Mission Statement: “The Discipleship Ministry at WCCN exists to advance God’s Kingdom through devoted followers of Christ, committed to fulfilling the Great Commission, by nurturing growth in biblical knowledge, wisdom, and Christlike holiness.”
First, our discipleship ministry exists to advance God’s Kingdom. The first and primary reason for our existence is purposed to spread the good news about Christ.
Second, to accomplish the advancing of the Kingdom, "devoted" followers of Christ are necessary. Devotion and commitment are especially needed in our culture. We need people who are compelled by the love of Christ to go outside the church to be ministers (we need them to minister inside the church, yes, but our mission is to send them out). Additionally, “followers” is intended to convey the communal aspect of discipleship. We are not trying to nurture and deploy islands. We are nurturing and deploying a network of people out into the world.
* “Followers of Christ” is important for unifying reasons. We all come under the banner of Christ, guided by his mission, teachings and lifestyle. Our authority, power, and commission come from him.
*“Commitment” conveys that we are committed – resolved in our task.
*“Fulfilling the Great Commission” – Again, our authority and help comes from Christ. The Great Commission is an essential discipleship mandate that we want to take appropriate steps to live out.
*We want to accomplish these things by “nurturing” certain things in people. We want our church to be a place where people are involved in significant ministry. A key component to significant ministry is using people’s gifts and abilities to teach, influence, and minister to others. Thus, we are an equipping church who wants to come alongside people and help them to grow in certain ways in order to employ them in ministry to others.
*“Biblical” – The Bible is our source for authority, teaching, living, etc. It is also essential and foundational. This is a confessional word that we will teach knowledge, help people to grow in wisdom, and assist them in Christlike holiness based off of the Bible.
*“Knowledge” – we want people to have a depth of knowledge of all scripture.
*“Wisdom” – we want our people to move beyond knowledge and into living out/owning biblical principles.
*“Christlike holiness” – At the risk of being redundant (Christlike and holiness), we want our people to live like Christ and to adopt the mission of Christ as their own. In that, however, we still want our people to know that holiness is part of that pursuit. A distinct marker of being like Christ should be (must be) holiness. The life Christ lived was a holy life so we want our people to do the same. It’s important enough to go ahead and include it.