A rose by any other name
No matter how you choose to articulate your vision and your local church ministries, hopefully at the end of the day they will point to essentially the same kind of thing. To what Jesus had modeled.
At the very start of his ministry Jesus announced his agenda: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
And in the gospels we find Jesus’ action plan for Spirit-empowered ministry: Jesus taught. He preached good news to the poor and poor in spirit, proclaimed freedom to prisoners bound in sin and darkness, cast out demons, healed the sick and he mentored disciples to do the same. Jesus proclaimed and demonstrated God’s right to rule creation as he destroyed the works of Satan (1 John 3:8). He equipped followers and promised that they too would do what he did because, “everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher” (Luke 6:40; Matthew 28:16-20; John 14:12-14).
Saving lives, and making disciples?