The mission of the Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ. Local churches provide the most significant arena through which disciple making occurs.
In 2005, the following mission statement was adopted:
We believe that every person, Christian and non-Christian alike, is valuable to God and to God's Kingdom and that God's Word is the supreme authority; that love and caring relationships are the key to every endeavor, that each member needs to be encouraged and supported in committing to a lifestyle of consistent spiritual growth with honest accountability; and that each person is a minister with spiritual gifts to be discovered, developed, and deployed; wherein we strive to identify and train emerging leaders who embrace the building of teams for effective ministry.
The mission of the Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ by proclaiming the good news of God’s grace and thus seeking the fulfillment of God’s reign and realm in the world. The fulfillment of God’s reign and realm in the world is the vision Scripture holds before us.
Jesus’ words in Matthew 28:19-20 provide the Church with our mission: "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you."
This mission is our grace-filled response to the Reign of God in the world announced by Jesus. God’s grace is active everywhere, at all times, carrying out this purpose as revealed in the Bible. It is expressed in God’s covenant with Abraham and Sarah, in the Exodus of Israel from Egypt, and in the ministry of the prophets. It is fully embodied in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is experienced in the ongoing creation of a new people by the Holy Spirit.
John Wesley, Phillip Otterbein, Jacob Albright, and our other spiritual forbears understood this mission in this way. Whenever United Methodism has had a clear sense of mission, God has used our Church to save persons, heal relationships, transform social structures, and spread spiritual holiness, thereby changing the world. In order to be truly alive, we embrace Jesus’ mandate to make disciples of all people.
We make disciples as we: