By Dr. John David Smith

The first value statement of BMA Global Missions states: Motivated by the Mission of God – The Mission of God is defined specifically as making God’s glory and love known to the nations.  This aspect of the nature of God expressed in the expansion of His kingdom (missions) to all peoples, it is the primary motivational piece in all that we do.

The Mission of God is that transcendent reality of His nature that is all about His love and glory to the nations. The eternal, triune God is both the source and the example of love and communication. He did not HAVE to create us in order to experience love and communication, He had that from eternity past within Himself (Trinity). He did choose to create, and He manifests His nature in love and communication to His creation in both word and deed. His redemptive plan, through His eternal Son Jesus Christ, was established before the foundation of the world because He is a gracious, merciful, and personal God . . . this is who He is . . . His nature. 

He is also a God of perfect holiness, and we are thankful that he is a propitious God. At no point in eternity past or in space and time did God all of a sudden become a missionary God and begin to promote His mission. An element of His eternal nature is His mission.

We are motivated by the mission of God, which includes his glory to the nations, his redemptive plan, and the ultimate destiny of all things (worship). 

The Mission of God must be our identity, meaning it gives us our “why.” 

Why do we exist and why do we do the things we do? Mission! God’s glory and love to the world provides us with our “what.” 

We are to go and proclaim the message of repentance and forgiveness to all people groups, which gives us our “how.” 

We are to make disciple makers out of the unengaged, unreached, and undiscipled, which  gives us our “where” and in this sense, where we are going in terms of ultimate destiny. Mission is all about the ultimate and eternal worship of God around his throne by the redeemed from every language, tongue, and nation. 

The legitimacy of our association will be found in a synergistic cooperation to a unifying mission undergirded by like-minded beliefs and values under the watchful eye of biblical accountability. The glue of our association is our commitment to the Mission of God. Synergistic cooperation, like-minded beliefs, values, and biblical accountability are all necessary, but the unifying mission is the strength and fuel of our association.  May God’s love be known to the nations and may His name be famous among all peoples as we stay unrelentingly focused on the Mission of God, that part of His nature that defines us, directs us, and drives us as His people.