The Acts of Faith Model of Ministry was created and developed by South Presbyterian Church in Rochester NY. By using a missional approach to ministry, South was able to usae the assets from the sale of their church building and create a series of grass-roots organic ministries based on community need and common interests.
In 2019, five years after the sale of the building, the membership of South has gone from 35 to 53, but with 250 people regularly participating in 20 ministries in eight different neighborhoods of the city. In 2018,1,700 different individuals were involved with at least one Act of Faith on at least one occasion. These accounted for 13,000 contacts between church members and the public.
The Acts of Faith Model is founded on the principles that when the Holy Spirit is present, there is Energy and Excitement, and that through the Sovereignty of God, all things can be considered worship depending on the intent of those worshiping. If two people will commit to an activity for a trial period of three months, it is launched as an Act of Faith. All AoF's are evaluated every three months.
This proven model reduces leader burn-out because of the Energy and Excitement gauge, and it requires leadership development for the laity of a church since no Act of Faith should be pastor-dependent ... not even Sunday worship. |
