Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The Missions and Outreach Committee (MOC) exists to serve and equip the congregation to be involved in the work of local outreach and worldwide missions. To that end, MOC has been discussing how we can effectively encourage congregational involvement in the work of the Great Commission. We have established several concrete goals we’d like to share with you. We have also developed practical plans for meeting these goals by God’s grace.
Regarding local outreach, our goal as a committee is to encourage and equip the congregation to reach their friends, family, and neighbors for Christ. The steps towards reaching the goal are: (1) Familiarize our church with Christianity Explored (CE) in an Adult Sunday school course; (2) Begin annually hosting CE courses, ideally in a church member’s home. Each year we would like to host a CE Bible study in a different neighborhood in the Johnstown area. CE is a reliable curriculum which leads people through the Gospel of Mark. Other congregations have found it to be a helpful tool for local outreach. Using CE annually is one small step we encourage taking together as we move towards being more proactive in the work of evangelism.
Another goal the committee established is to promote regular and earnest prayer for missions and outreach among the congregation. To reach that goal, a member of MOC will begin regularly updating the missions prayer list printed in the bulletin to help you pray for our missionaries. Secondly, we will begin devoting some corporate Sunday evening prayer times to praying for our missionaries, the work of missions, and local outreach. A member of MOC will create a prayer guide for those occasions to help everyone participate. The work of missions and evangelism is the work of the triune God through his people; therefore, we must be earnest in prayer, asking God to bless the work of his people.
A third goal relates to our long term plans and international missions. While we are eager to support mission works around the world, MOC is taking steps toward adopting a particular part of the world as a place where we will intentionally seek to advance the gospel. We want to concentrate the resources of Trinity to further the work of the Great Commission in an area of the world where there is urgent need for church-planting and discipleship. The committee is in the early stages of identifying an area of the world where we can get involved. Once a mission partnership is established, we would like to begin sending members of Trinity onto the mission field for short-term visits to support, encourage, and help our long-term missionaries. This will also enable our members to report back to us on the progress of the work. We will keep you informed as the committee continues to take steps forward to meeting this long term goal.
The work of the Great Commission isn’t finished! God has placed us together in Johnstown to reach others for Christ. God has also called us to participate in and support the work of sending ambassadors to the ends of the earth to proclaim Christ and summon people to enter into his kingdom by faith and repentance. May the Lord enable us to be a disciple-making, church-planting church.
For Christ and His Kingdom,
The Missions & Outreach Committee