mission of the church

• the mission of the church, where it comes from


  • matthew's gospel, jesus' last instruction to his disciples was to "make disciples of all nations"
  • sheep and the goats makes it clear people are expected o do good things for less fortunate
  • these contribute to the church view of mission
  • mission comes from the latin mittere 'to send'. christians believe when j said "go, therefore, and make disciples" he wasnt only talking about his disciples but all who'd follow him
  • mission is central to christian religious identity, they believe theyve been sent to do god's work
• mission of the church


  • CoE "mission is about transformation- transforming individual lives, transforming communities and transforming the world"
  • most denomination have put this into action in different ways since the start of 20th century, these can be usefully considered by looking at three ways the church has engaged in mission
• mission as evangelism


  • trying to persuade others to become christian is called evangelism
  • this happened from the earliest days of the church, in 1st century CE st paul travelled around the Mediterranean visiting communities who didnt know about christianity, telling the about jesus and persuading them to join
  • for many today, especially protestant evangelicals, this remains the task the church should undertake
• evangelism- the church missionary society


  • a church organisation that engages in evangelism, founded in 1799 after the merging of several other societies
  • during the 19th century CMS sent missionaries to places not majority christian like africa, the middle east, japan etc
  • men were trained in europe to teach the bible then sent out (w they family)
  • they would befriend the local people, learn their language, offer health and social care and set up christian schools on top of sharing faith
  • set up churches and trained locals to be ministers so the new local church would continue on its own
• CMS 


  • in the 20th century they continued their work
  • funded it by partnering missionary families with uk churches
  • missionaries sent personal letters to the church informing them of their mission work and the church would support them w prayer and money
  • so members of the church could feel they were also participating in the mission
  • over time they were less concerned with conversion and more wth supporting christian minority groups like the zabaleen in 1980 cairo, who earned a living via recycling rubbish. CMS helped improve their living conditions and remain firm in their religious belief
• the evangelical alliance mission


  • TEAM was set up in 1890 and continues missions today
  • theyre missionaries are qualified medical professionals and teachers work in teams to set up and staff churches, hospitals and schools in countries where christianity isnt the local religion
  • alongside medical care and education they openly share their evangelical beliefs and encourage locals to attend church services
  • a project examle is the karanda mission hospital in zimbabwe, where they stated they wanted to show christs passion through medical work