Our Kingdom Mission

Our influence is rooted in our identity.

Our influence is rooted in our identity. In his Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5), Jesus reminds us we are “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world.”

We see our salt and light mission in the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.

• The Great Commandment: “Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matt. 22:37-39).

• The Great Commission: “Then Jesus, came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age’” (Matt. 28:18-20).

We exert kingdom influence by sharing the gospel, making disciples and exhibiting a Good Samaritan’s impulse to salve our neighbor’s wounds (Luke 10:29–37).

God's kingdom is displayed when we embody the Great Commandment. God's kingdom grows when we fulfill the Great Commission.

Dr. John Stott’s Christian Mission in the Modern World (IVP, 2016), updated/expanded by Dr. Christopher J.H. Wright, reminds us: “Of course we must give earnest attention to the hunger, poverty and injustices of the world. But we cannot fail to have comparable concern or compassion for people’s spiritual hunger, or fail to care about the millions who are perishing without Christ.”

Our mission is both reaching hearts for eternity and restoring lives in today's world.

Jesus and Kingdom Influence

Jesus modeled this kind of kingdom influence.

Early in Jesus’ earthly ministry, John the Baptist sent messengers to verify Jesus was indeed the Messiah. Jesus responded: “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor” (Luke 7:22).

At the outset of his ministry, Jesus foretold this outcome while in the synagogue in Nazareth: “He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’ Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, ‘Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing’” (Luke 4:16-21).

Jesus’ Revolution

In his book Unfinished (Thomas Nelson, 2014), Rich Stearns, World Vision president emeritus, reminds us: “This event, recounted in Luke 4, was a declaration of Jesus’ identity and mission. From this we can glean the principal strategies of the revolution Jesus came to ignite: 1) Proclamation: telling the good news that the Messiah had come, sins can be forgiven, and the kingdom of God is now available to all who believe, 2) Compassion: the Messiah’s kingdom characterized by love and by a concern for the physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual needs of people, and 3) Justice: God’s justice and jubilee, now established, freeing us from every kind of oppression and exploitation at the hands of men.”

Stearns continues: “And this is, in fact, just what Jesus modeled over the next three years. He boldly proclaimed the good news but always accompanied his preaching with action: healing, feeding, forgiving, and caring.”

Alliance Kingdom Influence

Christian Leadership Alliance members influence culture for good, day by day and life on life.

Rescue missions offer hope to the homeless and recovery for the addicted. Pregnancy centers give concerned mothers a loving path to life. Churches and gospel-advancing mission agencies transform hearts. Christian schools and colleges equip minds of future leaders. Foster care and orphan care ministries rescue the vulnerable. Christian relief and development agencies offer life-sustaining assistance in the world’s most desolate corners.

Alliance Platinum Members

This edition of Outcomes honors the Alliance’s Platinum-level members. Here is a snapshot of some of their kingdom influence.

• World Vision: World Vision helps more than 3.5 million children in nearly 100 countries worldwide. In 2023, World Vision assisted 35.8 million disaster survivors, refugees, and internally displaced people. They distributed over 200,000 metric tons of food.
• Compassion International: In fiscal year 2023, Compassion delivered spiritual, economic, social, and physical care to over two million babies, children, and young adults in poverty across 8,600-plus frontline church partners and 29 program countries.
• The Salvation Army, US: The Salvation Army (TSA) offers social services to help nearly 24 million Americans annually overcome poverty, addiction, and economic hardships. Last year, TSA served nearly 156 million meals, and gave eight million nights of shelter.
• Joni and Friends: Joni and Friends’s Wheels for the World program has delivered more than 227,000 wheelchairs and Bibles to people with disabilities. This ministry has also served more than 80,000 families living with disability at global retreats and getaways.
• CRISTA: Celebrating 75 years of service, the CRISTA family of ministries serves millions worldwide each year. In one year, CRISTA’s World Concern served more than seven million beneficiaries through disaster relief, development, and other programming.

Other Platinum-members Cru, The Navigators, and Christian Care Ministry reach hearts, advance the gospel, make disciples, restore health, and influence countless lives worldwide every day. Platinum-members Douglas Shaw & Associates, CapinCrouse, Gallagher and 5by5 minister by excelling in their kingdom missions while supporting frontline ministry worldwide.

These and other world-changing Alliance nonprofits, churches, educational institutions, and businesses are doing “good works God prepared.”

Confirming Kingdom Influence

Christians influence our world for good. Researchers have confirmed this transformational cultural influence.

Researchers have confirmed this transformational cultural influence.

A Christianity Today article “The World the Missionaries Made” by Andrea Palpant Dilley (Jan./Feb. 2014), featured sociologist Dr. Robert Woodberry of Baylor University who documented how missionaries have influenced the spread of democracy. This influence has helped societies to flourish.

This Christianity Today article says, “Areas where Protestant missionaries had a significant presence in the past are on average more economically developed today, with comparatively better health, lower infant mortality, lower corruption, greater literacy, higher educational attainment (especially for women), and more robust membership in nongovernmental associations.” Woodberry shared his findings in a May 2012 article in American Political Science Review, “The Missionary Roots of Liberal Democracy.”

Faith motivates action. A May 12, 2021 Faith magazine article by Brian Grim, “The unseen economic and social impacts of American faith,” says: “(I)t’s what congregations do in their communities that makes the biggest contribution. Congregations provide 130,000 alcohol recovery programs such as the Saddleback Church’s Celebrate Recovery program that has helped more than 27,000 individuals over the past 25 years.”

Historical Kingdom Influence

Christian cultural influence has deep historical roots.

Dr. Louise Gosbell authored an article published on the Australia Broadcasting Corporation's (ABC) Religion and Ethics portal (Dec. 18, 2020), entitled “'As long as it's healthy': What can we learn from early Christianity's resistance to infanticide and exposure?” In it Gosbell said: “First, the early church openly condemned the practices of infanticide and exposure, despite the fact it was a socially acceptable practice throughout the Graeco-Roman world... Second, the church responded to the practices of infanticide and exposure through their care of exposed infants. From the earliest days of the Christian church, Christians collected funds for distribution to the poor and sick.”

A later group of Christians known as the “Clapham Sect” profoundly influenced pre-Victorian England. I attended a seminar at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford on their wide-ranging impact. Their leaders included Parliamentarian William Wilberforce who led a long, exhausting, but successful battle to end the transatlantic slave trade. They inspired many transformational, Christ-honoring social reforms. These Christians were also devoutly evangelical, sharing the gospel of Christ. Our mission today likewise includes both gospel proclamation and cultural transformation.

Salt and Light

The Lord's Prayer says in part: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:9-10). 

Just as Bedford Falls was transformed by George Bailey's quiet life of good works, our world today is transformed by faithful salt and light obedience of Christians doing God's will on earth as it is in heaven.

Together, let's be salt and light today.

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W. Scott Brown, CCNL, is the Vice President for Leadership Experiences and Resources for Christian Leadership Alliance. He is passionate about the Alliance's mission to equip and unite leaders to transform the world for Christ. Scott holds M.A. degrees from The American University and St. John's College.

Learn more about Outcomes magazine.