The Missions Department exists to fulfill the mission of The Village by engaging, equipping and sending the church body to be ministers of reconciliation into the world. II Corinthians 5:18-20 teaches us that because Christ has reconciled us to God the Father, we now, as His ambassadors, have been given the ministry of reconciliation to call men and creation into a right relationship with Him. We believe that God created the Church as the primary instrument of this mission.
Our primary focus is to engage and equip members of our church for their personal mission of being ministers of reconciliation in their homes, neighborhoods, schools, work places and every other area of their lives. Our second focus is to lead our members in our corporate mission of developing the Church throughout our city, nation and world that she might be a blessing to whatever city she is in. Jeremiah 29: 5-7 says that the Church should be seeking the welfare of the city where the Lord has sent her. Since this task is too large for any single group of believers, we partner with the universal body of Christ by engaging and interacting with believers, churches and organizations outside of The Village at varying levels.
To achieve what the Lord has called us to, we have an integrated approach to missions where Local Missions, International Missions and Church Planting have joined together with the same vision and mission into one Missions Department. This allows us to have a comprehensive approach to missions so that we can engage, equip and send the Church into neighborhoods and cities near and around the world.
Our hope is to engage and equip the Church universally to be who she was created to be. We call this church development, and it drives what we do as the Missions Department. We do this by being champions of one of our Core Values, Missional Living.
The Missions Department's primary driver is church development. According to I Corinthians 3:6-10, the one who plants and the one who waters are the same, they are "fellow workers." Therefore, church development is more than just the initial seed planting. It is also the watering of the seeds to grow. What this means for The Village is that church development is both new endeavors for the gospel and watering seeds already planted. Thus, the Missions Department will:
All of this we encompass in the term church development. We understand that there will be times when we lay the foundation and others build upon it and that there will be times when we will build upon other's foundations (I Corinthians 3:10).
The theology of Reconciliation is our foundation for missions and the philosophy of Church Development is our driver. These things are distinct to The Village, but what does distinguish us is methodology that steers what we do and don't do. We call this methodology our Missions Distinctives.
