Missiology: According to Webster’s Dictionary:
The study of the church’s mission especially with respect to missionary activity.

Missiology: According to Virginia Baptists:
Advancing the Redeemer’s Kingdom through initiation and collaboration with God’s family wherever they may be.

Key Values:

Collaborate
	• Strategic ministry is accomplished by fostering a pattern of partnership and collaboration with God’s family. God is at work all over this world. We must recognize that the Gospel is not a possession to be lorded over by any one person or group. We can most efficiently use our resources by linking together with other believers for the common cause of obedience to the Great Commission. This is accomplished when people gather at the table and bring the best they have to offer in mission and ministry.
Compassion
	• Social transformation takes place when the name of Christ is shared along with the love of Christ. Christ reached out to heal and offer comfort to those afflicted and in need. We can do no less as the representative body of Christ. Our compassion should be a holistic concern for an individual’s spiritual and physical well being. We can transform our world when our compassion touches every part of a person’s need.
Cultivate
	• The maturation of the believer toward becoming a disciple, thus moving from conversion to obedience in accordance with the entirety of the Great Commission. A life commitment to Christ involves much more than a one-time decision to follow a Savior. All believers are called to obedience through constant discipleship and a daily decision for Christ to be Lord. It is through this maturing process that we are able to more effectively reach our world for Christ.
Community
	• The local church is central in advancing the Kingdom of Christ through initiatives that penetrate all of society. The local church represents the body of Christ in all that it says and does. We are a community of faith that is called by Christ to extend the invitation of community to each and every person we encounter. As Christians, our communion of faith includes a celebration at the table, but it also extends beyond that act and into all that the church strives to become.

These four Key Values are like puzzle pieces that interlock locally and globally to complete a portrait of Virginia Baptists on mission. Across the street and around the world, Virginia Baptists are working together to enable and equip Christians to live out God’s calling in their lives.

This issue of Virginia Missions, titled “Live It!...Together,” tells only some of the stories about exciting ways God is at work in the world and how Virginia Baptists are actively participating in that work.

Virginia Baptist Glocal Missions efforts are helping individuals and churches find opportunities to match their gifts and passions with unique areas of ministry—
taking the message of the Gospel to new places and people in creative, innovative ways.