Mission, Vision, Values, and Beliefs
Our Mission
To send out followers of Jesus to participate in God’s mission in the world. We are committed to inviting people to follow Jesus, social justice and establishing worshipping communities among unreached and least-reached peoples throughout the world.
Our Vision
Presbyterians effectively equipped, sent out and supported as they participate in God’s mission in the world, and every Presbyterian congregation extensively, strategically, and radically involved in this process.
Core Values
GOD ALREADY AT WORK
God has been, and continues to be, at work in the world and he calls us to join him. When we prayerfully consider the possibility of serving in a given context, our approach is to discern what God is doing, who he is working through, and how he might be calling us to participate in his work in partnership with the broader body of Christ.
SHARING THE GOOD NEWS
Our passion in sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ is to see people become followers of Jesus living transformed lives in the power of the Holy Spirit. We want to see these disciples involved in outward-focused worshipping communities which are impacting the world. Our commitment includes strengthening and increasing the missional capacity of our partners.
UNREACHED PEOPLES
We are deeply concerned about the un-reached and least-reached people groups of the world. These are the people groups where there is no indigenous church, or where the newly emerging church is not yet able to effectively engage its people group.
PRAYER
Prayer is fundamental in everything we do. As we participate in God’s mission in the world, our basic responsibility is to be people of prayer. We are committed to this as individuals, and as a fellowship of Christ’s servants.
KINGDOM OF GOD
The Kingdom of God is the rule and reign of God; it is both “now” and “not yet.” Just as the Kingdom of God was a central focus for Jesus, so it is for us, and we understand our involvement in the world in the context of God’s Kingdom. This means we are committed to the wholeness of the Gospel: sharing the message of Jesus (words), social action (works), and demonstrations of the Spirit’s power (wonders). It also means we are committed to the growth of the church, as well as to working for social righteousness, because both of these are integrally related to the Kingdom of God.
PARTNERSHIP
As one expression of the body of Christ, we are committed to working in partnership with the global body of Christ. We believe God can do more through us working together than he can when we work independently. Our vision in this regard is healthy interdependence across the spectrum of our partnership relationships. Our passion for partnership includes “… all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ …” (1 Corinthians 1:2).
CHURCH
We believe the church is the primary agent of God’s mission in the world. In terms of churches in the US, we serve and partner with congregations as they send out their members. In terms of local churches where TAP Partners are serving, we are committed to partnership and we seek to empower, equip and support these churches as they fulfill their mission vision. Our goal is for our relationships with churches to be characterized by interdependence.
INCARNATIONAL WITNESS
Just as Jesus incarnated the love of God and the reality of God’s Kingdom, we are called to do likewise. We believe the incarnation has immense implications for us as cross-cultural servants, including: relationships as our primary focus, the necessity of language and culture learning, the critical importance of bonding and acculturation, and the necessity of carefully considering the impact our lifestyle choices have on our witness.
STEWARDSHIP
God calls us to be wise stewards of all creation. As stewards, we are accountable to God for our use of his resources, and therefore we take accountability seriously in all aspects of our service. A vital aspect of stewardship related to our work is facilitating effective partnerships between missionaries and supporting congregations. Another vital aspect is developing and maintaining a core of long-term mission personnel who have acquired language and culture skills, effective cross-cultural skills, and missiological depth.
SERVANT LEADERSHIP
Our understanding and practice of leadership is based on the conviction that leaders are called to serve and empower. We approach decision-making in a participatory, consensus-based manner.
Beliefs
God is at work around the world in amazing ways!
It is in the very character of God, the One who in love sent the Son into the world and poured out the Spirit upon the disciples, who is blessing all the peoples of the earth, that the church discovers its mission purpose.
We believe God has called us to create a new missionary-sending platform to connect congregations in vital ways to the proclamation of the kingdom among unreached peoples and the strengthening of the church for God's mission to the world. We are fulfilling this calling in a way that reflects the holistic, incarnational ministry of Jesus, who sends us even as he was sent. (John 20:21)
We believe that the Bible is our final authority for faith and practice.
Along with believers from the early days of Christianity until now, we believe in the triune God and affirm the faith confessed in the Nicene Creed and the Apostles’ Creed.
As Presbyterians in the body of Christ, we stand within the historic Reformed faith as set forth in the confessions of the church. We believe with these confessions that Jesus Christ, the word made flesh, is the only Lord and Savior.
As part of the global Christian community, we affirm the Lausanne Covenant of 1974.
As participants in God's mission to the world, we affirm our willingness to share in mission "with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Corinthians 1:2) We will seek to honor others in the body of Christ while affirming that each partner must discern the nature of their own service.
We affirm the Holy Spirit is at work in the world and in the church, distributing gifts as the Spirit wills for the building up of the body for God's mission.
We believe God calls both women and men and equips both with gifts for leadership in the body of Christ.
We affirm the biblical standard for personal discipleship and ordination that calls all persons to live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or in chastity in singleness.
We believe that all Jesus' followers are called to bear witness to him in their communities and in the world.
We believe that God’s creation of diverse cultures around the world reflects his glory and grace and that each culture is able to receive the gospel, be shaped by the gospel, and express the gospel in ways that are authentic to its unique cultural context.
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”
