially Missional. In short, the great gap between believers and non-believers is the churches’ biggest challenge and therefore churches must be truly missional to reach the communities to which they are connected.
CCCSA believes that Missional Communities create an excellent environment for fulfilling the ‘Missio Dei’ – the sending or mission of God as embodied in the Great Commission. In this regard, a Missional Community is a group of people who share the mission and vision of connecting with the lost in their city. As a deliberate and caring community, they reach out into their environment to pursue discipleship and growth. To be effective they make use of relevant evangelistic tools and strategies.
CCCSA further believes that the fulfillment of the Great Commission implies Winning (people for Jesus), Building (into their lives to grow and fulfill God’s calling) and Sending (them out to win, build and send). The repeated completion of this cycle gives rise to the building of movements. Thus, Jesus’ call to make people his followers is fulfilled. As Paul says to his disciple Timothy:
And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.
– 2 Timothy 2:2 NIV
CCCSA is committed to joining hands with congregations to establish Missional Congregations and Communities where we can have fellowship, teaching, learning, prayer, responsibilities, outreach, encouragement and relationships. Until everyone may know someone who knows Jesus Christ!