Core Principles.
Kingdom of God vs. the visible church. The Kingdom of God is NOT everywhere a society claiming to be Christian is, a physical church building is, or where a person identifying as Christian is. It is wherever everything under the headship, dominion, and influence of God is. This is wherever God is glorified, His Son is elevated, His gospel is believed, His presence is manifested, His truth is embraced, and His attributes of justice, mercy, and love are represented. (Luke 17:20-21, Acts 28:31)
Our mission is to advance the Kingdom of God not the visible church.
The gospel must always be central. What our broken and hurting world needs MOST is the GOSPEL of Christ-crucified. It is the “good news” that Jesus, the only Son of God, died for our sins to give us new life and restore our relationship with God. That is the foundation for everything else. It is only through faith in Jesus that humans can enter into God’s Kingdom. It is only through becoming born again children of God that we receive the indwelling Holy Spirit and can see the Kingdom of God. (John 3:3) And it is God alone who can heal and transform individual hearts, minds, and lives, as well as families, communities, cities, and nations.
Individual lives and societies may improve without the gospel but the Kingdom of God would not be advanced.
Our core mission is to make disciples. Our core identity is a disciple of Jesus that makes disciples of Jesus. All other societal activities and programs we do must come secondary to proclaiming the gospel and making disciples of Jesus. The mission of the Church is not to force everyone to identify as Christian—for labels mean nothing and only the Holy Spirit can cause new spiritual rebirth. Nor is our objective to fix the world or make it a better place. The world will always have suffering. The mandate Jesus gave us was to go, seek and save the lost, making disciples of all nations.
If genuine disciples are not being raised and mobilized then the Kingdom of God would not be advanced.
Always advancing the Kingdom of God. While working towards our mission to give everyone an opportunity to receive the gospel, we are to glorify God by being the lights that shine brightest in our own communities. To represent the Kingdom of God, bearing the image of Christ, working through faith in love, and drawing people to Jesus for restoration. We are to help the oppressed, fight for what is right, and be beacons of light in the midst of darkness. Global revival will happen organically as we advance the Kingdom of God wherever we go.
If the Kingdom of God is being advanced then there will be genuine and lasting revival.
Mobilizing genuine disciples. Recognizing the difference between nominal Christians and actual disciples is the first step towards mobilization. Just erecting or filling church buildings or getting people to say the Sinner’s Prayer doesn’t guarantee that disciples are being made. Nor does this factor in the many places where the gospel must be proclaimed, and disciples made, all while underground. For the Kingdom of God to be advanced in places where persecution or hostility exist requires that genuine born again disciples are being made and empowered for action.
We must be growing genuine disciples who live for Jesus and follow His teachings, not nominal believers.
The Great Commission remains the primary mission. The more Christianity has become normative in society the more individuals have become self-centered, apathetic and lazy. Even worse, some churches have become entirely carnal and worldly, caring more about health, wealth, business, politics, etc. (1 Cor 6:9-10, Romans 14:17) For those filled with compassion for those suffering we must understand that sin, evil, and human suffering will never be permanently eradicated. This requires a dedicated effort to remember that while we should help those we can, the greatest need the world has is spiritual and many still need an opportunity to receive the gospel.
We need disciples of Jesus to remain focused and diligent on the primary mission, even while they pursue a secondary calling.
Growth like a mustard seed. Jesus said that the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds sown upon the earth. But after it is planted, it grows to be the largest of all garden plants and puts forth great branches, so that the birds of the air nest in its shade. (Mark 4:31-32) The Father is the keeper of the vineyard, the Son is the vine, and we are mere branches who can do nothing on our own. (John 15:1-8) We are confident that We need to invest much less time, energy, and resources on carnal, man-centered attractions and self-improvement programs used to attract carnal people to church.
We need to trust that God is sovereign and is in control of all growth and focus on preaching the gospel and making disciples.
We’re sowers and waterers, not builders. We need to realize that we cannot build anything ourselves, nor do we even know which “soils” [people] are the path, the rocky ground, the thorns, or the weeds. Our first job is to spread the “good seed” which is the message of the Kingdom (Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23). Our second job is to water that which seems to have truly received it. Who receives it and if and when it grows is up to God. We need to stop thinking that our job is to grow our churches, and live as though our mission is to spread seeds and water them and let Jesus grow His Church.
We need to focus on sowing and God will do the growing.
Sowing into every city. Rather than trying to build entire “Christian societies” or mega churches our goal should be to either send or to evangelize and raise up a single disciple in every city in the world. Since there are over 2 billion people who have not even heard the gospel, our goal should be to bring the Kingdom of God into every single city and town. This is exactly what was modeled to us in Luke 10:1-10 and Acts 1:7-8. In Acts 13:47 it says, “For this is what the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, to bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”
We need to sow into every city on earth and let the disciples there witness to their communities.
