Join the Mission

Maybe you’ve been going to RCC for a while now. Maybe you’ve just started joining us for worship. Maybe you’ve only clicked on this article because you’re curious about Rockland Community Church. To one and to all, we extend our welcome and invite you to join us on the journey God has been taking us.

At the heart of our church, you will find this conviction: God has created human beings to know him and to make him known in all of creation. We were created to be in close relationship with God and to be his representatives here on earth. As revealed in the book of Genesis, we became divorced from our created purpose when we followed the Satanic lie that we could be gods ourselves. The rebellion that began with Adam and Eve has produced the brokenness and evil that we encounter daily in our world. We are accomplices to their rebellion; we want to be our own gods too.  

This fatal flaw etched upon the human heart has left us without any internal solutions to the tragedy of our world. We need divine intervention. Mercifully, God has intervened in just this way through Jesus Christ. God the Son became human to rescue us from our demise. He lived the life we were supposed to live, died a death he didn’t deserve, and thereby broke the grip of sin on the human heart. He came back to life three days later with a new, transformed body. Death was defeated and humanity had gained a new Adam who would bring life, not death, to our kind.

Jesus offers a new life and a mission. Break your alliance with sin and Satan, pledge yourself to Jesus and His Kingdom, trust that Jesus is enough to save you, and you will be saved. You will be given a new life that will begin here today and carry forward into eternity. Along with salvation, Jesus gave his disciples a mission that has passed down through the centuries to us today. Before ascending to heaven, Jesus commanded his disciples:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." -  Matthew 28:19-20 [ESV]

I’ve bolded the words to make it clear – our mission is to make disciples. The disciples of Jesus are those who have been brought back into close relationship with God (who know God) and have been restored to their mission to make God known. This is what the Church is about until Jesus returns, bringing with him the restoration of all things.

RCC believes that discipleship is a complementary process made up of several basic components: Worship & Community Life, Small Groups, and Cruxial Studies.

Worship & Community Life is the starting point in our discipleship process. In Sunday Worship services, we gather to worship God and to celebrate what he has done in making us brothers and sisters in Christ. As we work, eat, and play together in Community Life, we gain opportunities to make those family bonds stronger, to invite each other to go deeper in the discipleship process, and to invite new people into our church community. From this starting point, disciples are guided to take the next step by joining a Small Group.

Small Groups focus on developing the core Character Qualities, Skills & Knowledge, and Culture & Convictions of Christian disciples. This is facilitated through guided conversations engaging with helpful resources on these various attributes. These groups take time to go deeper by providing mutual accountability and encouragement in each member’s daily walk in following Christ. They help each member to begin the habit of looking beyond themselves by regularly dedicating one of their gatherings to serving others as part of the Gospel mission.

The last component of this process is Cruxial Studies. Cruxial Studies presents disciples with various opportunities to strengthen their faith and hone their skills in sharing the Gospel. The primary opportunities for this growth are offered through our Sunday School classes and a monthly seminar on the Old Testament, New Testament, Theology, or Skills for Life & Faith. For those with difficult schedules, we offer our Cruxial Studies library featuring access to RightNow Media as a resource for continued growth.

You are invited to join us in our mission to make disciples, to get back to our human purpose of knowing God and making God known. Join us for worship on Sunday and stick around after service for our Adult Sunday School class Sermon Circle starting September 11th.  Small Groups can be joined here and you can find more details about our upcoming seminar on “Cultivating Authentic Community” here.

God has saved us in Jesus Christ. God has also given us a mission in Jesus Christ. Let us advance together with Jesus Christ.

Rev. Tom Loghry

Tom Loghry is the senior pastor of Rockland Community Church in North, Scituate, RI. He is a graduate of the Berkshire Institute for Christian Studies, Toccoa Falls College (B.S. Pastoral Ministry), and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (M.A. Theology). He is continuing his graduate studies in the area of “Ethics & Society” at GCTS.

Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.