My post from Tuesday zoomed in on the revised vision of Thousand Hills International Church. The vision is basically the direction we are heading in as a church. The mission statement defines how we would like to get there. This the wording that we came up with after several meetings with 
various leadership forums in the church:
To exalt God by sharing the Gospel, leading people to Jesus and connecting them to the local church; to equip believers and help them grow in faith and spiritual maturity; to reach out and serve in the church and the world.
The primary goal: exalting God
If you remember the Great Commandment, you know that Jesus commands us to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. Both are as important as the other, but still, loving God is listed first. That’s why in our mission “to exalt God” comes first. He gets the glory and praise of everything we do (and for everything He does, obviously). In a future blog post, I’ll tell you why we chose the word “exalt” instead of “worship.” So how does Thousand Hills make sure that God gets exalted?
Subgoal 1: sharing the Gospel, leading people to Christ and connecting them to the local church
Jesus died so that everyone in the world could find salvation, not just the people the church. So that’s why every believer needs to take every opportunity to share the Gospel with everyone around them. Don’t preach it to them, but share the story of how Jesus changed your life and why He had to die for your sins and be raised from the dead on the third day.
After you shared your story and explained the key ideas of the Gospel, the next step is to gently try to lead people to apply this to their own lives and accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. But it doesn’t stop there… you then need to help them find a church that will help them grow as a brand new believer. That could be Thousand Hills or any other life-giving church. Church is so important, because that’s where their iron is sharpened by the iron of other believers (Prov. 27:17).
Subgoal 2: equipping believers and helping them grow in faith and spiritual maturity
A church that only focuses on bringing in the lost but does not invest in helping new believers grow in their walk with Christ is a very shallow church. I am a strong proponent of making the thresholds for unchurched people to come to the church as low as possible. So let’s remove all stumbling blocks out of the way except for one: the cross.
When people come, let’s help them grow in their faith and in spiritual maturity. Following Christ is not just a step you take once in your life. It is much more than that: the process of following Jesus as closely as possible, learning from Him and doing the things that He would do. Let’s imitate Him, because He is the best example of spiritual maturity that you can ever find. The Holy Spirit will help you reach ever higher levels of spiritual maturity when the fruit of the Spirit (Gal.5:22-23) becomes visible in our lives.
Subgoal 3: reaching out and serving in the church and the world
In Thousand Hills we believe that every member is a minister. Everybody who considers this church to be their home church is challenged to find out what their gifts and talents are and what their passion is, so that they are prepared to serve people both inside and outside the church.
God’s heart goes out to a lost world and wants us to not only meet their spiritual needs, but also their material needs. He wants us to love the people around us in practical ways with the love that He has poured out into our hearts. Jesus came to serve, not to be served, and to give His life as a ransom for many. May we follow His example in this area as well!
Want to know more about the mission of Thousand Hills International Church? Watch the video of the All Leadership Meeting on June 17, 2010. Klaas van Mill explains how we ended up with this vision and mission statement and core values and give some insight in the next steps that need to be taken.
All Leadership Meeting June 2010 part 2 from Thousand Hills Int’l Church on Vimeo.