The Mission of 2nd Mile

If you're reading this you most likely know I work for an organization called 2nd Mile Ministries in Jacksonville. Recently, I had the chance to write a piece for the ministry's blog expounding upon what our mission is. I'm re-posting it here. This is what we do!

We are seeking to see the Gospel renew lives and communities so they are transformed in every way.

About six months ago, 2nd Mile Ministries created a new mission statement.  Not a new mission, just an update to our statement used to communicate it.  But, to this point, we haven’t explained in any depth what that statement means.

Well, you’re in luck.  Let’s take a look in three parts.

We are seeking to see the Gospel renew lives and communities so they are transformed in every way.

There are a lot of methods and strategies about community development.  Even if limited to the Christian realm the approaches are varied.  From the outset, 2nd Mile wants to establish and declare that it is not methods, approaches, and strategies that effect positive change, but the Gospel of Jesus Christ as it is believed and properly applied.

By the Gospel, at its most simple we mean, “the good news”: The good news that God, in his love, chose to become a man and enter sinful human history so that He might bring a repentant people back to himself and restore all that has become broken in creation (Ephesians 2:4, 1 Peter 2:9, Revelation 21:5).

The implications of this message are huge for both the individual and the collective community.  Further, we affirm that this message should permeate everything we do. The Gospel is not merely the ABCs of Christianity, but it is the A to Z of Christianity.  

If our message or proclamation ever departs from the truth of the Gospel, 2nd Mile Ministries has departed from our mission.

We are seeking to see the Gospel renew lives and communities so they are transformed in every way.

While the subject of the mission is the Gospel, the object of our mission is “lives and communities”.  In particular, we have in mind the particular communities of Brentwood and Northshore that we have put our roots down in.  We want to focus on seeing our neighborhood transformed.  We want to see individual lives, family lives, and community life all belong to and glorify Jesus Christ.

However, our mission in not limited to the Brentwood/Northshore neighborhood, but rather it extends out to Jacksonville, the Southeast, and the nation as a whole.  At 2nd Mile we have the opportunity to partner with individuals, organizations, and churches throughout the area and country financially, for events, and for weeklong Urban Exchange mission trips.

Our mission includes those activities.  They are a part of 2nd Mile’s goal to represent the full counsel of God to His church, both by inviting the church to join together in action and in calling the church to participate in His work here in Jacksonville.

Biblically the concepts of justice, righteousness, and care for the poor are so intertwined they cannot be separated.  We hope to draw the church to greater obedience and awareness of these realities.

We are seeking to see the Gospel renew lives and communities so they are transformed in every way.

Finally, 2nd Mile Ministries mission calls for the total transformation of these lives and communities.  Our focus is not just on education or job training or spiritual development.  Our focus is wholistic.  We are seeking a Gospel-powered transformation without limits.

In Colossians 1:20 Paul declares that Christ came to reconcile “all things” to himself.  Yes, our spiritual connection to God is first and foremost broken, but humanity’s rejection of God has also broken our relationship with other humans, our relationship with creation, our relationship with ourselves, and the systems that run our society.

But, the message of the cross and the ministry of reconciliation is undoing the effects of the Fall and that means transformation in every way.

We don’t believe for a minute that we will accomplish this mission in our lifetime, or that we are called to create Eden (or Utopia) on Earth, but that we are members of the kingdom now.  As those members and ambassadors of Christ, we are called to live as kingdom citizens and seek to live out God’s character, heartbeat, and purposes in obedience to him.

We are seeking to see the Gospel renew lives and communities so they are transformed in every way.