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‘Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in
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Mission and missionary are very evocative words. They can conjure up in our minds pictures of far-away lands, alien cultures and unattainable skill sets; in short, it can be easy to feel that we have no part to play in mission. In Matthew 28:19 God’s command to the disciples and to us makes it clear that we are all to be involved in the task of progressing the gospel. So the challenge to us is to live lives in which we seek to advance the gospel at every opportunity. That does not mean that we will all become super-evangelists, but it does mean that we need to be ready and willing for God to work through us, and to use all the gifts He has given to us for His glory in the saving and building up of His people. Mission is a task that requires the active participation of the whole body of Christ. The preacher-evangelist needs to be there to declare God’s saving word, but without the support of his admin staff he cannot appropriately concentrate on preparing his messages. Without the technical skills of his audio/visual team the clarity of the message would be compromised. Without the hard-fought-for relationships of believers with their work colleagues and friends there might be no unbelievers brought to hear the saving message of Christ. The whole enterprise must be based on a strong foundation of prayer. In short, we all have a part to play in mission. Mindful of the global need for the gospel, TCM has forged partnerships with a number of national and international mission partners. Paul’s letter to the Philippians identifies four strands of gospel partnership. These are:
Corporately, TCM exercises all of these strands with our partners. Currently, one tenth of the church budget is committed to supporting mission. There are regular mission-focused prayer meetings, the annual reports from the church are shared with our partners, and there are a number of exchanges between our partners and TCM, including a visit of our Pastor to the Delhi Bible Institute in January 2011. In order to capitalise on the effectiveness of our small groups, house groups have been encouraged to develop working partnerships, based on these four strands of support, with our global mission partners. If you can’t work out where you fit into the big mission jigsaw then please contact [[THIS PAGE IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION: FURTHER DETAILS AND LINKS WILL BE ADDED SHORTLY]] |

