Engage Mission Impact
LifePoint labors to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to make disciples of all peoples that the earth might be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. The Scriptures paint a powerful vision of God’s mission in the world and commission His people to live in that mission. LifePoint exists to serve God’s purpose in this world by serving His mission. This page provides a brief introduction to LifePoint Church’s mission impact work.
Impact denotes LifePoint’s missional labors in the world. Impact organizes the church, God’s people, to live faithfully in the culture to share the gospel and serve others in Jesus’ name. These three elements--gospel, church and culture--comprise the essential components of Gospel mission. LifePoint strives to impact the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Impact serves as an environment to engage Christ-followers with God’s mission in the world. This begins with missional living to share the gospel and extends to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. Ten percent of all undesignated receipts fund LifePoint’s Impact work. Additionally, LifePoint receives annual offerings to support and resource greater missional advancement. Impact demonstrates God’s Spirit working through LifePoint to carry the gospel to the world.
“Neighbor to nation,” all people of the world, spans the focus of LifePoint’s Impact. We structure the rhythms of the church to equip and encourage missional living for every Christ-follower. We train, equip, and encourage our people to love their neighbor. We organize regular outreach opportunities through Community Groups to bless our city. We also train, equip, and encourage our people to cultivate a heart for all people by focusing on the nations. We organize regular opportunities to engage globally. LifePoint engages the whole congregation for missional Impact among all peoples of the world.
4 Principles of Impact
Four principles guide LifePoint Impact strategy. First, contextualization brings a relevant expression of the gospel into a specific, cultural context. Paul states a foundation for this principle in 1 Corinthians 9:22, “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.” Contextualization makes the gospel message understandable to people through a cultural expression. The gospel message remains true to the scriptures. What works in one culture is not necessarily transferable to another. Contextualization of the gospel leads to planting churches that are indigenous to their culture. The more separate and distinct the cultural context is from our own, the more indigenous the expression must become.
Second, reproducible means we invest in gospel labors that can multiply in their natural context. Reproduction forms the heart of the great commission. We lead disciple-making disciples. We plant church-planting churches. We want gospel partners to invest in models of ministry that are reproducible. Gospel-centered labors espouse an ethos of participation and practice that multiplies more gospel-centered work.
Third, independent means churches and works should strive toward self-sustainability in resources and operations. We do support ministries that require resources. But we strive to see them produce fruit that does not remain dependent upon outside support. One example of a ministry that we support in this way labors in a large city to find, rescue and house ladies enslaved by sex trafficking. They share and minister the gospel to them, educate, train them in skills, and help these ladies find jobs to support themselves. The churches we plant must begin with a strategy to become independent and self-sustaining to plant more churches.
Fourth, personalization holds a dual meaning. Every Christ-follower should actively engage and personally participate in mission. When mission becomes personal it holds greater priority for the individual. Personalization for the corporate church body means that relationships serve as a discerning indicator of where God is leading the church to invest and engage mission.
LifePoint’s Impact strategy utilizes networks, affiliations, partnerships, work, and short-term trips. Partnerships serve an essential role in Impact strategy to strengthen and broaden our gospel influence and kingdom reach. Partnerships are established by four basic guides:
- Core theology. Does this person/network/organization/church hold the same core beliefs as LifePoint?
- Missiology. Does the partner strategy align with our principles of impact?
- Stewardship. Is this partnership the best stewardship of LifePoint’s resources at this time?
- Relationship. Is there personalization between LifePoint and this work?
A list of partners can be found under each corresponding section: Neighbors and Nations.