The ACTS Group
Summer Update
How was your summer? ACTS Group had a great one! In our last newsletter in May, I shared that we had entered a 90 day period of Strategic Review. It was the 2nd strategic review period since ACTS began in September of 2012, the first coming in the summer of 2014. In this review which wrapped on Friday July 1, the shape of ACTS Group 3.0 became crystal clear. I want to take a moment here to share a public thank you to President John Jackson (William Jessup University), Scott Thurmond (Thurmond Consulting), Pastor Paul Edwards (Sunriver Church), Peter Henderson (COO of Church Resource Ministries) and David Sudarma (media specialist and founder of 95 West) who patiently met and worked from the history to the foundations to the future concerning ACTS Group’s benefit to the local church and to communities and cities.
Outcomes from the review? Substantive. We continue to lean into the Every School/Every Neighbor initiative as an effective way to activate a united gospel initiative in communities and cities. Moving forward, ACTS Group will focus efforts with a few specific communities and cities that are engaged in the initiative. Identifying “activators” in prayer, service and evangelism is a significant focus now. We are reworking each of our websites. SacramentoPRAYS is becoming CityPRAYS in September, a name change we believe will be as helpful in expanding the strategic activation as our change from Serve Sacramento to Serve United proved in September of last year. We are revisiting and launching “Data for Decisions” which is our measuring tool for gospel movement in communities and cities so gospel leaders can see their year over year progress. Gospel X will launch in November.
There is a bit more to share and we will do so in the coming months. You will be, once again, receiving monthly updates. For now, keep reading to learn about Q Commons Sacramento, School Partnerships and the work of CityPRAYS. Ready for a harvest this fall? We are!
Jeff Kreiser - ACTS Group Director
Convergence World and Q Commons Sacramento!
Convergence is BACK. In July and August, we took a summer holiday. Janie Lynne Lovejoy who had been administrating Convergence took the opportunity to be part of national mission leadership with Youth Works. In the “down time”, Convergence has been updated to feature a theme to encourage gospel centered leaders twice a month. If you have been receiving the Convergence updates, expect them to return to your inbox the first week of September. AND, get ready for Q Commons . . .
Q Commons Sacramento is coming on October 13th and we will be throwing this party at a new venue, Beatnik Studios at 723 S Street in Sacramento! Locally, we will be addressing pressing issues about leadership, racial tensions and what it means to engage in civil public discourse. And, of course, we will be connected with tens of thousands of others throughout the country through the national feed. The night will start with a pre-party at 6pm and program beginning at 7pm. You can register here - http://qcommons.com/sacramento
Questions? Merisa Moy is back working with Convergence and Q Commons. Reach her at Merisa.Moy@gmail.com
Serve United
Summer has come to an end for students in our region and back-to-school is underway for families and teachers. It's a great time for churches, organization and businesses to engage in a local school and Serve United is working hard to resource others to engage the diverse needs of families and communities through local schools. On Thursday, August 18th, we hosted a Serve United Activation Meeting at Real Life Church Artisan Campus designed for leaders from regional churches and organizations to celebrate, elevate and accelerate united service in the greater Sacramento Region. We shared an update on the Every School Partnership Initiative and had many organization and ministry representatives share their expertise and resources in the cause-specific areas of Education and Sexual Integrity.
Save the Date, mark your calendar, and bring a friend to our next Serve United Activation Meeting happening on October 20th from 6:30-8:30pm at Real Life Church in Fair Oaks.
Megan McCleary - Serve United Director
City Prays
"There is one body, but it has many parts. But all its many parts make up one body. It is the same with Christ. We were all baptized by one Holy Spirit. And so we are formed into one body. It didn’t matter whether we were Jews or Gentiles, slaves or free people. We were all given the same Spirit to drink. So the body is not made up of just one part. It has many parts....You are the body of Christ. Each one of you is a part of it."
-1 Cor. 12: 12-14; 27
We are each called to operate as we are designed, doing our part in the body of Christ. This body is expressed in local congregations, but also in the collective whole of God’s people in a community or city. As we come back from summer vacations and feel the momentum of another school year upon us, there are several ways people are participating in the wider work of community and city prayer. CityPRAYS initiatives include Community Prayer Groups that pray for schools and neighborhoods; Prayer Leaders Fellowship which is a quarterly gathering of citywide congregational and ministry prayer leaders to encourage and strengthen the level of prayer; and Activation Training that equips and mobilizes people and churches into active prayer.
You can learn about all of these initiatives and their progress at our CityPRAYS Activation Night. The next one is November 3rd from 7-9pm. Save the date, and remember to bring a friend! If you have any questions, I would love to hear from you!
Mike Brill – CityPRAYS Administrative Coordinator
ACTS Group Endorsement
Enoch Yeung, New Hope Community Development Corporation, Sacramentoenochy@gmail.com
“While the work of collaboration can be long and arduous, that work cannot begin without some seed of trust amongst partners and a faith that God can accomplish His will through us by collectively working together. Since my relationship began with ACTS, I have experienced open doors to begin the process of partnership with local churches that would have taken years to establish on my own. The ACTS Group has helped to lay the ground work of trust necessary for the essential work expanding God’s kingdom throughout the region. Case in point, ACTS Group was key in facilitating a partnership between New Hope and First Baptist Church of Sacramento which enabled us to start a Mandarin Immersion Summer program serving 40 families in the downtown area for the past two years. There is still a great deal of work to be done in the region, and I am enthusiastically supportive of the role the ACTS Group is playing to take a leadership role in facilitating regional cooperation amongst churches, non-profits, and various partners of good will to express God’s love for this region.”
About Us
The ACTS Group is…
Activating united gospel initiatives in communities and cities. These gospel-based activators provide guidance, training and outcome tracking that helps leaders accelerate gospel movement in their local community and the spheres of cultural influence of the city.
Email: acts@jessup.edu
Website: actsonline.net
Location: 1100 Blue Ravine Road, Folsom, CA, United States
Phone: (916)577-2389
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheActsGroup
Twitter: @TheActsGroup