WHY MISSIONS!
Camano Chapel’s Missions Ministry Statement reads:
"To educate, motivate, and facilitate Camano Chapel’s missionary efforts by sending physical and human resources into the world through disciple-making efforts, and by ministering to the needs of people both locally and globally.”
So what is missions?
Missions refers to the goal and action of reaching the lost with the good news of Jesus Christ. Most specifically, it refers to reaching groups of people who have never heard of Christ with this good news for the first time. This makes it differ slightly from evangelism, which refers to sharing the good news of Christ and calling people to turn to Him in faith. We can and should be doing this here, every day. But missions is intentionally doing this where people need to be sent.
We have chosen as a church family to pursue both short-term and long-term missions efforts. Some of these are in places where there already are believers, but they need some assistance, resources and encouragement. Others of these efforts are in pioneer areas, where the people groups who are there have never heard the gospel before.
But why do we go?
We go, or do missions, because we want our God to be worshiped. We love His glory,seeing Him praised, and knowing He is cherished so much that we want all the peoples of the earth to join in His praise. John Piper writes in his book, Let the Nations Be Glad, “Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn't. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever.”
We do missions(by sending short-term and career missionaries), not because it is an end in itself, but because it is the necessary work to call others into the worship of God. We also do missions because we are commissioned by God to do this. Jesus said to His followers before He ascended to heaven,“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age”(Matthew 28:18-20).
This command is for us, His Church, and we seek to obey Him by making disciples of all nations. The needs of world also drive us to do missions. We want God to be praised, and we are overjoyed that His praise and their salvation intermix in the gospel. God wants people of all ethnic groups, social-economic backgrounds, or locations, who have committed any and all types of sins, to come to know
Him through Jesus Christ. He is the one and only way of salvation (John 14:6 and Acts 4:12), and we want to see their burdens lifted by the love of God in Christ brought to them by us.
Join us in the Great Co-Mission!
Camano Chapel desires to be a "missional" church. We take seriously the final instructions of Christ to the Church to "go and make disciples." We intentionally and strategically desire to reach a lost and hurting world for Jesus Christ. Christ's mission was to establish the kingdom of God in the hearts, lives and relationships of all people in the entire world.
Christ’s mission was to establish the kingdom of God in the hearts, lives and relationships of all people in all the world. His purpose was world-embracing. His plans included all peoples. His mission was a universal one. This is the mission which the first disciples understood Christ to have committed to them, which has also been passed down to us, the church. It is called the GREAT COMMISSION, God’s short-term assignment to the church.
As followers of Christ we are each asked to be missionaries to a needy world. Camano Chapel desires to have a “glocal” (global AND local) outreach emphasis. It begins with each of us at home in our own community —and then reaches out to other parts of the world. Camano Chapel utilizes an active missions committee to:
- Help facilitate monthly financial support to national/international missionaries
- Provide opportunities for short-term mission trips
- Encourage occasional local missions projects
- Educate and facilitate each of us to the high calling of making Christ known
Let’s prepare to go!
God is looking to His Church to carry to completion His instructions to make disciples of all nations. Our prayer is that God would stir our hearts and use Camano Chapel to make disciples, not just decisions, for Christ. Through disciple-making efforts, it is our joy and our responsibility to gently introduce others to Jesus whether they live across the street or across the world. Come join us, as together we reach out, build up, train up, and send out people ... all in a unified effort to glorify Jesus Christ.
So thank you for your obedience and faith in God’s purposes. We hope you come to understand the beauty and glory of the work you are taking part in.We hope your worship of God will deepen as you come to know His love and grace in the gospel and His plans to use you for His glory and the joy of lost peoples.
If you would like to get a taste of cross cultural missions by attending an upcoming short-term missions trip, please contact Pastor Mich at Camano Chapel’s church office (or e-mail him michmichl@camanochapel.org). But be careful,it could be life-changing.
