ECF Our Shared Mission

Every Church Flourishing. Every Community Transformed by the Gospel.

If you’re an avid reader of the GCA Newsletter, a frequent listener to the GCA podcast, or even a casual visitor to our social media or website, you’ve likely heard us repeat this phrase over the past year.

That repetition is intentional. This isn’t simply a slogan we picked up somewhere. We keep putting this vision in front of ourselves—and in front of you—because we want to continually remind ourselves why our network of churches exists.

This is our purpose.

When I’m asked why churches and church leaders should participate in a missional network like our association, I can give a whole list of benefits. We CARE for one another. We help ReNEW one another. We STIIR one another up to love and good works. And we SEND one another out on mission.

But behind all of those actions is a greater vision. That vision is the real reason we associate together.

My short answer to “Why GCA?” would be something like this:

Because God desires every church to flourish and every community to be transformed by the Gospel—

and we cannot do that work alone.

We were built for missional community, and our association is a deeply beautiful expression of that community.

That’s why we are passionate about testing everything our Mission Advance Team does against the mission, vision, values, and strategies we’ve been sharing over the past several months. Every budget item, every event on the calendar, every shared activity, training, and invitation should answer a fundamental question:

Will this help us cultivate healthy leaders and churches so that every church can flourish 

and every community we are called to serve can be transformed by the Gospel?

We believe this kind of missional focus isn’t simply a nice addition to ministry. It is essential—and biblical.

Without a clear missional focus, we can quickly become distracted by personal preferences, agendas, and competing priorities. We can find ourselves investing in good ministries while missing the best opportunities God has given us. We can drift, dissipating our energy on activities that do little to help us fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19–20) and live out the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:37–38).

We also believe that being united around this purpose is both for our joy and for the glory of God.

When Paul encouraged the church at Philippi, he connected a clear, united purpose with joy:

“Make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love,

united in spirit, intent on one purpose.”

                                         —Philippians 2:2 (NASB2020)

Like Paul, we rejoice when we see churches serving together with passion and purpose. We rejoice when we see your church flourish. And we rejoice when we see your community transformed by the Gospel.

That’s why we keep putting this vision in front of us:

Every Church Flourishing. Every Community Transformed by the Gospel.

And we want to pursue it together.