(1)    Gospel

Descriptor

The Good News of God's abundant love and grace to us through Jesus Christ is at the center of all we do.  The Gospel is our passion.  All our work, our very life, all our goals and hopes are centered on the Gospel.  We believe the Gospel, we proclaim it, and we seek to live and minister by means of it.

 

Relevance

The Gospel is how any and all spiritual change happens in the lives of individuals, groups, and institutions of people.  Therefore, it informs every ministry and is our most fundamental point of reference and principle in every action, plan, and strategy.  This principle, before all others, guides us in the decisions we make, the solutions we embrace, the way we conduct our ministries and our relationships with others. 

 

(2)    Prayer

Descriptor

Prayer is real conversation with God and is vital to growing relationship with Him and ministry in His name.  Prayer reflects our belonging and submission to Him, our need for direction and provision, and our acknowledgement that we can do nothing without Him.   

 

Relevance 

We believe that personal and corporate prayer manifest obedience and humility, submitting ourselves to God and His agenda, and for His power.  Such dependence nurtures alertness to the spiritual dimensions of our undertakings and equips us with wisdom and knowledge for our calling.  Above all, prayer changes things because it is God's desire that we ask Him to work.

 

(3)    Facilitation

Descriptor

Facilitative ministry is a mindset regarding one's role, function, and end result.  It means to support and assist others so that they are able to do the ministry.  Facilitation includes drawing out the gifts, talents, experiences and desires of others, and encouraging them to do ministry.  Multiplication is inherent in facilitation because the end result is that others perform the work of disciple making and church planting as well.

 

Relevance

Our vision as well as our mission describe multiplication and reproduction as inherent in what we do.  Without multiplication, we cannot complete our purpose.  While we can plant churches and make disciples, only they can multiply themselves.  The best we can do is encourage them, train them, and by many other means help them learn to multiply. 

(4)    Teams

Descriptor

A team is a group of individuals united in healthy relationships who work together toward a shared vision.  They serve each other, listen to each other, rely on each other's gifts and strengths, and bolster where each is weak.  Our teams accomplish more together than the individuals can working alone.

 

Relevance

Our name includes "Team" and our mission includes "working together."  We work in teams because that is true to who we say we are.  We need the diversity of gifts, knowledge, perspectives, and experiences of all our members and partners to accomplish our mission. Working together in teams also exemplifies, for the emerging church, what true fellowship looks like.

 

(5)    Holistic 

Descriptor

Our strategies integrate ministry to the whole person, addressing the spiritual, social, and physical needs of people we serve while focusing on the multiplication of disciples and churches. 

 

Relevance

Holistic church planting promotes incarnational ministry, increases trust among unreached people groups, and fleshes out the Gospel with which we have been charged.  Good assessment of the felt needs of the local community are critical to sustainability.  Our methods must be reproducible physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually.  When we have finished and our goals are accomplished, disciples and communities of believers are reproducing and are using their resources, labor, and entrepreneurial capacities to thrive in body, soul, and mind. 

    

(6)    Incarnational

Descriptor

As cross-cultural workers, we intentionally surrender our rights to our home culture, language, and ways and embrace those of the host culture.  By this, we seek to model Christ, who emptied Himself of the privileges and powers of divinity, taking on human form, in order to carry out His mission.

 

Relevance

Incarnational ministry is critical to multiplication, and multiplication is at the heart of our mission.  The more effectively disciples and churches adapt to the local culture and language, the easier it is for them to multiply.  Adaptation is effective only when it is subject to careful and critical reflection that preserves the integrity