Our Strategy
While we are excited to serve our local church in Orange County directly, we also want to be a resource to other people and churches who are interested in growing in these areas of ministry.
That’s why we have called our ministry How to Be Missionary-ish.
A life on mission is part of God’s grand narrative for renewing this world, and every single believer in Jesus is called to it. But, because we live in an imperfect world, things can get messy and complicated. “Missionary-ish” is what we call the life on mission that’s not perfect. Hence the -ish.
We aren’t claiming the title of missionary—that’s reserved for the ones who are working to advance the Gospel in a cross-cultural setting. That’s the role we took on for a season in Thailand, and God may call us to do it again.
Regardless of where God calls any of us, though, our primary goal is the same as any missionary serving in a foreign land: to go and make disciples of Christ Jesus.
We believe that we are better together when we choose to partner with others beyond the borders of our denomination. What we currently are doing at Trinity is just one of thousands of examples of how the Church can be on mission together.
Practically, we implement this process in 3 tiers: teach, incubate, and experiment.
Shown above is a video snapshot of how we’ve implemented our strategy in Bangkok, Thailand. Established in 2016, the urban outreach ministry still continues today.
teach
Before we can do anything, we have to figure out what we don’t know—and then learn about it. Areas of training include:
Ways to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ
How to read and apply the Bible to our lives
Ways to care for missionaries
Teambuilding
How to make disciples who make disciples
Ways to connect with and serve our community
incubate
Naturally, after we learn about different ways to live missionally and care for those around us, we work with others to come up with ideas to actually do it. These ideas may include:
Taking prayer walks around a local college campus
Visiting and encouraging the missionary partners our church supports
Regularly serving at a local school for homeless children
Praying together
Conduct research on the culture we intend to reach
experiment
Once we plan, we do! Then we look at what worked, what didn’t, and try again. Here we test, fail, and try, try again: This may look like:
Testing the hypothesis on reaching a particular sphere of influence.
Hosting events like “second-degree dinners,” investment clubs, or block parties in order to meet new people and build friendships that bridge into sharing life and the Gospel
Debrief the event with our teams and refine the strategy
Take your next steps on mission with Jesus.
Since we have started this ministry, we’ve relied on a small group of friends and family to fund all of our operating expenses. Year after after year, our partners have stood with us through thick and thin making our work possible. They believe—like we do—that the Gospel of Jesus Christ truly changes everything. Whether it is giving, going, or praying with us through our newsletters, let’s live on mission together.
