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The Vision for Missions at Glory of Christ Fellowship, by Pastor Charlie Handren

     Glory of Christ Fellowship (GCF) exists to make disciples for the glory of Christ. Accordingly, while our primary value is the glory of God made visible in and through Jesus Christ, we express our love for and value of God through worship, community, and mission.
     In order to accomplish our mission, we are committed to sharing the love of Christ locally and globally, baptizing new believers in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything Jesus has commanded (Matthew 28:18-20). With regard to supporting global missions, we give preference to missionaries or nationals who are directly engaged in making disciples by establishing and strengthening churches. Further, our desire is to stand with those who are working among unreached or under-reached people groups. For the majority of current missions investments around the world support ministries where the church is already established and the gospel is already being preached. Finally, we are committed to giving as much support as possible to a few global partners rather than giving a little support to lots of global partners.
     With these things in mind, we partner with global gospel-workers in at least three ways. First, with some global partners we covenant to regularly hold them up in prayer over a long period of time. For example, we have been prayer partners with Catherine Rivard for about seven years and we have stood with her before the throne in good times and bad.
     Second, with some global partners we covenant to pray for and financially support them for a prescribed period of time as one church among others. For example, we have supported the church planting efforts of Amos and Meredith Anderson for a number of years as they labor to establish churches in Albania.
    Third, with others we covenant to pray for and financially support them for a prescribed period of time as their sending church. For example, we currently serve as the home church for David and Carmen Gunderson who serve with Arrive Ministries, and Ethan and Elysia Larson who serve with Training Leaders International.
     Finally, we partner with some global partners by sending small, short-term teams to encourage them, pray with them, and serve alongside them in a variety of ways. I’ll say more about this in the next devotional, but for now, let me simply call you to earnest prayer for the missionary vision and partnerships of GCF. 




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