“Your mission is to . . . bring back the prisoners, secure the contract, establish a school, help families recover . . .” Mission is about what we do. Mission is activity aimed at reaching a goal.
The General Conference voted mission statement is: The mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church is to call all people to become disciples of Jesus Christ, to proclaim the everlasting gospel embraced by the three angels’ messages of Revelation 14:6-12, and to prepare the world for His soon return.
There are three distinct aspects that define the Church’s activity:
1. Call people to become Jesus’ disciples. The ultimate goal for all of us is to be disciple-making disciples with Jesus—ready for His return at any time.
2. Proclaim the gospel within an end-time framework. This is our distinct mandate. No-one else understands the free gift of salvation in Jesus with the great controversy coming to a climax, as Seventh-day Adventists do. What Jesus offers is just the best! He has dealt with evil, death and the cause of both, giving life and security forever.
3. Prepare the world for Jesus’ second coming. The world still celebrates Jesus’ first coming—however, we want as many as possible to celebrate His return to Earth to completely fulfil His salvation promise.
As a corporate Church we are continually reminded to make sure our finances and activities are mission focused. In boards and committees I ask myself and others in difficult discussions—how core is this to our mission? Mission is mandatory and our voted actions should reflect that.
As Church people it is our mission too. We fulfil this mission day-to-day: a smile and positive attitude, helping the neighbour with gardening, taking time to listen, telling the story of how Jesus changed our lives, taking children to Sabbath School, sharing what death is to you . . . May our words and deeds show we are mission focused this year.
