Missions

The mission of the church is the Great Commission—what Philip Ryken calls “a clear, unambiguous statement of [the church’s] mission to the world.” The task given to all believers is to glorify God by making disciples and taking His gospel to the ends of the earth by the power of the Holy Spirit. We want to be clear that this mission is for those called by God in hope unto eternal life. In other words, it is the privilege and responsibility of Christians to be called into this missio dei. CBC Youth believes that this is not an option reserved for a group of students or only when they become "mature believers" rather this is for ALL who are disciples of Jesus and desire to follow after him. As we are called into his mission, we are tasked with bringing this gospel to all whom we encounter. The following parts of this newsletter will distinguish the nuances of what it means to "bring" the gospel. However, we do not believe "missions" is optional for Christians. Also, we want to make a distinction that we as a youth group (and an extension of the church) equip Christians to be mature missionaries wherever they are sent. Historically, there have been some youth groups and churches that will use mission trips in order to provide opportunities for ALL students to serve and to experience. But we want to be careful here and honestly recognize that when we send our students on mission trips, we are sending out Christians to serve as ambassadors and representatives of the Gospel and by extension, our church. We do not believe it is honest nor right to send non-Christians as Christian missionaries.

One of the distinct ways our youth ministry thinks through Missions is through partnerships with gospel-centric organizations and churches. Part of our concentration and efforts goes towards working with those organizations and churches that have at its foundation the gospel and gospel implications. We desire to partner with those groups that affirm to The Lausanne Covenant Statement of Faith. Our desire is that our youth ministry comes alongside churches that have already established relationships and connections with their target audience and our role is only to come alongside and supplement what they are doing.

This is going to take the form of 1) providing funding for these organizations and churches on the leadership level (training, hospitality, resources, and events); 2) participating with them on the ground; 3) providing training for the group. Historically, these partnerships include college campus ministries, LA Ranch in Costa Rica, Pantai Baptist Church in Malaysia, and Laredo Mission Trip.

While we do intend to take our students on certain, strategic "mission trips" (later explained), our first priority is to disciple CBC Youth Christians to cultivate a missional lifestyle. Life Paul in Acts 17, we want our students to consider their personal spheres of influence to be their unique missional space. So whether that is online, at school, in a club, or at their local drink stop, we want our students to be engaged missionally wherever they are.

As a church and youth group, we want to come alongside and not only give them the theological and doctrinal tools to engage at this level, but we want to provide supplemental resources for them to practice living missionally. On some occasions, our youth group will collectively think through unique and creative ideas to meet up and develop relationships that continue into gospel conversations over time. This may include meals, drinks, or gifts in order to allow CBC Youth to set the stage as a missionary in their sphere of life. We want to acknowledge a few things here:

1. Building relationships will take time, patience, and intentionality. We don't expect missional relationships to bear immediate fruit always all the time.
2. Missional lifestyle is much more effective in training our students in missions than any other method. Not only does this give each student a purpose to their calling as Christians, but they places an expectation on each of them to be intentional with their peers. .
3. While CBC Youth will not and cannot provide for ALL missional encounters, we want to come alongside and do a small part in helping this process. Like we mentioned before, this is both training, discipleship, and resourcing them.

Our youth philosophy of ministry is stated and clarified within the texts of the Old and New Testaments of the Holy Scriptures. They are "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mat 22:37-39 ESV) This forms the basis and foundation of our call, not only as the youth group, not only as the church, but as followers of Jesus Christ.

From this crucial truth our ministry is built out to accomplish Jesus’ mission for his disciples - to “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." (Mat 28:19-20 ESV)

From the authors of Scripture, through the early church Fathers to the Reformers to faithful men and women within Christendom, the authority, inerrancy, infallibility, and clarity of Scripture has been where the Church found its center. Our youth group continues to maintain that the “Word of the Lord proves true” (Ps. 18:30) in every way for life, joy, and peace.

We evaluate all of programing, technique, strategies, and planning against the Word of God as our guide. Our initial approach is to humbly read and study the Scriptures for principles and guidance. With Scripture as our anchor we contextualize the truths found in Scripture to our very specific needs and people within CBC. We then seek to plan and program accordingly with an overarching theme or vision for the year. Lastly, our hopes is to execute faithfully where God has led to us. We will budget based on what programs and direction we believe the Lord has for us for that specific time.

Missions, therefore, is only one part of our discipleship process. According to Acts 17, God has ordained the places and times in which you and I live. And if that is the case and we understand our role in the world is to reconcile it to the cross of Jesus, then missions isn’t an event, it’s a lifestyle that we take on. Alright…what in the world am I talking about? So now wherever we go and live, that’s our mission field. So like your table at lunch, your 3rd period English class, your local Starbucks…those are places were God has placed you to be the light of the world. You see? The problem with making “missions” a one-time deal is that all it does is reinforce the idea that missions is just an event. I mean, you can go and check it off the list but have you really understood what Jesus was talking about living missionally? No! I think that’s why we LOVE going on mission trips…because they make us feel good about ourselves. “Look at me…I helped some poor people. I feel great!” But we don’t want to just “do” missions…we want to always be “on” missions.