BALTIMORE GCI MINISTRY TRAINING CENTER
BALTIMORE MD
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” –
Matthew 28:19-20 NIV
Grace Communion International Ministry Training Centers (MTCs)
Ministry Training Centers are the current focus and strategy for developing and sending disciple-makers to live and share the Good News of the God Revealed in Jesus Christ at Grace Communion International!
1. A MTC must revolve around a church body that is in renewal displaying healthy ministry. Renewal is measured by the presence of the following three components:
• The Love Venue: This happens with a healthy church that is “Missionally-minded and Missionally-engaged” where deep relational connecting with the community is happening in an established rhythm of outreach and programs that leverages the congregation’s gifts/resources and match the context/needs of the community. It is the love of Christ that compels us to proclaim the message and connect with those who don’t yet know they are reconciled!
• The Hope Venue: Under the guidance of a capable lead pastor and able ministry team the healthy church clearly knows their purpose for when and why they meet (e.g. a worship service is worshipful and Jesus is always the focal point). In the Hope Venue inclusive gathering happens with clarity and purpose.
• The Faith Venue: Disciple-making and community building is happening especially in a well-established “small groups” ministry and in short term missions. In the Faith Venue intentional disciple-making is happening and Christian community is continually being built.
With this in mind, the Church/MTC that is in the midst of this needs to model living on mission with Jesus and create spaces for the church body to live out the great commission. A Church with this kind of culture represents the other-centered, dynamic love and life of the Relational God who sends us, and is the best environment for the healthy development of interns, pastors and leaders.
2. We envision a MTC being an “Antioch Church.” An Antioch church receives new people, equips them to participate in the ministry of Jesus and gladly sends them into the mission field. With this in mind the Church/MTC that is in the midst of this needs to model missional living and create spaces for the church body to live out the great commission. This kind of missional environment is the best place for the healthy development of interns, pastors and leaders. We expect that an “Antioch Church” will be financially stable and have capable financial leadership in place (there will have to be a well thought out financial plan in place for the official launch of an MTC).
3. We see the MTC as a ministry educational center. This will include the offering of intensive courses provided through CAD, GCS, and ACCM. Regional resources and direction of the RP will help guide the flow of practical ministry workshops that train and promote healthy ministry practices and special events that can include theological lectures and creative activities that build up the church, the emerging leaders, and is a benefit to pastors and ministry leaders across the region.
Our Local Mission and Vision at NLF
OUR MISSION: “To Know Jesus, and to Know who Everyone is in Him, as the Father’s Adopted Children who Understand, Embrace, Enjoy and Freely Share this Good News with the World, in the Spirit’s Multiplying Grace – beginning with the People of Windsor Mill, Maryland!”
Currently most of our members at New life Fellowship do not live in the community where our church building is located. The purchase of the adjacent property, which includes a four bedroom house, establishes for us a stake in the ground in the community we seek to serve. The house will be a place where ministry staff and interns can live, serve, love and pray on the literal streets of our community. It will provide the opportunity to build neighbor to neighbor relationships throughout the week, and a place where the principles of the GCI Intern Program– Incarnational Connection, Inclusive Gathering and Intentional discipleship—can be played out. This house is being utilized as a ministry house for small groups, hospitality events and various fellowship and discipleship gatherings.
Click for Photos
New Life Fellowship is committed to the purpose of equipping and training participants in Christ’s ministry and mission, and is excited about the opportunity to send them out as trained and proven disciple-making Pastors! Elders! Church Staff! Church Planters! And however else God- Father, Son and Spirit may lead us!
So far we are training one intern, Xiara. We are actively looking for two to three others to be on mission with us and to train as disciples sent worshiping and witnessing, in word and deed, to Jesus and the God Revealed in Him in the Windsor Mill and surrounding communities. They will be sent out into Christ’s mission field as “reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.” – 2 Timothy 2:2
Our denomination, Grace Communion International, has great anticipation about how this MTC will train young ministers of the gospel, all while deepening these young ministers in their own rootedness in our Lord and the fellowship of the Triune God. We are excited about how the Spirit will lead in preparing these participants for ministry in GCI and elsewhere in God’s Kingdom work, hopefully for years to come!
As one internal Ministry Developer has written:
“If there is a current GCI church property more perfectly embedded into a community and more suited to a parish church model, I don’t know of one! Acquiring the adjacent property [add’s] tremendous upside to what can happen there, and the idea of that house being the home of NLF staff and interns is thrilling! The goal of MTC’s would be to theologically train our people in such a way that we cannot help but express this good news with gospel practices throughout our cities and communities. This is in line with what [our National Church Planting Director] calls “developing a missional flow” – the DNA that flows from our theology, and is comprised by the practical ministry applications that we teach in our intern program: the three I’s of incarnational connection, inclusive gathering, and intentional discipleship.”
What is our vision? (a message from our denominational president at GCI)
“Our vision is a faith- and hope-filled glimpse of what we will continue to become as we pursue our mission to live and share the gospel. We summarize our collective vision this way: All kinds of churches for all kinds of people in all kinds of places. Expanding it, we can say: Grace Communion International exists to help each congregation of Grace Communion International attain its God-given potential.
Why this emphasis on local congregations? Because it is my belief that God’s primary instrument for realizing our collective vision is healthy local churches—here in the U.S. and around the world. As I look ahead, I see us becoming more and more a growing, loving community of congregations that are dynamically living out God’s mission in a broken world, and that excites me!
Our core identity (who we are) is founded on our communion with the Father and Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit. Who we are drives what we do—our passionate participation in what God is doing in the world. In this way, our mission gives shape to our vision.” – Joseph Tkach
Read the complete article by Joseph Tkach: https://www.gci.org/aboutus/mission2
DONATIONS:
We appreciate your Donation to This Ministry Training Center as we Participate in Sharing in Relationship:
GIVING ONLINE: Click on the Donate button below –
You”ll have the option to choose a one-time gift or an automatically repeating gift. Please remember to SPECIFY your Donation as “Baltimore MTC” in the Reference Section.
GIVING BY CHECK / MONEY ORDER:
Make checks payable to: New Life fellowship and write “Baltimore MTC” in the memo line and mail to:
New life Fellowship of Baltimore Maryland
P.O.Box 1417
Owings Mills, MD 21117
