Mission and Vision of ACOP

[Anna]

If culture is the social glue that holds an organization together, then the mission and the vision are the compass. Vision and mission set the trajectory of the organization, motivating, inspiring, leading, and defining the people within the organization. Without vision the people perish. Vision and mission set the goals, answer the question “why?”, and keep the wheels turning when times get tough. Without these key elements, an organization can lack direction and values which can create a very lackadaisical culture.

Apostolic teams are therefore crucial to the organization, as they bring focus, redirection, and encouragement. They help organizations stay on track with their vision and mission, giving Godly direction, prayer, new insights, leadership and authority. Paul and Silas are great examples of an Apostolic team in the book of Acts. They strengthened the new churches and so modern apostolic teams strengthen other churches within the ACOP. They are God-given leadership that is needed for success.

[Zach]

Extending grace in this local context looks a lot like being willing to engage with people, listen to them and their stories, and be able and willing by God’s grace to extend a fresh invite to them. It seems as though too often people get familiar with each other and categorize one another based on past experiences. Extending grace could mean allowing opportunities to know and be known in fresh, new, and inviting ways. Globally, it could mean being willing to make contributions to support, engage with, and empower those who make God’s love known but who are beyond our immediate sphere of influence, in ways that may never actually materially benefit us at all. The opportunity to participate even financially in extending God’s grace globally, is a powerful opportunity to help mold a culture that looks beyond its immediate environment, need, and even mission field and sees something bigger than its immediate vicinity. A vision and mission bigger than your immediate “area,” can powerfully shape the culture of an organization towards being outward looking, not insular, and prevents it from sinking into self-obsession with its own welfare and the inevitable decline into the self-preserving inertia that ends so many movements.

[Jaylen]

When a group of people who are committed to Christ begin to actively apply God’s call on their lives, the things of God start to happen. When you look at that objectively, it would be considered culture. The ways people are behaving and the types of things people are doing all in all create culture. It isn’t statements made, it isn’t what the preacher preaches, culture can’t be forced or faked, it culture is simply a sign of what is truly going on in the given groups.
So if we are called to be an apostolic group, then it takes each person in the group (or at the very least, the vast majority) to enact such behaviors in order to build and create such a culture. So it’s important that if we are to be a part of the ACOP, we are also of the mind to mimic the behaviors and culture of the apostles in the book of Acts.

[Kimberly]

Extending God’s grace in my community often is how I respond and react to those around me. We have a lot of homeless around us, and my family is also engaged with the special needs community – so we have a lot of opportunity to love those that may be excluded from the general population. We try our best to engage with them in a loving way, and show them that God loves them the same way He loves myself, or anyone else in the church.