We believe that biblical missions has to be restricted to the Great Commission, that plainly put is evangelism and discipleship in the context of a local church.
Definition of Evangelism - To be perfectly explicit, evangelism is the presentation of gospel to the unsaved in a clear, uncomplicated, direct way, where the unsaved are encountered (in their homes, work, business, or public activities). Evangelism is pure and free of deceptions to get people under the hearing of the gospel. Giving away desirable things (candy, toys, prizes, food, etc) in order to trick the unsaved to enter and hear the gospel is not the way God does things. They come because they know the gospel will be presented. All biblical evangelism is simply half of the equation, and always has a view towards discipleship. We do not father children to leave them in the street to their own means. This is irresponsible and unbiblical.
Definition of Discipleship - Discipleship is defined as the teaching of the recently saved to understand their position in Christ (their salvation), understand their obligations, responsibilities, and privileges in relation to God and the redeemed (the church, of which any representation in any place is a local church). Discipleship has as its goal to make mature Christians, and a mature Christian is defined as a fully functioning adult Christian, able to provide and care for himself, reproducing others (evangelism).
Missions is not about a lot of "ministry" that does not present the gospel and does not have a priority in seeing people saved, nor does not have a priority in making disciples among those saved in the context of a local church so that they enter into the ministry.
Therefore our conviction is that our ministry and calling is that of a biblical ministry of missionary, not breaking the Great Commission into parts, nor reinterpreting it to means a social gospel outreach, but our ministry is to evangelize the lost, baptize the recently saved (being a public confession of Christ as their Savior and the act of entrance into a local church), and making disciples of them such that they contribute, participate, and are active in a biblical, Fundamental local church, preferably in one in which we have started and organized among our converts for this purpose.
We believe that each local church should amply minister to others both in and among their own church (their priority), evangelize the lost in their community and around the world (focusing on a biblical missionary as defined here), and minister to any other needs of the unsaved or brethren outside their own congregation (this is the least important of these three goals).
OUR METHODS:
Evangelism - We believe that biblical evangelism is done where the unsaved are, so we go door to door or in public places giving out literature and witnessing directly to the unsaved where they are. We do on occasion give an invitation from time to time in our regular services (because even those who profess to be saved and members of our church may in fact not be really saved), but we do not habitually give a long extended gospel invitation at every service end. Those services which are evangelistic we consider it appropriate to have an invitation. An invitation is not forced into the end of every service though. We feel that evangelism is principally done outside of the local church, and the church services have the function and purpose of edifying the believers, and providing an outlet for public and private worship. Usually we make an exception when visitors or the unsaved are present in our services, and we try to work in a gospel presentation and an invitation.
Discipleship - We believe that disciple is of equal importance in the great commission as evangelism. God's plan is that the saved (all of them) grow from spiritual ignorance and immaturity into spiritual maturity, which is the ability to reproduce themselves. Discipleship is always an activity of a local church, in which it moves its recently or newly saved from a "babe in Christ" into adult Christians. The definition of this activity is through biblical teaching (meaning that the teacher is a living example of what he is teaching), the new convert learns what God desires of him, and he corrects sinful habits and creates good biblical habits. Once the convert has been fully "discipled", he is an active member in his local church, tithing, faithfully attending, praying, and participating in its activities. This also means that both through church programs and independently he is evangelizing and bringing his converts into the local church of which he is a part of and has his membership.
All of this discipleship is done through the principle means of teaching and preaching. This is the method to effect change in people which God has given us, and it has to be the principle and priority in our methods.
For more information on:
What is the work of the Lord? (defined and restricted to its essentials)