A Ministry Manifesto

When the idea of launching this platform first began to germinate, it was in response to two important needs.

The first was to find a new, simple, efficient way to distribute high quality ministry resources to churches and small groups all over the world. That’s what the ‘Resources’ area of GoThereFor.com is all about, and we’re excited by its potential (go here to find out how it works and what resources are available).

But the second need was just as important, if not more so. The kind of gospel-hearted, Bible-driven, disciple-making ministry that classic evangelicalism has always generated is not easy, and never has been. It is difficult because we contend with the world, the flesh and the devil in ministry as much as in our own Christian lives. It is difficult because real, lasting, gospel growth in people’s lives is often slow and unspectacular, and we are constantly offered quick and spectacular results by the purveyors of the latest ministry trends. It is difficult to persist in because (let’s face it) we are weak and flawed, and there are many obstacles and distractions.

That’s why classic evangelical ministry needs to be argued for, defended, promoted and spread. It’s also why gospel ministers (and that’s all of us!) need support, ideas and encouragement to press on in the joyful task that God has given us. And that’s why GoThereFor.com also has two other important sections: Ideas and Encouragement.

The names speak for themselves.

The Ideas feed (i.e. where you are now) features a regular stream of short articles, essays, links, video clips, podcasts, interviews and pretty much whatever we can lay our hands on that will promote and defend evangelical disciple-making ministry. We're aiming to push out at least one new thing a day, and we've begun recruiting a team of regular contributors from around the world to make that happen (you can see their names at the end of this article). We're also keen for readers to send in material as well, so if you have an idea or a story to share, email us at ideas@gotherefor.com.

The Encouragement area is a place to help one another to grow in that ministry, through sharing ideas, encouragement, stories, questions, discussion and so on. Every new 'idea' will generate its own discussion topic over at 'encouragement'—if you scroll down to the end of this article, you'll see a link.

All of which leads to the question: what do we mean by ‘classic evangelical ministry’? What sort of ministry do we want to promote, argue for, facilitate and encourage?

The GoThereFor.com Ministry Manifesto is our best attempt at describing it. The Manifesto sets out the theological vision of ministry that this platform stands for, and that our Ideas feed will focus on and discuss.

No doubt our Ministry Manifesto is imperfect, and could be expressed better. Perhaps there are sections that you would like to modify or add to. But we hope that you agree that it captures the essence of what classic, Bible-centred evangelical ministry has always been about; the kind of ministry that we’d like our lives and our churches to be built upon.

Our prayer is that you will join us in the glorious ministry that this Manifesto seeks to describe.

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A Ministry Manifesto

GoThereFor.com is a platform where gospel-minded Christians can find ideas, encouragement and resources for fulfilling Christ’s commission to make disciples of all peoples.

The team behind GoThereFor.com longs to see the fruit of the great commission in our lives and churches; we want to see Christ’s disciples go out with urgent love to the communities and peoples around them, to make new disciples and to teach them to obey all that Christ has commanded.  This is our vision because we believe it is God’s great plan and mission as revealed in Scripture, and we hold the Scriptures as our supreme and sufficient authority.

In particular, we are driven by the following biblical convictions:

• That the crucified and risen Jesus Christ reigns over all as the Saviour, Lord and Judge of the world;


• That the most pressing problem facing humanity is our total lostness in sin, and our guilt before the judgement throne of God;


• That God’s climactic purpose in history is to glorify his Son by delivering forgiven sinners out of darkness into his kingdom and transforming them into his image; in the words of the  Great Commission, it is to see people from every nation become disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ and learn to obey all that he has commanded;


• That God’s chosen method for both conversion and growth is the prayerful, Spirit-backed speaking of the Word of the Cross—the biblical message that centres on the penal substitutionary atonement of Jesus, and his universal Rule as the Risen Lord and Christ;


• That this task of evangelizing the world and edifying the church is not only the role of preachers, pastors and evangelists, but of all God’s people as they are trained and equipped to speak God’s word to others;


• That our involvement in this work of God should be the central priority of our lives as disciples of Jesus and of our churches as loving fellowships of disciple-making disciples;


• That as we seek to fulfil this commission, the theology of the all-sufficient Scriptures should shape and drive all that we do, especially as we utilise methods and structures derived from wisdom;


• That our joy in this work will come in the midst of suffering, conflict and opposition from the world and the devil, as we await the return of Christ at the end of the age.

However, looking around us, even among those who would lay claim to most or all of the above convictions, we are concerned to see:

• Millions lost in sin and facing God’s judgement; and yet a widespread lack of evangelistic vision and urgency in many churches, where much of the available energy and resources are expended in various worthy programs to improve church life or to bless society, but where a lack of conversions is accepted with complacency;


• A lowering of the bar for everyday Christians, who are not being radicalized and equipped as godly disciple-makers but often simply served as spiritual consumers, or deployed to help run programs that produce little gospel fruit;


• A loss of momentum in recruiting and training the next generation of full-time gospel-workers;


• Among leaders, a lack of vision, boldness, flexibility and skill to plan and grow ministries around disciple-making;


• A theologically undiscerning pragmatism that takes core evangelical truths for granted, fails to see the link between theology and practice, and falls captive to the latest trends.

So under God, and in fellowship with one another, we want to provide ideas, encouragement and resources to achieve the following:

• A renewed urgency among Christ’s people to reach out with the gospel to our neighbourhoods, communities and beyond—to make disciples, to plant new churches and ministries, to revitalize and grow existing churches, to see by God’s blessing multitudes of new and growing believers giving glory to his name;


• To revolutionize and equip all Christians to be holy, prayerful, Spirit-filled disciple-makers; who abound in love and good works, who speak God’s truth to those around them, and who work hard to see God’s kingdom grow in both breadth and depth, whatever the cost;


• To persuade ministry leaders to embrace this Bible-centred, prayerful, disciple-making vision, and to express that commitment in their personal lives and in their ministries;


• To equip ministry leaders with fresh enthusiasm, knowledge and skills not only to preach the cross, but to train their people as disciple-makers, and to change church culture, structures and practices in order to make disciples;


• To see a new generation of appropriately gifted leaders recruited and equipped with the vision and skills to lead God’s people in this task;


• To build a fellowship of passionate, sacrificial, gospel-hearted disciple-makers who continue to urge, stimulate and encourage one another in this ministry.

 

The GoThereFor Content Team

We'll keep adding to our team over the coming months, but those signed up so far are (in alphabetical order):

Richard Chin, Phil Colgan, Sam Freney, David Helm, Andrew Heard, Gary Koo, Steve Leston, Col Marshall, Carl Matthei, Tony Payne (convenor), Ben Pfahlert, Archie Poulos, Kanishka Raffel, Tim Raymond, Carmelina Read, Adrian Russell, Craig Schafer, Paul Sheely, Marty Sweeney, Jane Tooher, Tim Zulker.