Kingsfield Mission - continued
Who we are absolutely determines how we will see the church be and do who and what God intends. Who and what is at the core of who Kingsfield is as a people?
Jesus
Jesus is Lord. We are a people who know and worship Jesus. The gospel of Jesus Christ is our beginning and everything. It is our way to life. It determines who we are and all we do proceeds from who we are because of the gospel. Who Jesus is and our relationship with Him is central to and before all of our visioning, strategizing and so on. (Mk. 12:30, Rev. 1:9-18)
Growing the Kingdom
Jesus is building His church. (Matt. 16:13-18) The Church is organic and beyond our grasp, yet He involves us in its growth and multiplication today. (‘the kingdom of God is like .. seeds .. a man who buys a field .. soil ..' Mk 4:1-20, 26-32)
Theology, then a genuine in-Christ spirituality
We will be a church-multiplying movement distinguished by our theology and our spirituality - our view of the triune God and by the quality of life (the in-Christ life) we live. The structure and culture of our gatherings follow our theology and our life in Christ. (Jn 4:21-24, Matt. 17:1-8, Jn. 5:39-41, Jn. 10:10, Col. 3:3)
Balance
We will be balanced by four reference points: faithful to the gospel, inspired by the hope of Christ's return, informed by tradition, relevant to the culture .
Prayer
We will be a praying people who realize many things: The Lord Jesus was a pray-er. He prays still. (Mk. 1:35, Rom. 8:25-27) We are engaged in a spiritual work, with spiritual, emotional, physical, social and even political consequences.
Leadership
Our recognition of God's chosen leaders is vital to maturity in the church and to church planting. We view all people as in need of grace, and we see all people as having gifts and skills that can be made profitable for the growth of the kingdom. That said, we understand that leaders are gifted and called by God to oversee, protect and nurture the family of God as it grows. We will identify those gifted as apostles (small ‘a' apostles), prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers and release them to lead the churches into maturity, reaching the full measure of the fullness of Christ. (see Eph. 4:11-13) Their preaching, teaching, coaching ministry is key to the maturing and equipping of disciples in Kingsfield.
Our leaders are equippers and meaning-makers. Those who serve the movement as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers are not doers of ministry on behalf of the church, but equippers of saints who embody the organic mission of the body in their world. Our ministry to one another and the world is a body-function, not a professional one.
Living, baby-making, multiplying communities: a multiplying movement of churches.
Since we exist for the world our Lord came to save we realize the advance of His Kingdom in our area must be greater than the program of one church and her programs. Any healthy organism multiplies or dies. We believe that we must seek God's leading into creative ways of multiplying in diverse ways in Bluewater, Huron County, and beyond. We are truly Kingsfield - fellow workers in God's field (1 Co.3:9) - with Zurich Mennonite, Clinton, and any other new "babies" being part of this overarching movement. We are not individual outposts, but inter-connected cells, on mission together. Church planting is not a separate evangelism strategy; church planting flows out of being the Church, the growing body of Christ on earth. We will join the Spirit's work already in progress. We will ‘plant' where disciples are already emerging: where there are new disciples, we will ‘plant' new churches.
Dependent on one another.
We see the relationships between churches in this movement as inter-dependent. We are participants together and partners in the Gospel. We believe that an integral component of remaining a healthy organism is a willingness to share people, talent, and financial resources, participating in the unique mission of each church cell in this way. We need wisdom and strengths from each other to build His Kingdom through equipping, evangelization, discipleship, and dealing justly and compassionately with the needs of our communities.
Organic, not institutional.
What this means is that we must maintain simple, multiply-able forms and structures. Most overly-institutional church structures become too cumbersome and nearly impossible to multiply in new settings. In other words, we tend to be unable to think of the church without a building, programs, committees, etc. and what creeps into the institution is the sense that multiplication feels impossible.
To be a multiplying movement requires forms and structures that will ensure the apostolic Gospel, along with Christ-centered, mature Christian community and mission can be planted simply and rapidly in our area. The need for good structure is crucial, but these forms must shape and feed the mission of a church and not control it. Structures need to be fluid, adaptable, even dispensable, for the sake of organic health rather than solid and unchangeable as a bulwark of the institution. The biblical vision of the Church is a body; an organism.
Incarnational Ministry / ‘Relevance'
Jesus is always relevant. In order for our culture and forms to be relevant, we will study and observe the culture, the demographics and the times, yet we will resist the temptation to create a program-driven or niche-marketed, needs-meeting church. We maintain that it IS possible to be culturally relevant (engaged, involved in culture) and still be biblically faithful (to Christ, to the gospel life).
Diversity
We believe that the Church requires diversity in order to embrace diversity.