The mission of our church is to make disciples. In reality, that should be the mission of all churches.
It’s not even an original mission, and that’s precisely the point. Our goal as a church is to recommission ourselves to the initial commission given to Jesus. It reorients us to a creek mindset.
Scripture often describes God’s presence being ushered to restore the people of this world as a river. The scene of heaven contains a river flowing from God’s throne for the healing of all peoples (Rev. 22:1-2). God is the source of living water (Jer. 2:13; John 4:10), and we are intended to be a channel by which other people experience it as well.
As a local church or as individual disciples, we can never mistake our role for anything other than contributing to that end. The vision of Rocky Creek Church is to create a culture in which all members contribute to the greater movement of the church, and our church mobilizes for the growing advancement of the Kingdom.
In light of that reality, a more thorough way to express our mission is that we are making disciples who take personal responsibility for Kingdom activity.
We move with the river. We contribute to the cause. A creek has no purpose other than to contribute to the greater movement to which it is aligned.
What causes a creek to dry up? It happens when the essential connections become hindered. If the input or the deposit experiences a blockade, the creek will eventually dry up. The same is true with our church.
While we accept the concept as a whole, we must move the ownership of the Great Commission down to the individual level. What if Rocky Creek made it our goal to lead our entire church family to take personal responsibility to engage in this calling? More than discipleship being the whole church’s goal, what would it take for it to become the individual member’s goal?
The Creek Vision is a 4-year journey to empower every disciple to join in Jesus’ work among the world. It is a goal to recommission every Christian and every congregation to lead responsible Great Commission lives.
By the end of 2025, our vision is to see everyone discipling someone.
Jesus didn’t reserve the Great Commission for ministry programs or professionals. Jesus calls every disciple to take what they have and invest it in others. That’s the Creek Vision. We see a day when every church member serves as a guide for at least one other person’s spiritual development. Whether that person doesn’t know Jesus or doesn’t know Him well, we want each of our members to help navigate that person forward.
As our church personally engages in intentional discipleship, we intend to share convincingly the message that we believe God hasn’t given up on anyone, and neither have we. Our goal is to help people make progress in what matters most.
Many Christians feel stuck. We live in a religiously exposed yet spiritually desensitized city. With the increase in cultural pressure and the reality of church hurt, many people around us respect Jesus but reject his church. We often seek to gather more church members while some work for new converts, but Jesus’ call was to make actual disciples.
Will you join us?
Travis Agnew serves as the Lead Pastor of Rocky Creek Church in Greenville, SC. His most recent book is Just (About) Married.
