Our Purpose:
Love God. Love Others. Serve the Kingdom.

The Mission:
The mission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ. Local churches provide the most significant arena through which disciple making occurs. We believe that every person, Christian and non-Christian alike, is valuable to God and to God's Kingdom and that God's Word is the supreme authority; that love caring relationships are the key to every endeavor, that each member needs to be encouraged and supported in committing to a lifestyle of consistent spiritual growth with honest accountability; and that each person is a minister with spiritual gifts to be discovered, developed, and deployed; wherein we strive to identify and train emerging leaders who embrace the building of teams for effective ministry.

Rationale for Our Mission:
The mission of Risley is to make disciples of Jesus Christ by proclaiming the good news of God's grace and thus seeking the fulfillment of God's reign and realm in the world. The fulfillment of God's reign and realm in the world is the vision Scripture holds before us. Jesus' words in Matthew 28:19-20 provide the Church with our mission: "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, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you."

The mission is our grace-filled response to the Reign of God in the world announced by Jesus. God's grace is active everywhere, at all times, carrying out this purpose as revealed in the Bible. It is expressed in God's covenant with Abraham and Sarah, in Exodus of Israel from Egypt, and in the ministry of the prophets. It is fully embodied in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is experienced in the ongoing creation of a new people by the Holy Spirit.

The Process of Carrying Out Our Mission:
We make disciples as we:

• proclaim the gospel, seek, welcome, and gather persons into the body of Christ;

• lead persons to commit their lives to God through Jesus Christ;

• nurture persons in Christian living through worship, baptism, communion, accountability, Bible and other studies, prayer, and other means of grace.

• send persons into the world to live lovingly and justly as servants of Christ by healing the sic, feeding the hungry, caring for the stranger, freeing the oppressed, and working to have social structure consistent with the gospel; and continue the mission of seeking, welcoming, and gathering persons into the community of the body of Christ.