The mission statement is about the “why & what” of the local church, where the ministry of the church is about the “how”. Ministry is action, an activity of God’s servants to serve God and others.
This might also be called our church’s strategic plan. The plan simply states how we are organized to the ministry’s mission and vision.
1 Peter 4:10–11 Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. 11 If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
How will we go about structuring ourselves to accomplish God’s goals for our congregation?
The church’s ministry is our activity and responsibility in fulfillment of our biblically defined mandate. Our church’s ministry is defined in several ways. First, our ministry can be defined as the fulfillment of the Great Commandment of our Lord: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” and “You shall love your neighbour as yourself” (Matt. 22:37, 39). Second, our ministry can be defined in terms of the Great Commission of our Lord: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19-20). Third, the process and objective of our ministry can be defined in the apostle Paul’s terms as “the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect person, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we…may grow up in all things into Him who is the head, that is, Christ” (Eph. 4:12-15). Fourth, ministry can be defined in terms of the model of the early church – viz. teaching the apostles’ doctrine, engaging in fellowship, commemorating the breaking bread, praying together, caring for one another, worshiping God, and actively evangelizing the community (Acts 2:42-47). This continues to be the basis of biblical, balanced ministry today. Fifth, we must “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching” (Heb 10:25).
From the above specific Scriptures, plus the Bible as a whole, it is evident that our ministry has as its priority the worship of God, becoming grounded in His Word, and is followed by service for God in the proclamation of the gospel (the fruit of which is the baptism of repentant sinners), and the edification of the saints.
The reason for our existence as a local congregation is to carry out the above ministry, we only fail when we take our eyes off Jesus.
The focus of our church and our organizational structure is driven from the desire to serve God by carry out the above mandates.