Matthew 28:18:20
“And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’”
(Matthew 28:18-20)
We use simple definitions. Evangelism is simply teaching the gospel with the aim to persuade. The gospel is the message of Jesus, God’s Son, living, dying, and rising again to redeem a sinful and lost humanity. Discipleship is simply helping others to trust in, and follow Jesus. This starts with introducing people to the message about Jesus, which is evangelism. Missions is crossing cultural barriers to bring the gospel to others, particularly to others who have yet to have the opportunity to hear it. We speak of “engaged” evangelism and missions to emphasize these are things that we, as a church body, don’t just talk about as being good things to do, but actually strive to do them. And we group local evangelism and world missions together in this core commitment because we see them as one piece. What we do locally we want to see “exported” to the “ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).