Acts 16:5 Initiative
"The churches became stronger in their faith, and each day more people put their faith in the Lord."
                                                                                                                          -Acts 16:5 

The Acts 16:5 Initiative is a process for congregational transformation that Hebron is participating in along with a number of other churches in the Presbytery of Mid-Kentucky (a geographic group of Presbyterian Church (USA) churches in and around Louisville).  The Acts 16:5 Initiative is the creation of E. Stanley Ott a Presbyterian pastor who now spends most of his time consulting with churches and church governing bodies.

Some basics of the Acts 16:5 Initiative...

*We are called to be both missional (outwardly oriented) and communal (inwardly nurturing).

*We are most effectively fulfilling our calling as the body of Christ when we are reaching folks for Christ, growing in our understanding and practice of faith, and sending folks to serve in Christ's name.  Reach, grow and send are fundamental building blocks of the Acts 16:5 Initiative.

*One way to put the reach, grow and send principles to work is to think of our tasks as people of faith in terms of...
  Prayer - Commincating with God.
  Share -  Offering the Good News of God's love to others. 
  Care -   Caring for folks we come into contact with in our daily lives.
  Word -  Reading, studying and living the Holy Scriptures.
  With Me - Sharing our journey with others.  We are not created to be loners.  We are created to be in relationship.
  Send - In faith we have found something of great value.  It is important that we share what we have found.

*An imporant piece of the Acts 16:5 process is recognizing that being in the church is not the end of the journey.  Those who are following after Jesus need to be growing in Christ.  This growth is sometimes described as discipleship.  One way of thinking about our own lives in terms of our discipleship is suggested by Michael Slaughter in his excellent book, Momentum For Life.  Slaughter uses the acronym DRIVE which suggests the following disciplines and practices that keep us moving forward in our relationship with God.
D - Devotion To God - a strong devotional life.
R - Readiness For Lifelong Learning - a commitment to using the mind God gave us to always be learning.
I - Investing In Key Relationships - making the people in our lives a priority.
V - Visioning For The Future - striving to seek the future God intends for us.
E - Eating and Exercising For Life - caring for the body that God has given us so that we can live most effectively for God.