Mission and Vision of ACOP

[Jordan]

Extending God’s grace in my community often looks like getting to know the people around me by walking with them and listening to them. Understanding their stories, hurts, and challenges is usually the open door to showing them the grace of God. As a church this takes on the form or finding ways to engage our community with generosity.
The vision and mission of an organization “on the wall” can say whatever you want, but the culture will dictate what it looks like. In order for the vision and mission to be effective there has to be a culture that embraces them… and that takes a LOT of work and intentionality.
Apostolic teams can often serve as the catalyst to making both of these things happen.

[Caleb]

Although the dynamic of global and local ministry are both different in many ways, Grace and hope are still needed. That is the pure beauty of not only ACOP’s wonderfully vague (in the best way!) mission statement, but of the Gospel itself. the Gospel has the ability to pervade all cultures and relationships because it distinguishes things people need and want in order to thrive. Locally and globally, extending God’s grace can look like both loving people despite the sin in their life and choosing to forgive and to overlook judging injustices for sake of relationship. God is the judge, yet he has chosen saving grace for everyone. If Christians were supposed to always put God’s justice at the forefront, we would be better called police officers than missionaries. Showing grace through love in likeness of God should shape the culture of a missionally minded organization. No people group should be reached for any other reason than to express Gods amazing grace to them and spark hope for something greater and better. Apostolic teams are also essential for this reason because someone needs to be there to deliver that message of hope and help every nation see that there is something worth living and fighting for.

[Nate]

In my local context at Eston College, extending grace and igniting hope looks like modeling Jesus well and helping to mentor fellow students who are earlier in their discipleship journey. It also looks like looking ahead, trying to think of how to apply my learning to future ministry contexts.

Mission and vision affect the culture by giving us a common goal, something bigger than ourselves. Everyone wants to be a part of something bigger, to feel that their actions have significance and are working towards something. When the organization has an effective vision it gives our actions meaning and direction. We can begin to say “this action directly worked toward the fulfilling of this mission.”

An apostolic team is important because they can provide leadership that (hopefully!) isn’t going to stagnate. When a leadership team is apostolic they are going to be attentive to the spirit, the spirit who wants to do something new, who wants to keep things fresh and shake us up every now and then. When our leadership team is like this, they will help the organization to stay fresh, relevant, and effective.

[Taliya]

1. In my local context, extending God’s grace looks like knowing His grace and incorporating it into my personal relationships. For example, in my workplace, friendships, and church community, this would look like inclusivity, genuine friendship, sharing the gospel, and being supportive and encouraging. I think it is so important to not judge others by their life circumstances or their religious beliefs and to rather extend God’s grace and love them where they are at. Obviously not watering down any truth of the gospel, but not having expectation on others in our relationships. In a global context, i think the same concept applies but also emersing yourself in culture, learning the language, understanding the needs of the community you are in and being led to meet those needs, and showing the character of God through your own.

2. I think the vision for the future of an organization and the mission of how it is getting there paint a picture of what that organization needs to look like to uphold the mission and reach the vision. In other words, the culture of an organization are the characteristics or the “personality” that the organization should look like.

3. Apostolic teams are so important because there needs to be balance in ministry. Someone with strong gifts in one area may be laking in another area. With a team where there are many different gifts and a like mind, no area of ministry will be overlooked. There will be preachers, teachers, prayer, organization, accountability, etc.