Our Mission
GOD CALLS and works through people, individually and collectively to accomplish His purposes, revealed in His Word. The North Carolina District Council was formed in 1944 to create a voluntary cooperative fellowship of Assemblies of God church leaders committed to working together to advance the cause of Christ at home and abroad. Within this fellowship we share a solid commitment to the great commandment (Matt.22:37), uncompromising convictions concerning sound doctrine (Titus 1:9), and a consuming passion to see our world changed by the power of the Holy Spirit through the exaltation of Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 1:23-24). Our methodology is constantly adapting to meet the unique challenges of changing times. Our message is powerful and uncompromising. Our mission must be understood and embraced in four facets:
1) Worship God
To worship God is to adore, honor, and celebrate Him always. The origins of the word "worship" can be traced to the Old English word "worthship." To "worship" God is to ascribe ultimate worth to Him (Psalm 68:32). Our words, our disciplines, our families, our relationships, and our churches, must glorify God. We maintain that man's chief end is to worship God and to enjoy Him forever. As a cooperative fellowship of church leaders, we commit ourselves, and all within the sphere of our influence, to worship God through service, unity, giving, adoration, celebration, and sacrifice. While different cultures and generations adopt differing schedules and styles in the expression of worship, we are unified in the insistence that true worship must flow from the heart, efface the flesh, and honor the Lord. (John 4:23-24) As a District Council, our most common expression of worship is found in serving, encouraging, and strengthening one another in our common labor for the Lord.
2) Evangelize the World
The message that God has entrusted to us is too important not to share. The church is the only redeeming agency in the earth (Romans 10:14-15). If we are silent, the cost will be measured in people lost for eternity. The Assemblies of God was organized around two purposes: To provide for the training of pastors, and to send missionaries into the world to answer the great commission. (Mark 16:15) At our second organizational meeting in 1914, delegates made an audacious pledge: "We commit ourselves and the movement to Him for the greatest evangelization the world has ever seen." God has honored their faith with a great worldwide harvest of souls. Evangelism is not an option for us, it is the DNA of the church. After Jesus died, rose, and ascended to heaven, the Father sent the Holy Spirit to empower believers to finish God's work by taking the good news of Jesus to every creature. (Acts 1:8, Mark 16:15) Evangelism is the answer to the great question of Pentecost, "what does this mean?" (Acts 2:12) The power of the Spirit is given that the purpose of the Father might be accomplished in the earth. As an authentic New Testament community we build churches that prioritize around the winning of souls.
3) Develop Ministers
Those who lead must grow. We cannot take others where we have never been. Therefore, we endeavor to equip those who equip others to be increasingly effective in the work of the ministry. (1 Tim. 4:13-16) Through resources, seminars and mentoring, we are challenged to constant spiritual and professional growth. As a healthy church we strive to maintain an environment in which faithful men and women become lifelong learners, pressing deeper into the wisdom and knowledge of God and His high calling.
4) Establish Churches
The Apostle Paul planted churches wherever people were receptive to the gospel. Evangelism can only be sustained through the establishment and development of the local church. Our work in North Carolina is not done until there is, in every community, a worshipping, witnessing, equipping, vibrant, growing, sending, life-changing, Pentecostal church proclaiming the eternal Word of God in the power of the Holy Spirit. As a "great commission" (Matt. 28:19-20) movement, we will be found expanding the boundaries of Jesus' Kingdom when He appears in the clouds of glory. As the living body of Christ, we will unite in worship, engage in evangelism, equip ministers, and plant churches as lights in darkness. To that end, we remain, bound together by His contagious love.
