What is WorldView Ministries? – Part 2
Core Values
This is Part 2 in a series of 6 articles defining and explaining the heartbeat of WorldView Ministries. My burden is to clearly relate who we are, what our God-given vision is, and how we are taking the steps necessary to achieve our vision.
The purpose of this and the next four articles is to explain the CORE VALUES that form the foundation of our ministry. All our work is guided by these firmly held beliefs and objectives.
Core Value #1: Church Planting
Church planting among unreached people groups is the highest priority for completing the Great Commission.
After the previous article that clearly defined WorldView as a Bible translating ministry, one may wonder why our first core value is church planting. The answer is simple. The ultimate goal of providing the Scriptures for the unreached is the planting of local New Testament churches.
God ordained the church as the agency by which the Gospel would be propagated. Jesus did not just give the Great Commission to the church, Jesus gave the church to the Great Commission. The mission of God is the priority, and the church was established to be the vehicle of that mission. Jesus did not devise the Great Commission in the final days of His ministry on earth because He needed something for the church to do. The purpose of the Great Commission is not to give the church another program to add to its to-do list. Rather, the church was established to carry out the mission of God that was ordained in eternity past and began when the world was formed. A well-known missiologist clearly stated this idea when he said, “The church doesn’t have a mission. The mission has a church.”
Therefore, our goal is not to just translate the Scripture, hand them a book and walk away. But our goal is to win them, baptize them, bring them into membership with other saved, baptized believers and disciple them — all for the purpose of creating more disciple-makers and seeing more churches planted among them. The goal extends beyond a church plant to church planting movements. Every people group on earth should have a local church they can attend where the gospel is preached, souls are reached, Christians are discipled and the commission is extended beyond them to the next village, city and people group.
Bible translation work must be accomplished in conjunction with church planting. As we move into areas where there is no church, one must be started. This is the case with our Tibet and China projects. The Bible translator must become a church planter, seeking to reach, disciple and develop those who have the potential to become helpers and team members for the translation project. In areas where there is a church already established, it is WorldView’s desire to work with the established church, partnering with them to provide the Scripture for their people. This is the case with our two Ugandan projects and our Liangmai project in northern India.
One must also understood that the Scripture is primarily for the church, not for the lost world. Certainly, we want those who are lost to read the Scripture because its words are powerful and convicting, but the understanding of its message is not directed to unsaved, pagan people. The first purpose of the Scriptures is to provide the doctrinal foundation of the church and establish the children of God firmly in the faith. The primary intended audience of Bible translation is God’s people. It is from this Scriptural foundation that the gospel can be propagated effectively.
This emphasis on church planting is led and coordinated by WorldView’s Director of Church Planting. Church planting programs and strategies are in place. Programs for training church planters are also being conducted. Please pray that God will continue to send church planters with a burden to reach the unreached people groups, going where no gospel foundation has been laid.