Our mission

John 17:3 - And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

Colossians 1:18-19 – “And [Jesus] is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.” 

Everything we do at Westside is centred on making Jesus known. Christ’s great commission for His disciples is to go out and make disciples (Matthew 28:18-19). In other words, it is inconsistent at best—disobedient at worst—to be a disciple of Jesus and not be a disciple-maker. In the parable of the Great Banquet (Luke 14), Jesus tells us to go out and compel as many people as possible to come to His Father’s banqueting table so that His house may be full. There is no denying that our calling as the global church is to make Jesus known to those who don’t know Him. In fact, you can clearly see the role of the Godhead and the Scriptures involved in the same mission:

2 Corinthians 4:6 – “For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

John 16:13-14 – “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

John 5:39 – “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me.”

But making Jesus known at Westside isn’t simply tied into missions and evangelism, for knowing Jesus isn’t a one-time act but an ongoing process – what God begins, He completes (Romans 8:30 and Philippians 1:7). And the fact is, Jesus calls us to disciple-making, not convert–making; but that said, the role of any disciple is calling others to follow Jesus. Paul emphasizes all of this when he says:

Philippians 3:7, 8 &10 – “Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ … that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.”

Therefore, making Jesus known is an all-inclusive and wide-ranging mission that desires to see people come to know Jesus for the first time and grow in knowledge of Him until they see Him face to face.