Mission


Imago Dei Church is a gospel-formed community on mission together. We are committed to keeping our ministry simple, seeking to equip our members to live missionally as a gospel community in our city and around the world. God in Christ has made us a people who belong to him and participate in his mission by loving those around us and making disciples of all nations. 

In light of our commitment to these two essentials, we have determined to flesh these out in the life of Imago Dei Church by focusing on the following missional priorities which make up our P.E.A.C.E. plan.

We prioritize church planting because implicit in Jesus’ commission to make disciples of all nations is the subsequent planting of churches wherever disciples are made among unreached peoples and in least-reached places.

We prioritize evangelism because all people are in need of the gospel of Jesus Christ and he is worthy of glory and honor from all peoples.

We prioritize ministries of mercy among the poor, sick, and vulnerable in society because all people are made in the image of God. When we care for the least of these we do so unto Christ himself.

We prioritize care for the fatherless, the widow, and the oppressed because God our Father has adopted us as his children, comforted us in our affliction, and called us as his people to ease their suffering.

We prioritize equipping the saints for the work of ministry, while giving specific attention to training missionaries, church planters, and pastors who will, in turn, multiply leaders.


Local

As a church family, we want to see lives changed by the gospel. So we are committed to being part of what God is doing in our city by loving our neighbors and making disciples of all nations.

Love our Neighbors

We are called to love those around us because of the love we have received from God in Christ. We further love those around us because every person is made in the image of God and deserves our time and energy as those made with intrinsic dignity and worth. This means we serve others and seek their good, love our enemies and pray for them, seek mercy and justice for the oppressed, speak for the voiceless, and care for the sick, the marginalized, the poor, and the needy.

As a church, we have ministry partners with whom our members are able to serve in many of these ways. We further hope that each of us would actively seek out opportunities to leverage our lives for the sake of others as we encounter the various physical, social, and spiritual needs of people around us.

Make Disciples

We are commissioned to make disciples by intentionally pursuing ways to engage with people who are far from God and evangelize them with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are called not only to proclaim the gospel, but to disciple those who choose to follow Jesus according to God’s Word as they seek to live in God’s grace, as members of God’s people, and for God’s glory in the world. Our desire is that we would be consistently building relationships with unbelieving friends, neighbors, and family members, ministering the hope of the gospel to them, leading them to faith in Jesus Christ, and discipling those who choose to follow him with us.   

We have created a ministry toolbox filled with ideas, tools, and resources to help our members as they seek to love their neighbors and make disciples in Raleigh-Durham and beyond. Do you or your growth group members need training to love your neighbors and make disciples? Contact localmission@idcraleigh.com.


Director of Local Mission
Tyler Burton
tyler@idcraleigh.com

Global

Our resurrected Lord has commissioned his church to make disciples of all peoples throughout the whole world, not just some of them in some places. We recognize that there are some peoples and places in the world with significantly fewer believers and churches among them, thousands of people groups with no ongoing effort to reach them with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

As a church, we are focusing our missional efforts on this under-reached region of the world, covering parts of Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. This region is home to thousands of unreached peoples and many of the least reached cities, with large populations of Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, and Buddhists. Most of our missionaries serve within this region, and we would love to send more missionaries to join them there. Our prayer is that God would use us to send many missionaries to the gospel gaps within this part of the world.

Are you interested in being sent as a missionary? 

Because all people are in need of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and because he is worthy of glory and honor from all people, we seek to train, send, and support missionaries who will evangelize, make disciples, and plant churches among unreached peoples and in the least reached places throughout the world. 

We ask anyone who desires to go as a missionary through Imago Dei Church to participate in our Going training. Going is a six-month training cohort that seeks to equip IDC covenant members for faithful and fruitful ministry in cross-cultural missionary contexts. Any member desiring to be sent as a missionary with IDC as their sending church is expected to complete this training as part of the overall sending process. Follow this link to learn more about Going. See a basic outline of our sending process below.

1: Faithful Member (12+ months)

17

2: Apply & Assessment (1-3 months)

33

3: Going Training (6 months)

50

4: Additional Preparation (1-6 months)

66

5: Final Prep Commissioning (1-6 months)

83

6: Deploy Overseas

100

How can we support the missionaries we send? 

We support our missionaries by consistently praying, generously giving, faithfully going, and purposefully sending for the spread of the gospel of Christ to the ends of the earth.

We partner with our missionaries by consistently praying for them and the fruitfulness of the gospel among the unreached places and peoples where they are serving.

We provide for our missionaries by generously giving for the spread of the gospel, the making of disciples, and the planting of churches around the world.

We team with our missionaries by faithfully going here and there: here, when we seek the lost around us with missional intentionality in our everyday lives and relationships; and there, when we take short trips to encourage, serve, evangelize, and disciple alongside them.

We multiply the gospel, disciples, and churches among all peoples everywhere by purposefully raising up, equipping, and sending more missionaries to unreached peoples and places.

Follow the links below for more resources on how you can pray, give and go.


Church Planting

Implicit in Jesus’ commission to make disciples of all nations is the subsequent planting of churches wherever disciples are made among unreached peoples and places. We are committed to seeing disciples made and churches planted in our city, throughout North America, and around the world.

As a church, we teach on it; we pray about it; we have a pastoral internship and church planting residency that prepares planters for it; we give resources to it; we encourage members to consider it; and we regularly celebrate and evaluate our work in it. See our process for church planting below.

1: Faithful Member (12+ months)

17

2: Aspire Pastoral Cohort (12 months)

33

3: Apply & Assessment (2-3 months)

50

4: Church Planting Residency (9-12 months)

66

5: Plant a Church (1-3 years)

83

6: Partner to Multiply (4+ years)

100

Are you interested in being a church planter?

Do you see how God may be leading you to pastor or plant a church? We want to walk alongside and equip you for the work of ministry. Fill out this form to express your interest in being trained as a church planter through Imago Dei Church.

How can we support church planting?

There are many ways that we can be a part of a church planting work! We can partner in church planting by praying for the work, giving toward the work, uprooting our lives and going with a church planting team, and taking short trips to visit our church planting teams to encourage, serve, evangelize, and disciple alongside them.

Church Plants

Church Planting Networks

Mercy and Justice

Throughout the Bible, when God instructs his people to care for the weak and vulnerable around them, he reminds them that they were once those without hope, without a home, weak, poor, vulnerable, and in need. He calls his people to extend mercy because they have received mercy from him. 

We value ministries of mercy and justice toward the poor, sick, marginalized, weak, and vulnerable in society because all people are made in the image of God. Jesus showed mercy to the downtrodden and he told us that when we care for the least of these we do so unto him. We value the fatherless, the widow, and the oppressed in society because God our Father has adopted us as his children, comforted us in our affliction, and called us as his people to ease their suffering. 

This means that we encourage our members to speak for the unborn, foster and adopt, fight human trafficking, promote racial reconciliation, serve immigrants and refugees, seek justice for the oppressed, leverage their lives, and partner with others for such neighbor love in our city and around the world.

How can you practice mercy and justice?

  • Begin by considering the relationships God has already given you. Are there people God has put around you that you could leverage your life to care for their needs?
  • Consider if you and your small group could come alongside a ministry partner to extend mercy and justice. 
IDC AdminMission