Guiding Missions Principles
As a church, we are guided by several principles in making decisions regarding missions:
When some people hear the word “missionary” they immediately think of someone advancing the gospel in a foreign country. In fact, missionaries serve both here and abroad. Therefore, we speak primarily of international missions; we think of our missions efforts in ever-widening concentric circles: our neighborhood, Brooklyn, the New York City metropolitan area, North America, and the whole world.
The Church is the primary means through which God is recreating his world. In the Scriptures, salvation is inherently “ecclesial” so we are not surprised to see that evangelism is intimately connected with the growth of the church. Therefore, we believe that God expects his church to grow, not only in quality (as people come under the lordship of Christ more and more) but also in quantity (as more and more people come under the lordship of Christ). Therefore, our focus will give preference to those ministries devoted to the establishment and support of local congregations.
Our world is increasingly urbanized. Therefore, as a church in the New York City metropolitan region, we are committed to church planting in major urban areas around the world. Consequently, we give preference to ministries in large urban areas rather than rural areas or small towns. This preferential option begins with Brooklyn.
No Poor Among You. Acts 4 tells of the exponential growth of the church and links it to mutual care among God’s people: “”And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and…there was not a needy person among them…” Unfortunately, this is not true of the church today. Churches in the West are in desperate decline yet cling to great financial resources while churches in the Majority World are growing despite desperate needs. Therefore, a significant portion of our resources will be devoted to impoverished churches.
As a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America, the Metropolitan New York Presbytery, and the Redeemer Network, we give preference to ministries affiliated with our denomination and networks—specifically Mission to North America (MNA), Mission to the World (MTW), Reformed University Fellowship (RUF)—over other church or para-church ministries.
Understanding the difficulties our missionaries often face in fund-raising, we would prefer to support fewer missionaries in a substantial way than to support more missionaries in a token way.
Implications
Under the guidance of these principles, our mission activity will include the following practices:
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The pastoral staff will encourage the congregation to pray for, support and participate in church planting and missions.
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It will be the responsibility of the pastoral staff and the mission committee to build relationships with the individuals and organizations that PSPC supports.
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The church shall commit 10% of its internal giving to church planting and mission work here and around the world.
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50% of all monies will be committed to gospel ministry in Brooklyn, with a primary focus on Church planting.
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25% will support ministries throughout metropolitan New York, North America and the industrialized world.
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25% will be given to the work of the church in impoverished regions of the Majority World
Mission Giving
Reflecting these policies, PSPC has given more than $150,000 to projects around the world. For a list of those works, see the links on this page.
