What is Witnessing?

(This is the 2nd part in a series on King of Grace's mission statement.)

Our mission is as a church to be:

Wholeheartedly loving God and one another
by Worshiping, Witnessing and Walking in
the good news of Jesus Christ for all of life.

I want to talk a little about "witnessing". Witnessing is the simple act of "telling it as it is", that is, telling it as you have seen it and experienced it. As Christians we are to simply and humble witness to the joyful reality of Jesus Christ as our all sufficient Savior from sin and all its repercussions as well as our all worthy Lord over all our lives and all of creation.

We believe that witnessing to Jesus Christ in our lives is a natural overflow to our experience. We all witness to something. Usually that something is what is most important to us. A proud father witnesses to his son's achievments. A enthusiastic fan witnesses to the exploits of her sports heroes. Similarly, for the Christian, we testify to the blessings of the good news of Jesus Christ.

This involves demonstrating to others the lifestyle of following Christ as well as explaining & declaring the truth behind it. Demonstration and declaration are two key elements to being effective witnesses to anything. We are instructed this way in scripture: Romans 1:16 (ESV) says, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes..." and in Matthew 5:16 (ESV) Jesus says, "In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." And Jesus also says in John 13:34-35 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

And so, at King of Grace Church we seek to witness to the reality of Jesus Christ in how we live, how we love and what we say. We seek to do this in every arena of life in which we live that we might shine his light and see many others come to know, enjoy and worship the King and Savior who will one day soon come back to complete his reign over all of creation.

In pursuing this call to witness we affirm the following points:

• We affirm that a right approach to witnessing springs from a gospel-motivated grace-empowered joy-filled engagement with the our families, our friends, our community and our culture.


• We pursue a multi-faceted, relationally based, church-wide ministry of outreach.


• We pursue a church-wide culture of mission with the equippers equipping, the ministers ministering.


• We believe in a deep and broad community and cultural engagement.


• We pursue a love for and involvement with our communities, not isolation from nor abandonment of the culture.


• We exist to be a church-planting church.

That is what we mean by witnessing. We invite you to come and witness with us to the wonderful news and experience of Jesus Christ, Savior and Lord.

God Bless, Paul