We are a Reformed, non-cessationist, missional-based ministry and hold to the orthodox teachings in scripture as has been attested to by the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, and the Lausanne Covenant. Ai also can attest to the Foundational Documents of The Gospel Coalition. For a more in-depth understanding of our statement of faith, read our gospel narrative, the 'Story of God,' which has been translated into 7 languages (English, Spanish, French, Urdu, Sorani Kurdish, Swahili, Nepalese).
We believe that teaching others to fish and allowing them to fish is the way to do ministry. Ai is a training ministry that helps indigenous pastors understand how to know and teach God's word, and to understand their context in order to communicate it in their own cultural setting. We believe there is a relational element in teaching that calls for hands-on training, rather than online, which is helpful, but not complete. Ai believes in the autonomy of the local gathering and their leadership, and therefore does not force its own cultural forms of gathering onto another culture, yet it maintains doctrinal unity by pouring over the scriptures together in the power of the Holy Spirit as our common bond and is therefore trans-cultural.
Antioch Initiative (Ai) is committed to 6 Values that are derived from the Antioch Church in Acts 13-14
1. Reflection of God's creative Diversity (13:1) of their region as did the Antioch Church, which had leaders from different ethnic backgrounds, displaying God's heart for the nations!
2. We believe in the Power of Fasting and Prayer (13:2a, 3)since they spent time in prayer and fasting before they sent Paul and Barnabas
3. Trust and Reliance on the Holy Spirit (13:2b)as the Antioch leaders were led by the Spirit through their collective prayer and fasting, for guidance in their mission to the world.
4. Living out a Kingdom Mentality (13:2c)as the Antioch leadership showed by sending their best to plant churches in other lands demonstrating their concern for the kingdom, not their own personal movements.
5. Commitment to the Word of God as they went out and preached the word to plant their churches. Word of God is used 41 times in Acts, 9 times in Acts 13-14
6. Committed to a strategy of Church Planting since it appears to be the means Paul used to expand the gospel outward to the nations. In Acts 14:21-3, we see a pattern in Paul that includes preaching the word, strengthening the disciples, and training leaders to pastor the church.
Antioch Initiative is not a Funding Organization
“...new churches must be planted on a radically accelerated scale. The day of church planting for the world’s cities has yet to dawn. The invisible, unreached people of the world’s cities must be found...If we are to reach the world of the 21st century, we must reach cities; and that will demand a new campaign of church planting.” Harvey Conn
The Antioch Initiative (Ai) began on a training trip to India in 1999. After years of traveling overseas to train pastors, it became evident that God has given the church Pastor-Teachers to equip people for the ministry (Ephesians 4:11-13), and there was a need for training, so we officially formed the Antioch Initiative in 2011. Ai is a nonprofit organization helping to create healthy churches through the training and coaching of pastors and church planters in unreached and under-resourced areas of the US and the world. Our goal is to mobilize, train and coach those who desire to plant and pastor churches in areas that do not have many resources available to them. Ai desires to train indigenous people as coaches and trainers to create decentralized cells of smaller fellowships that are mobile and can easily contextualize the gospel to their environment. Ai’s role is to give leaders tools to be effective and accurately relate the gospel truth to those that have never heard the gospel.
