Missionary Community
We believe that the Sovereign Lord has called our community into being to serve as an extension of the ongoing redemptive work of Jesus Christ and an expression of his body, the church. The concept that Proclaim! International is a missionary community is fundamental to what we are and do.
MISSIONARY COMMUNITIES: DIVINE ALIGNMENTS
From the beginning the divinely inspired impulse to reach out with good news has always been energized by the filling of the Holy Spirit, the mandate of God’s word, the experience of transformed life and the burden for the lost. In every age and wherever the redeemed community is found there are those who experience a special burden and call to take the gospel into the streets and marketplaces and across cultural and linguistic frontiers. Those who have been so called and empowered for such a task have often found common cause, the essence of what we call a missionary community with alignment of vision, passion, burden, sense of call to ministry and theological confession. So it has been with Proclaim! International.
A missionary community, like any other community, cannot exist without organization, administration, and structure, but these do not define its essence. At its heart a missionary community is a visible expression of the ongoing incarnational, redemptive work of Jesus Christ, enabled and empowered by the Holy Spirit. If it is an authentic and truly biblical missionary community it will bear the marks of the ecclesia, the body of Christ, in its mission and its common life (koinonia).
God expects these communities He called into being to act, make decisions, maintain moral accountability and discipline, handle resources, appoint and dismiss leaders, exercise servant leadership, and maintain integrity in all areas in a manner that brings glory to God and is consistent with his character and the truth he has revealed in his word. With genuine humility we have pursued the formation of this community based principally on the models and precepts found in the word of God.
THE CONSTITUTION OF PROCLAIM! INTERNATIONAL AS A MISSIONARY COMMUNITY
Everything that we do in our corporate and organizational identity arises from the recognition that we are a missionary community called into being by God to accomplish his purposes. This excerpt from the first article of the Proclaim! International Operational Guidelines, formalized at our Gathering November 23, 2003, summarizes this well and identifies specific areas that are especially important for our life and ministry together as such a community:
Call: The Proclaim! International Missionary Community has been called into being by its sovereign Lord. It is an extension of the ongoing redemptive work of Jesus Christ and an expression of his body, the church.
Authority: The authority of the community regarding its own life and mission is complete, being derived from its head, the Lord Jesus Christ. The exercise of this authority is legitimate to the extent that its members are obedient and faithful to Him and are living under the influence and in the power of the Holy Spirit.