from June 19, 2010 prayer email

ACMC is a 35 year old missions mobilization organization. We were an independent organization until we came under Pioneers umbrella three years ago. This reflection is part 4 in an effort to better familiarize you with Pioneers.


Our mission statement reads “Pioneers mobilizes teams to glorify God among unreached peoples by initiating church planting movements in partnership with local churches.”

Pioneers eight core values are:
1. passion for God
2. unreached peoples
3. church planting movements
4. ethos of grace
5. the local church
6. team centered
7. innovation and flexibility
8. participatory servant leadership

In this reflections I will focus on the fifth and sixth core values: the local church and team centered.

THE LOCAL CHURCH. Pioneers holds a high view of the local church. We are not only a church planting organization, we see the local church as an essential partner in the work of world evangelization. My work through ACMC is an excellent example of Pioneers commitment to partnership with the local church. “ACMC helps churches mobilize their resources for effective involvement in world evangelization.” By serving the mission leaders in local churches with the practical issues they grapple with, ACMC helps local churches meaningfully involve their congregations with the least reached around the globe.

TEAM CENTERED. In an age in which so many churches and organizations have become enamored with corporate models, Pioneers has not. We are not a top down organization, with a command center in Orlando from which everything is controlled and managed. Pioneers has a decentralized leadership structure built around empowered teams. Those higher up on the organizational chart on the field and in Orlando see themselves as servants to those who are laboring at a grass roots level. Our field teams operate with high levels of autonomy, guided by the mission and core values of Pioneers. Everyone in Pioneers is part of a team, with no lone rangers.

from June 6, 2010 prayer email

ACMC is a 35 year old missions mobilization organization. We were an independent organization until three years ago when we came under Pioneers umbrella. This reflection is part 3 in an effort to better familiarize you with Pioneers.


Our mission statement reads “Pioneers mobilizes teams to glorify God among unreached peoples by initiating church planting movements in partnership with local churches.”

Pioneers eight core values are:
1. passion for God
2. unreached peoples
3. church planting movements
4. ethos of grace
5. the local church
6. team centered
7. innovation and flexibility
8. participatory servant leadership

In this reflections I will focus on the third and fourth core values: church planting movements and ethos of grace.

CHURCH PLANTING MOVEMENTS. Many evangelical leaders are convinced that church planting is the single most effective vehicle for engagement in the Great Commission (evangelism and discipleship). “… on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 16:18-19). Church planting movements trace their roots back to the work of the apostle Paul in the book of Acts, but they have received renewed and needed attention in recent decades. Not simply planting individual churches, but employing Biblical principles and methodologies that lend themselves well to the rapid reproduction of simple, missionally focused, Biblically based local churches.

ETHOS OF GRACE. Paul’s exhortation to his young protégé Timothy, “You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” (II Timothy 2:1). Regularly practicing an ethos of grace is an aspirational value for me. Although accountability is a good and needed thing, I am often out of balance. My natural tendency is to hold myself and others to a very high standard. And my life in years past was often characterized by a performance orientation, which sadly is a mark of many evangelical leaders today. We do not have anything we need to prove to God or to others. This core value of Pioneers has been a much needed breath of fresh air for me and for ACMC. I am learning to embrace the fact that God loves each of His children fully and accepts us unconditionally in Christ, with all our warts and wrinkles. And that my response to this truth should be to extend this same grace (unmerited favor) to others, even when I may feel they don’t deserve it.