A Statement Mission

As heirs to God's grace in Jesus Christ and joint heirs with all who confess Him Lord, we affirm our place as Presbyterians in the whole Body of Christ the Church. We give visible recognition of our belonging to one another as one denominational family. We give this recognition as Presbyterians through our connectional system of congregations, presbyteries, synods, General Assemblies, and related institutions. The one table around which we gather is God's table and the one mission to which we are called is God's mission.1

The Presbyterian Church (USA) declares that wherever one part is engaged in God's mission all are engaged.2 Whenever and wherever one engages in that mission, one bears witness to the saving love of God in Jesus Christ. Through this love, empowered by the Holy Spirit, all are made one. This unity is a gift of God's grace that extends across cultural, linguistic, economic and other barriers that divide us within the Body of Christ and across the human family.

As Christians, we understand "Mission" to be God's work for the sake of the world God loves. We understand this work to be centered in the Lordship of Jesus Christ and made real through the active and leading power of the Holy Spirit. The "where" and "how" and "with whom" of mission is of God's initiative, sovereign action, and redeeming grace. The message we are called to bear is the Good News of salvation through Jesus Christ.

The Presbyterian Church USA claims responsibility for bearing the Good News in this way: "The Church is called to be Christ's faithful evangelist

        (1) going into the world, making 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 He has commanded;

        (2) demonstrating by the love of its members for one another and by the quality of its common life the new reality in Christ; sharing in worship, fellowship, and nurture, practicing a deepened life of prayer and service under the guidance of the Holy Spirit;

        (3) participating in God's activity in the world through its life for others by

            (a) healing and reconciling and binding up wounds,

            (b) ministering to the needs of the poor, the sick, the lonely, and the powerless,

           (c) engaging in the struggle to free people from sin, fear, oppression, hunger, and

                  injustice,

            (d) giving itself and its substance to the service of those who suffer,

            (e) sharing with Christ in the establishing of His just, peaceable, and loving rule in

                  the world.3

1 in Latin, Mission Dei

2 Book of Order (G-9-01031)

3 Book of Order (G-3-0300)