East AsiaComm – our way forward

Vision : Reaching and transforming cities –
that East Asia may be a sending base to the world.

Mission: Developing spiritual multipliers and intersecting networks
in the urban centers of East Asia,
leading to city movements
and global sending.

Focus: Urban centers, Influentials, Transformation, Learning Communities

Urban Centers - the centers of influence of a nation.
We focus on cities as the core of our organizational structure. Target groups (i.e. Executives, Family, High School, Music, Athletes, etc) are important but they are strategies under each city team. We believe that establishing ourselves in key cities allows us to achieve greater traction in Community Ministry because East Asia’s demographics show a massive shift to cities, and the limited geographic scope allows us to focus our strategies and overlap them to build synergy.. Our mission of building city movements and global sending capacity requires a city focus where strategies are intertwined and build each other. Within each city plan there are "core strategies" and "elective strategies". More on these below.

Influentials - becoming and reaching those who shape how others think
and act.
"Influentials" are people who possess these five traits a) convictions—guiding beliefs that do not waiver under pressure, b) articulate - they can communicate their convictions, c) activists - acting on their convictions, d) active minds and "in the know" - current and relevant to major issues in society, and e) widely networked - they have growing connections with other people in formal and informal networks crossing different strata of society.

"Influentials" are not "elites" as we typically think of them. We find "influentials" at every rung of society – there are people in every segment who have the influential traits. Our model is not top down but one that goes across each level of society. This is where we depart from the typical "leader" focus that many organizations possess. Too often the default for defining "leader" is by a position held, but we are defining leaders by the traits they possess because we have found that there are leaders who significantly influence others but many more who don't (at least not in significant ways). Conversely we find many in every level of society who exert a great deal of influence on others

Transformation - of individuals, institutions and society.
This is a recognition that the gospel includes both salvation and transformation. We have found that we often default to the salvation element of the gospel because it is the easiest to quantify for ourselves and others. It is also the most conducive to a 3-5 year plan. While measuring success and short-range planning are important, this approach makes us guilty of what Dallas Willard calls "the gospel of sin management" - take care of the sin issue and all is well. We believe that this false assumption, at best, leads to faith that is privately meaningful and publicly irrelevant. East Asia needs a transformational faith.

Our focus on transformation is designed to present the entire gospel to East Asia, and also to recognize that a "transformed" individual is likely to do far more evangelism than one who is simply trained in how to share their faith. This approach, which incorporates both evangelism and transformation, will result in far more evangelism in the end – in light of a 5 - 10 year plan.

The transformation of institutions and cities will take even longer, 50 - 70 years. We are building into current institutions in order that they bear fruit for decades to come. By 2050 we do not want East Asia to look like northern Europe - where little in society or culture points people to Christ. As East Asia becomes more of a global power in many ways it is our objective to see the gospel reflected in its arts, music, education, financial systems, business environment, literature, and politics.

Learning Communities— guiding our mission
All development organizations need a system of experimentation in place to discover new concepts and solutions. In East AsiaComm this system is learning communities. The guiding principle of a East AsiaComm learning community is that continuous learning guides mission in re-affirming traditional practices and innovating new ones

City Strategies: Core and Elective Strategies
Nationally we have four core strategies that each city is responsible for building out. A "strategy" is to a target group (or people group).

CORE STRATEGIES are to target groups that are generally found in every major urban center. These are:
s2 (Stage 2): helping graduating disciples from the campus ministry transition to life and ministry in the marketplace - truly becoming a lifetime laborer. Conceptually, s2 seeks to help graduates connect their faith with how they live in the world.
CPN (Church Planting Network): helping young urban believers start house churches as bi-vocational pastors in team leadership. The CPN provides churches for graduating university disciples and for people coming to faith in the community.
YP (Young Professionals): people aged 23 - 40 working in the professions of finance, marketing, business, law and education. Young adulthood is the stage of life where people solidify what they believe and decide what they want to accomplish. YP seeks to provide the critical element of faith formation through the early stages of career development.
Family: focusing on the issues of marriage and parenting - relevant topics for both believers and non-believers. Family ministry helps men and women responsibly define their family roles through looking at biblical patterns without being rigid, culturally bound, or sexist. We believe that strong families help individuals make the most of their lives, and contribute the betterment of society.

ELECTIVE STRATEGIES are unique to one or more cities, but not universally relevant. These strategies reflect the unique character of each city. Current examples are:
TCS (Thought & Culture Shapers): artists, musicians, writers, media, etc who exert, albeit behind the scenes, enormous influence over the development of thought, values, lifestyle.
Athletes: people working in the arena of sports - athletes and coaches, management, sports media, and advertising.
Orphans: while this is universally relevant, some cities are taking a leading role in raising awareness, activism, and resources to create a better future for East Asia’s 2 million orphans.
YTL (Youth at the Threshold of Life): Targeting university students and university administrators this strategy provides moral education through government-sanctioned programs. The instructors are believing medical experts and educators who engage students to consider the connection between lifestyle choices, personal values and faith.