ActsOne:8

Mission Statement: To be a Focused missional church that Trains, Equips,, and Sends disciples into the world to reach the lost with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Mission Statement Explanations

Focused: Romans 15:20-21 This implies that our ministry is focused in areas that have the greatest need for the Gospel. We do not wish to go where there is already a strong Gospel witness or carry out a ministry that is already being done well by someone else. This can apply stateside or internationally.

Trains: 2 Timothy 2:15 Training refers to the aspect of helping people understand why we do what we do and how to do it. We desire to send people who understand why we do what we do so that they are more effective disciples going into the world.

Equips: Eph. 4:11-13 This is a key statement. We desire to equip people so they are able to use their gifts to carry out strategic missions in which we have sought to train them.

Send Disciples: Acts 1:8, Matt. 28:19-20 Hopefully, this is self-explanatory, but we should be sending people out from this ministry to make disciples. Whether it is short-term sending or long-term sending, we need to be sending.

ActsOne:8 Strategy

Being a Focused Missional Church:

Strategy #1: As a Missional Church, we will seek to work in those areas of the world that have the least access to the Gospel.

Key point: Matt 28:19-20 & Acts 1:8 Panta to ethne "all the ethnos"

1) International - We will focus primarily, but not exclusively, on those areas that have the least access to the Gospel or are considered "closed" areas of the world. Some examples may be:

The 10/40 window

Communist, Islamic, or other areas dominated by a religion or government that would exclude Christianity.

Working with the least evangelized in the Americas.

Places where church access is limited.

Our ActsOne:8 strategy is to be a missional focused church that trains, equips, and sends disciples to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with a lost world. The strategy begins with prayer as we seek to develop a strong prayer ministry for missions. Next we are beginning a 5 year partnership to engage an unengaged people group (UPG) - the Dibo people of Nigeria. Parkwood will send missions teams until there is a church plant movement the people. We are now sending missions teams to serve with our Mission Partnerships in Honduras and Romania. We serve with the church planters who are in the process of planting churches

2) North America - We will go where there is not a strong Gospel representation. We are now sending missions teams to serve with our North American Mission Partnerships in Arizona and New Hampshire. We serve along beside the church planters who are in the process of planting churches.

3) Gastonia - Local Missions – Being a missional church, the focus of local missions is Evangelism, to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We begin with an emphasis on prayer, as we call every member of Parkwood to engage in praying for missions (local, North American, and International) Church Planting is our primary focus. It is our desire to plant like minded Bible saturated, mission focused, God glorifying church in and around our region. Local missions includes utilizing every means possible: Social missions through Helping Hands, Car Care, Clothing collecting, through Food ministries at Gaston Baptist Association, West Gastonia Boy’s and Girl’s Club, Salvation Army. Missions through Bible Studies, Jail Ministry, Celebrate Recovery. As well as groups like Carolina Faith Riders our bike ministry. The means may be different but our desire is the out come is the same, people coming to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

4) Church Planting – It is Parkwood’s desire as a missional church to plant churches, start churches, birth churches, mother churches that see our communities as the mission field. Church Planting involves Church Planters and disciples willing to understand people while living as a disciple among them. Church Planting includes being culturally relevant in sharing the Gospel, connecting with our communities, while never straying from the Truth of the Gospel. Church Planting is want we do in order to be evangelistic. As Parkwood plants churches we will network with likeminded churches joining together to multiply the Body of Christ.

Church of the Carolinas will launch in the fall of 2008 with church planter, Will Martin. Their focus area of the county is south.

Exodus Church will launch in the fall of 2009 with church planter Brian Lowe. They will be focused toward the I-85/74 corridor in the Belmont/Mount Holly area.

Strategy #2: Prayer: Our goal is to develop a strong prayer ministry for Missions.

Strategy #3: Work in conjunction with other churches at home so we can have a multiplying effect upon missions here in the United States. Our goal here is to see missions work multiplied across American churches. Examples of such work are:

Working within the IMB & GCNet (Great Commission Network) to help lead other churches into a networking concept of missions.

Serving as a training church so that we can "disciple" others in doing missions and helping them become trained in missions work.

Strategy #4: We seek to work primarily with Church Planters, planting churches is a way to effectively reach a culture and minister to the needs of that culture. We believe that the New Testament model is to establish a viable church within a culture as a way to model Christ in our culture and penetrate the culture with the Gospel.

ActsOne:8 Strategy for Sending

Strategy #1: Sending people on mission trips.

Note: Missions trips are not an end in and of themselves. We view mission trips in three ways:

To help make disciples in the field. If a trip can help those on the field, then we want to do that.
Cast vision for people. Our hope is that those going on a trip will see missions is not about a one-time trip but instead about a year round commitment to reach the unreached people of the world.
Encourage and support the Church Planters and Missionaries we serve along-side in the field.

When sending people on mission trips, we have three priority levels of trips.

Priority levels are:

Priority #1: Adoption of the Dibo people of Nigeria. Engaging an unengaged people group that has no access to the Gospel. There are no churches and no Bibles in their heart language. Many have never heard of Jesus. These trips have priority over the others in people, time, money, and promotional considerations. We have begun a 5 year partnership with the Dibo.

Priority #2: PBC Partnerships. These are signed, formal partnerships that we have developed with SBC people around the world and in North America with similar strategies of reaching the unchurched in their areas of ministry.

Honduras: Chorti Indians, serving with Billy & Mary Collins.
Romania: serving with Cristi and Otilia Sonea Church Planters.
Milford, New Hampshire: serving Tom and Michele Gore Church Planters.
Buckeye, Arizona: serving with Dennis and Cindy Connors Church Planters.

Priority #3: Projects. These are one time trips we do in conjunction with a missionary or another organization, with no promise to go back to the same place. The goal of the trip is to send people into the field to give them a taste of what it is like to be on a mission trip. It is usually a trip designed for the person who is just getting their feet wet in overseas travel.

Other Criteria we look at in deciding where to go and who to go with:

Is this a strategic trip? Does it fit our strategy and contribute to the ActsOne:8 Mission of PBC?
How does this help us share the Gospel in areas that have no or little access to the Gospel? Will this trip help us cast vision to our people about the nations (The Ethnos)?
Does it conflict with who we are as a church or the ActsOne:8 mission? Is there a theological likeness with the person we are working with? Is the person requesting the trip easy to get along with?
Do they support the work of PBC?
Are they flexible in their approach to the trip?

Strategy #2: Sending of our people to the field, a variety of ways. We desire to see our own people go deeper into missions service, and go wherever they can, whenever they can.

Sending people as full time workers: That may be through a local ministry or international ministry. Usually, we try to point them in the direction of the IMB, NAMB, or other SBC agencies.

Reasons we seek to see people go through SBC mission agencies:

It is funded! They do not have to raise their support to go.
We are supported by the Cooperative Program.
The IMB is as cutting edge as anyone in missions.
We are able to better support their work. Since the IMB has a major strategy of UPGs, we can join with that work in a greater way.
NAMB focuses on church planting.

Questions: So what does this mean for this trip?

Parkwood is a Missional Church that God has placed in a strategic place in our denomination.
We have the ability and desire to go where most churches can not and/or will not go.
We have a focused ministry that is seeking to follow God.
We will consider trips that do not specifically fit our strategy for the purpose of casting vision for missions in general.
Our hope is that people will get on board with reaching to the ends of the earth on a year round basis.
For those trips not aimed at the unreached, we make no promises of going back to the same place each year, especially if we feel that it does not fit what we are looking to do.

The hope is that people will see and understand the strategy and see the need of those who have no access at all to the gospel, and join in that effort.

If we really desire to see the nations reached, then we are most effective if we are Strategically Focused

Missions is for God's glory, not our pleasure. We hope to see people who are willing to be radical in their faith in seeking to help take the gospel to the edge.