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Before discussing the mission of the church, we must begin with God's motives for sending Jesus on his mission. God's motives for sending Jesus into the world were very simple: love for his own glory and love for humanity. Let's briefly review these motives in reverse order. Almost every child attending Sunday school can quote John 3:16; but let us also not forget verse 17: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him. " God was moved by love for the human race, blinded by sin. God sent his son to “seek and save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). In fact, some reject light - because they love darkness - while others gladly accept. “I, the light, have come into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me does not remain in darkness,” Jesus said (John 12:46). And more important than His love for man, God sent Jesus to increase the praise of His own glory through the fulfillment of His purpose by His Son. As strange as it sounds, God's motives were ultimately self-centered. He was legitimately driven by his passion for glorifying Himself. “In him we became heirs, being destined for that, according to the determination of the One who does everything according to the will of His will, in order to serve to the praise of His glory to us, who had previously trusted in Christ” (Eph. 1: 11-12, italics by the author).

When we continue to cooperate with the Holy Spirit and his guidance, build a whole, holy and worshiping society, then we fulfill our destiny. Just as a seedling contains in its very essence all the necessary genetic information to become a growing tree, so the local church in its essence becomes what it was intended to be. The formation of the church as God sees it takes place all life, but this is all the excitement in serving the living God. The vineyard, as a worldwide movement of local churches, works with the Holy Spirit to build the church in our mind. As our love for the Lord, His Word, and His people grows and matures, we change. We are “on the road” of understanding God's purposes for us, even when we simply obey what we already understand.

Next, Jesus was sent to preach deliverance to the captives. He came to earth with the power and authority to free people who are in bondage through "every disease" and "every weakness" (Matthew 4:23). Matthew deliberately used the terminology of socialization to indicate the broad scope of Jesus' ministry, not its narrowness. In this way, Jesus brings a degree of deliverance to a variety of diseases that have entangled people, whether they are the direct result of human oppression or demonic oppression. There are many types of prisoners ... and not all of them are behind bars. The almost universal problem of substance dependence enslaves many people, regardless of their income or race. Jesus was sent to bring "insight to the blind ..." Blindness was only one of the many diseases that Jesus cured. Referring to his messianic credentials in a conversation with the disciples of John the Baptist, Jesus said: "The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the poor preach the gospel" (Matthew 11: 5). More common than physical blindness is soul blindness. Paul wrote: “For unbelievers, whose minds have been blinded by the god of the age, so that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of the invisible God, does not shine for them” (2 Cor. 4: 4). Jesus healed both types of blindness, and his church continues to do the same. The Son of God was also sent to "release the tormented". Christ came to free mankind from the wages of sin and individuals from the consequences of sin and oppression by evil spirits. Oppression in the world manifests itself in many forms: economic, ethnic, political, religious, cultural and demonic. To express love and compassion for society, we must address real-life needs: social, physical, emotional, and spiritual. Jesus came to give such people freedom, to proclaim an auspicious year of the Lord. He came to redeem and save them, to forgive their sins, to bring them out of their distress and to establish them on a new path that ultimately leads to complete redemption and deliverance when the kingdom of Christ comes in fullness.

One of the most powerful moments of truth described by Charles Van Engen in his thought-provoking book God’s Missionary People is that “the role of the local church in the world is that of the apostolic Church, receiving, guided, and simulating the mission of Jesus.” The mission of the church is to continue the ministry of Jesus. We have a ministry like this because we just started the ministry of Jesus. Jesus made it very clear that he expected his followers to continue the ministry that he began after his ascension to heaven. “… As the Father sent me. In the same way I send you "(John 20:21). Before that, he told his disciples: “... whoever believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do, and he will do more than these; because I am going to My Father. And if you ask the Father anything in my name, I will do that the Father may be glorified in the Son ”(John 14: 12-13). What was Jesus doing? All that he highlighted in his kingdom manifesto in Luke 4. Matthew 4: 23,24 also describes the components of Jesus' ministry: people. And there was a rumor about Him throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all the weak, possessed by various diseases and seizures, and the possessed, and the lunatics, and the paralyzed, and He healed them. " Thus, we copy not only the ministry of Jesus by preaching and teaching and fellowship, but also ministry through works of deliverance and healing and pastoral care. I have found that when the great commission is presented simply as an extension of Jesus' ministry and mission — wherever we are — it is much easier to motivate people. The discipleship process involves much more than calling people to make decisions for Christ. It starts with a decision; but decisions that lead to discipleship are as much as a wedding leads to marriage.

As followers of Jesus, we must not forget that our Lord, while on earth, spoke of bringing the gospel to every nation. Christianity should always be a missionary faith. We start with this as a given. I pray that Vineyard churches can remain viable as we mean by Van Engen: "The purpose of missiology, for which they only exist, a unique culture, people and the needs of their living conditions, and missionary work, only through which they reveal their own essence as God's people in God's world." When I first got involved in the Vineyard, we didn't have a name for the work God was doing through the Vineyard. Later, God revealed his purpose for our advancement, which can be summed up in two words: "worship and compassion." God has called us to be His worshipers and soul savers. It took a while to understand what the ministry of compassion entails. Several years of intense community gospel study helped clarify God's purpose for us in our environment. We are called by a compassionate God to serve the world around us with compassion in His name. If we are not worshiping God and winning souls, we are not doing essential things. Until we proclaim Jesus in his entirety and continue his ministry, we do not do what is necessary to influence the world around us.