This is the beginning of a series of blogs on our Mission, Values, Outcomes and Convictions. Stay tuned for more to come.
OUR MISSION
by Kevin Stacy + Jamin Stinziano
At Summit, we believe that well-defined and consistent language not only helps build culture, but also provides clarity to the mission, vision, and outcomes of Summit Church. The mission statement of Summit simply states that:
“Summit Church exists to glorify God by making disciples who represent the gospel to every man, woman, and child.”
We believe that this statement clearly communicates the type of church and the type of people God is calling us to be: God-Glorifying, Gospel-Centered, Missionally-Driven, Disciple-Makers. To better understand our mission statement, let’s break the statement down phrase by phrase, and then put it back together.
SUMMIT CHURCH EXISTS TO GLORIFY GOD
Summit Church has always existed for the glory of God. When Summit Church officially launched on the campus of Florida Gulf Coast University in September of 2003, the first words spoken came from Psalm 115: “Not to us O Lord, not to us, but to your name be the glory.” Since the start, our desire for God to be glorified has always been our heart and it will continue to be the heart behind everything that we do. So how will we glorify God?
BY MAKING DISCIPLES
We believe that God will be most glorified in us as we give ourselves over to the call that Christ gave to his followers just before he went back to his Father: Make Disciples. We long to see men, women, and children trust in Christ as their Savior and then see them learn to obey Him as Lord. This is the responsibility of the Church worldwide, and we are committed to obeying Jesus’ mandate as best we know how.
WHO REPRESENT THE GOSPEL
As we glorify God by making disciples, the outcome of those disciples is that they would be representatives of the gospel in the spaces where they live, work, and play. The gospel is the good news of salvation and transformation. It is our hope that, as followers of Jesus, we would seek to constantly be reminded of the transformative power of the gospel. Jesus ushered in the kingdom of God by living the life we could not live, by dying the death that was rightfully ours, and by being raised from the dead so that we might be brought from death to life! There is no greater news than this and it will continue to be our center! As we are changed by the gospel, it is our hope that we would glorify God by giving ourselves to the mission of God.
TO EVERY MAN, WOMAN, AND CHILD.
Missionally-driven people are men, women, and children who understand that they are God’s image bearers. As image bearers, we are called to represent the gospel – that is to speak and act on the delated authority that is ours through Jesus Christ. It is our hope that every man, woman, and child in SWFL would have repeated opportunities to see, hear, and respond to the gospel because God’s people have taken the mission of their God seriously and have represented his salvation and transformation in the spaces where they live, work, and play.
SUMMIT CHURCH EXISTS TO GLORIFY GOD BY MAKING DISCIPLES WHO REPRESENT TO EVERY MAN, WOMAN, AND CHILD
It is our hope that we would be people that give our lives to this type of activity – to be God-glorifying, gospel-centered, missionally-driven, disciple-makers. In John 15:8, Jesus says to his disciples: “By this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.” He went on to say, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.” This is what we’re going after – fruit that abides and does not spoil. We long to be a people that glorify God by making disciples who represent the transformative and restorative power of the gospel to every man, woman, and child.