Acts in Action: Lessons and Inspiration for Today’s Cross-cultural Ministry is a 10 day Grow2Serve online course designed to raise awareness, develop perspectives and promote ministry choices that will align your ministry with the work of the Holy Spirit today. Too often we enter into cross-cultural ministry with strong Biblical, evangelistic and ecclesiological convictions and with a strategy planned and ready, while neglecting to acknowledge and submit to the author and director of all true ministry, the Holy Spirit. Are you willing to put your ministry plans and strategies up against the measuring stick of lessons we can learn from the Holy Spirit’s work in, through and by the Apostles in the first century?

The course asks you to make an investment of 10-15 hours of learning time over the 10-day period.

As a result of participating actively in the course, by the end you should…

• Realize the role of the Holy Spirit in the work of God on earth.
• Develop a perspective on the role of the messenger of the Gospel in proper relationship to the Holy Spirit’s role.
• Understand and be able to articulate four important themes of the book of Acts –
  • The Holy Spirit works through chosen messengers, witnesses of what they’ve seen and heard,
  • The Holy Spirit delivers supernatural good news, – which is seen and heard,
  • The Holy Spirit restores order in the Kingdom of God, which is for all nations,
  • There is opposition, attempts to limit the actions of the Holy Spirit.
• Be inspired and encouraged by realizing that your role in expanding the reach of the Kingdom of God is a continuation of the work of God, inaugurated at the time of the events of the book of Acts.
• Be able to make adjustments to your planning and execution of ministry in light of the principles uncovered in Acts.

Content, Community, Consultation, Connections

Acts in Action will afford you not just the opportunity to explore some interesting information regarding the balance between your role and the Holy Spirit’s role in ministry, but, more importantly, it will connect you with fellow learners who are exploring similar questions. You’ll be able to help each other and learn from one another. Your course facilitator will also be a great resource for clarifying what you are learning and for providing you with input on assignments that you will complete and discussions in which you will participate.

Is this Course for Me?

Acts in Action is designed for those who have already lived and ministered at least 3 months in a culture new and unfamiliar and who are committed to fully placing themselves into God’s hands for the sake of effective cross-cultural Gospel ministry. If you are currently engaged in cross-cultural ministry and are committed to living and serving well in your context, this would be a good course for you.

Learn with those who have been there!

Course creators and facilitators are Mark & Julie Morgenstern. Mark is the former training director for ReachGlobal and is currently the director for continuing learning through the CIT Next ministry of Center for Intercultural Training. Julie is the operations director for Grow2Serve. She formerly served as a church-planter and pre-field training leader with ReachGlobal as well as in several senior leadership roles at South Suburban Evangelical Free Church.

Please note that ideally, for maximum learning impact, a learner in this course will spend 45-90 minutes daily working on the material. Some of the coursework will involve reading, writing, listening and viewing videos on the computer. Other pieces will involve interacting with other learners and reading and studying your Bible while practicing the skills you are learning.

Special Note: To maximize your learning experience, we strongly recommend that you read the entire book of Acts (ideally in one day or one sitting) before the course begins.