What is Adult Professional Ministries?
By Steve Sellers, Vice President of the Americas
10.Dec.2007
Jill Howell from Orlando asks, "What is Adult Professional Ministries?"
Adult Professional Ministries is our faith venture to effectively win, build and send among adults.
Over the years we have successfully ministered to adults in select
pockets. Priority Associates, Here's Life Inner City, Executive
Ministries, Life Builders and others have all seen people meet Jesus,
engage in life-changing discipleship and develop a heart for the world.
As Dave Kanne says "from the city streets to the executive suites"
God has been at work, and every time it's a miracle of grace. All of
our community ministries are filled with committed, passionate,
life-giving staff, and God is using them.
What we have not seen in our Adult Ministries is how God might work
outside of select pockets. As a whole we have not successfully
penetrated cities with the gospel or built multiplying movements among
adults. We believe that God wants to see that happen, and as part of
the body of Christ, we'll believe him toward that end.
So we are asking the leadership and staff members from several of
our traditional community ministries to believe God for new strategies
and new ways of working together. Each ministry has expertise with
their own target audience that needs to be shared and leveraged.
We're asking our staff members to do more than just get better at
what they have traditionally done. We're asking them to think about the
whole scope of the US and to see what God does as they plan together.
In the midst of it all, we are reaffirming our fundamental priority
of evangelism and in connecting the lost with God's heart. We are also
committing ourselves to give away whatever we can to the whole Body of
Christ to exponentially expand evangelism and life-changing
discipleship among adults.
On paper it's not clean. Currently APM consists of:
You can make the point that Here's Life Inner City and The Military Ministry don't really reach "Professional Adults."
A better way to look at APM is that they build spiritual movements
among adults where they live outside their homes. For most, it will be
in the context of their workplace or profession.
All of these ministries bring expertise and passion along with their
own neediness. Together, working with the Body of Christ, they have the
capacity to reach vast segments of adults.
Only God knows if we can find a way to minister more effectively
across our communities. We just know that "He is not willing that any
should perish" and that "He works for those who wait for Him." We'll
take Him at His word on both counts.
