Japan (MNN) — "God has us moving down an unknown path, and it's going to be exciting to watch it unfold." That's President of Asian Access Joe Handley.
He says Asian Access is preparing for the future, and as a part of that plan, A2 has embarked on an 18-month discovery process to review their vision, mission, strategic goals and DNA.
Handley says, "Could our goals be something so big that God is calling us to play a larger role in promoting the vision, mobilizing other allies, and growing the mission force?"
A2 is sensing that God wants them to accelerate the advancement toward this cause: "To identify, develop and release emerging kingdom leaders to unite the church, multiply leaders and congregations, and extend the transforming power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ."
In particular, A2's 2020 Vision for Asian Access/Japan:
• To deploy 100 church multiplication teams
• Who will establish 1,000 reproducing congregations
• Which will enfold 1 million new followers of Christ
• Who will in turn send 1,000 missionaries from Japan to the cities of Asia, that will be home to 1 billion people by the year 2020 AD.
As they prayed about this goal for Japan, A2 started asking some other questions: "Could God be speaking to us through the trajectory of our history and heritage, the current global financial and mission realities, and the recent waves of missions endeavors?" We sensed, likely this was true," says Handley.
He continued, "As we reviewed our history and heritage, we noted that God launched us 43 years ago with an entrepreneurial spirit that developed several different forms of innovative ministry. Over the years, He has taken us down a path of focusing our efforts to maximize the giftedness and fruitfulness of our ministry. Today our primary thrust is in developing leaders who multiply churches-among the most strategic and fruitful forms of mission for this hour of the Gospel's advance. "
To add to A2's understanding, they looked at recent waves of mission movements like the AD2000 & Beyond Movement, the Alliance for Saturation Church Planting, World by 2000 (Radio efforts), the Disciple a Whole Nation (DAWN Ministry), the CoMission effort, the Vision 5:9 endeavor, and many other forms of strategic alliances. These examples reaffirmed that partnership is God's desire and plan.
Asian Access has been a leader in partnering with nationals in Asia, but now it was time to "think outside the organizational box." Could there be others in the kingdom with a similar vision and calling?
A2 concluded that in order to aggressively pursue their vision and strategic goals, the Lord was leading them to a greater form of partnership. As the A2 community prayed, they sensed that they needed something significantly different to make a quantum leap forward. 100 church multiplication networks launched, 1,000 reproducing churches planted, 1,000,000 new followers of Jesus, and 1000 missionaries sent from Japan to the rest of Asia.
In order to propel A2 toward a higher trajectory of their 2020 Vision, they sensed God asking them to think well beyond themselves in order to achieve something greater–more fruit possibly, with better stewardship of God's resources.
Thus, Asian Access has started exploring the formation of a strategic partnership with one of three mission organizations that could lead to a broader alliance toward launching a church multiplication movement for Japan. Under this potential strategic partnership agreement, Asian Access would champion the ministry and vision alongside the partner mission who would become the sending umbrella and engine to deploy more missionaries to help reach their joint vision and goals.
Encouraging to A2 in this effort is their unique model of partnership with national pastors and churches. The national church in Japan is fully committed to achieving this God-sized vision. They want to work with missionaries, mission organizations, and local churches to see the vision accomplished.
God has entrusted to A2 a significant vision and an ambitious set of strategic goals. Now they sense He is calling them to a whole new level of kingdom partnership to advance His cause across the most populated continent in His world.
