Missions exists because of God’s redemptive purpose in history to gather worshippers from every nation, tribe, and tongue. Since worship is the final end of the nations in history, then the ultimate motivation for missions is the glory of God (Romans 11:36).
From the opening pages of the Bible, God purposed to bring His gracious blessing of salvation to the nations through an individual, the promised Messiah, Jesus Christ. The church now carries out this purpose according to Jesus’s concluding words in Matthew 28:18–20—to go and make disciples of all the nations. And the instrument God intends to use for reaching the nations are his missionary people (1 Peter 2:4-–2).
As the nations currently live in the idolatry of false-religion and self-worship, we are compelled to go to the nations so that they might turn from dead idols to worship the true and living God. Motivated by a vibrant love for Jesus Christ and a genuine compassion and love for people, we must send missionaries to the ends of the earth.
In order to glorify God, we strive to intentionally follow the blueprint for missions laid out in Scripture. The book of Acts and the epistles of the New Testament demonstrate that the disciple-making endeavor of missions is carried out through the ministry of the local church (Acts 2:43–47; 9:31; 11:26; 14:23; 1 Timothy 3:15).
Therefore, the mission of the church is to proclaim Christ, seeking to establish and strengthen local churches. For this reason, Grace Church is committed to a focus on church planting, church strengthening, and development of indigenous church leadership who will continue the work of the Great Commission throughout the world.
At Grace Community Church (GCC), we originally sent out missionaries and depended on parachurch mission agencies to provide the necessary administrative and strategic support for our missionaries.
In 1997, ECHO (the Elders Council Handling Outreach at GCC) determined that the church should provide the administrative care for GCC missionaries rather than requiring missionaries to connect with outside missions agencies. This administrative care came under the Outreach Department and Grace Ministries International (GMI) was formed to provide shepherding, administrative care, and strategic oversight to our missionaries.
Since its inception, GMI has been used of the Lord to help numerous missionaries, some who have completed their course of ministry and some who continue to serve. As of 2025, there are more than 90 families and ministries active around the world.
In addition to sending missionaries out from GCC, GMI has been used of the Lord to partner with other like-minded churches around the United States to help these churches send missionaries while GMI shoulders the administrative care, often for missionaries who collaborate with other GCC-sent families. Furthermore, GMI has been able to create strategic partnership with nationals of other countries who have studied at The Master’s Seminary as they seek to plant churches and provide theological education and pastoral training in their countries.
Each missionary is committed to the exclusive objectives of establishing and strengthening local churches and developing both vocational and lay church leadership. This means that each ministry strives to be engaged in biblical evangelism and discipleship in reliance upon the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit, as well as being committed to expository preaching as the goal to nourish new and growing churches.
These commitments mean that GMI missionaries are typically engaged in church-planting, church strengthening, leadership development, Bible translation, and other support ministries that serve the growth of the local church.