Missions

"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you..." (Matthew 29:19-20)

Vision

Shepherd's Community Church is a Biblically based discipling community with a heart for spreading the good news of the Gospel of Christ.

Purpose

The focus of the Missions Ministry is obedience to Christ's command in Mathew 28:18-19.

And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me . 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..."

The Missions Ministry will cultivate within the Church a heart for training, equipping and supporting Missions with the primary objective of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ and the gift of salvation. The Church will send called and equipped laborers into the harvest fields as described in Act 1:8 "...but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you: and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth."

Acts 1:8 delineates four mission fields

  • Jerusalem - people who are geographically proximate and culturally similar

  • Judea - people who are culturally similar but not geographically proximate

  • Samaria - people who are geographically proximate but culturally different

  • Ends of the Earth - people who are geographically distant and culturally different

Philosophy

Shepherd's Community Church (SCC) Missions philosophy is to spread the gospel of Christ through a range of missions activities. Fundamental to this is development of SCC's innate missions capability through nurturing and developing the congregation's hearts, minds and skills for missions. Successful implementation will result in an increasing level of interest in, discussion, awareness of, and participation in missions activities. The result can also be described as a maturing of the church's contribution to the missions field. Ultimately, the result will be a combination of responsible home grown outreach by SCC members and church support of nonmember missions that are aligned with SCC's goals.

We are open to supporting ministries from any region of the world, with special emphasis placed on areas that demonstrate spiritual hunger and responsiveness. However, prospective missions/ministries will be reviewed and assessed with a rigorous process and set of criteria (described in the Support section) to determine merit for support. Key considerations are biblical adherence and alignment with SCC's missions philosophy.

Spreading the Gospel: Area of Focus - SCC will establish partnerships with carefully selected ministries that focus on one of the following:

  • Evangelism and church planting among the unreached (Acts 13).

  • Leadership training where churches are already established (2 Timothy 2:2, Acts 15:41).

  • Reaching the “nations” God has brought to live among us (Acts 2:5-6).

  • Bible translation

  • Bible distribution

This partnership will be a serious commitment to stand beside them in their work, doing all that we possibly can to assist, support and care for them as part of our church family/partners in ministry. We will seek to build a close relationship with the missionaries by equipping Shepherd's Community Church with a heart for missions, keeping the church informed about and involved in their ministry and sending teams to assist in the work as appropriate.

Current SCC partner missionaries are located in Russia, the Middle East, Central Africa and South America. Please see our Missions wall near the church sanctuary for more details on financially supported partner ministries.

SCC places a priority on: Indigenous church planting and leadership training ministries, ie., the "10 - 40 window" (Acts 14:22-23). Missionaries raised up by Shepherd's Community Church (Acts 13:1-3).