The “20/20 Vision”—Reaching the Generations Together
God has given us a glimpse of a growing number of healthy churches becoming more intentional at Reaching the Generations Together, at home and abroad. We call this the “20/20 Vision,” a clear and accurate view of the path ahead.
Generations
- In the USA roughly 60 percent of individuals in their 60’s are churched, 40 percent of those in their 40’s are churched, and 20 percent of those in their 20’s are churched.
- NCD ministry will make the younger, emerging generations a priority of ministry.
- Yet we will do this while avoiding the opposite tendency in today’s culture of marginalizing the senior generations.
Reaching
NCD ministry will be missional, equipping churches to be intentional in …
- sharing the gospel with unbelievers
- building up believers
- equipping workers
- multiplying leaders
Together
NCD ministry is not the work of the district staff; it is the ministry of all the NCD churches. Reaching the generations must be done together:
- pastors helping pastors
- churches helping churches
- regional and statewide networks functioning to realize the vision locally and district-wide
| Teamwork: | Reaching the generations will require consistent team oriented ministry initiatives in which relationships and resources bridge cultural and socio-economic differences. We envision NCD churches and individuals who are different from one another working together in this common mission. |
| Pathway: |
By God’s grace, we are forging a path of leadership multiplication that includes training, mentoring, and coaching men and women for ministry while they are in the trenches of local church ministry. In the past three years we’ve joined forces under one roof with such ministry partners as Hope Community Church and Transforming Ministry, who share this leadership-multiplication enterprise with us.
The path, or “pipeline,” toward leadership multiplication begins in the high school or college ministry of local churches, where student ministry teams are becoming proficient in peer evangelism, peer care, and peer discipleship. That’s not new, but the missing link has been the absence of a decentralized, non-formal, non-accredited training track within local churches that combines with individuals’ ministry experience to prepare them for further ministry. Central to the 20/20 Vision is the ongoing development of such a training track that is available within or nearby each NCD church. |
| Results: | Our prayerful intention is that this path will culminate in true multiplication of ministry through conventional and unconventional church plants that are truly diverse—culturally, ethnically, generationally, facility-wise and form-wise. |
To this end we devote the efforts of Church Health, Church Planting, Pastoral Care, Placement, Credentialing, and our Other Segment Ministries (Students, Women, Seniors, etc.).
How Can Our Church Be Involved?
As we are serve and lead this movement, we ask of our partners three things:
1. People-referrals
Our strong conviction is that not everyone called to labor or lead in the harvest— whether young adult, mid-lifer, or senior—will be best served by a formal, accredited educational pathway—a pathway that uproots them from their spheres of influence to immerse them in academia. If you resonate with this, please let us know who these individuals might be and let’s work together, forging a path of leadership multiplication, Reaching the Generations Together, locally and globally. Let’s participate with the Lord of the harvest, doing our part to prepare workers to be sent out into His harvest field.
2. Fair Share Giving
We are extremely grateful for you pastors and church treasurers who fill out the response cards and send them to us, indicating your pledge to contribute 1% of your church’s general budget to the operation of the district ministry. We could not maintain sufficient staff to adequately serve our churches without full participation by our churches. On the other hand, the Fair Share funding alone sustains only the basic services associated with placement, credentialing, and the like. To realize the 20/20 Vision, a significant number of our churches will need to exceed the Fair Share percentage.
3. Missions support As God puts it on your heart to participate in interdependence and partnership, a vital way to do that is commit a portion of your missions giving to Judea / Samaria, which we would define as neighboring MN core groups who are reaching out cross-culturally, ethnically, holistically, generationally, or simply unconventionally.
