By the middle of the 21st century, Christendom will experience a significant transition.

We are confident that there will be a huge shift in the focus of the church, both toward the

apostolic and toward the marketplace. Today, we are in a rapidly expanding, dramatically

changing environment, empowering individual Christians as ministers within their vocational arenas. This, coupled with the realization that donor based ministries are being hard pressed to achieve their visions and goals is creating a real need for greater cooperation between ministry and market leaders. We face an increasing demand for collaboration between churches, businesses, para-church ministries, and Christian leaders in every legitimate field of expertise.

STAR Christian Network has been developed with a view toward that shift. STAR seeks to offer a fresh and innovative approach to bridging the gap that exists between the church and the marketplace. In designing the format for this network, our considerations have been:

vTo be focused on discovering, authenticating, and activating every believer as a minister of the Gospel.

vTo identify the unique gifts and skills God has given, and empower people to develop those gifts and use them

                       effectively for ministry both in the church and in the marketplace.

vTo fashion a relational and functional bridge between the church and the marketplace.

vTo establish a working model for other networks, not a para-church ministry, or an addendum to ecclesiastical

                       life, but rather to be a blending of the two cultures.

vTo recognize the gifts, talents, callings, and ministry capacities in both cultures and to work to empower

    individuals to use them effectively for Kingdom expansion.

vTo recognize and honor individual Christians in accordance with their sense of calling from God, both in the

   church community and in the marketplace.

vTo remain independent of, yet relationally connected to churches, ministries, businesses, and marketplace

  entities.

vTo provide for the apostolic covering for both church and marketplace ministers without exercising dominance

                       over their ministries, efforts, or spheres of authority. This we will accomplish by building relationship

                       structures with specific apostolic leaders in the body of Christ.

PURPOSE

The purpose of STAR Christian Network is to provide a relational bridge between the church community and the marketplace by effectively equipping and activating  believers so that church and marketplace leaders can conscientiously and intentionally use their gifts and skills to minister the character, love and message of Christ in every possible situation of life.

VISION

Our vision is to develop an alliance of Christian church and marketplace leaders and their respective churches and ministries in a collaboration of effort for Kingdom expansion. 

MISSION STATEMENT

Strategically Targeted Apostolic Resourcing creates a collaborative environment for recognition, identity, accountability, training, education, and ministry opportunities to churches and church leaders, para-church ministries and their leaders, individual ministries, and to Christian businesses and business ministers. Our mission is to connect resources and resource personnel with churches, ministries, and businesses that need development, training, and empowerment as an efficient, effective means of “equipping the saints for the work of ministry” (Eph. 4:13.)

OBJECTIVES

The basic objectives of STAR Christian Network are:

(1)to provide a framework of relational accountability that protects both minister and ministry in times of crisis,

    challenge, or failure.

(2)to provide a clearinghouse of training and equipping resources that draws from associated ministries and

   businesses and directs those resources to our members.

(3)to specifically and purposefully direct ministries into an effective collaboration between the church/faith

    community and the business/commerce/labor community,

(4)to identify, recognize, and strengthen five-fold ministers and leaders in both communities and release them

    into specific ministry opportunities within their various fields of vocational expertise.

(5)to provide covering to individual church and marketplace ministers, creating a relational tie that offers

    identity, brotherhood, counsel, and when necessary, correction. Also, when called upon, to provide

    adjudication in times of crisis or dispute.

STRATEGY

Our approach to network ministry is to reach out to apostolic and apostolically minded churches, ministers, ministries, businesses, and businessmen, offering a wide variety of training and equipping opportunities. By working in cooperation with churches and marketplace organizations, we expect to draw upon proven resources that will effectively equip others.

The related task of network leadership is to serve as a clearing house for those resources, providing coordination between those who are providing resources and those who use them. Communications and scheduling of ministry opportunities through network administration allow for greater use of prepared ministries and a reduction in the duplication of efforts.

As the network takes on strength it is expected that new strategies will develop. A continuing process of evaluation and review will allow the network to be both effective and efficient. Stronger, more developed ministries will be able to empower and assist weaker and beginning ministries. However, the flow of ministry is not intended to be unidirectional. We expect member ministries to both receive and give ministry, within the network and beyond, regardless of size or maturity.

Organizations that are ill-equipped will obviously need to be trained and developed, but as they mature and their leadership grows stronger, the direction of ministry will shift from simply receiving ministry to also providing ministry to others. 

NETWORK PARTICULARS

vSTAR Christian Network is apostolic in function, charismatic in doctrine, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic ,and

  strongly focused on marketplace ministry. Network structure provides for an apostolic advisory board who

  serve both as spiritual counsel to network leadership. This board of governors is separated from routine

  network activities. Thos activities will be directed by the network’s Senior Apostle and a staff of dedicated

  ministers and ministry volunteers throughout the member organizations of the network.

vSTAR Christian Network is strategically positioned to provide leadership in training and vocational

  development as ministry, cultural adaptation to the culture of the Kingdom of God, and the expansion of

  Kingdom activity.

vMember ministries will have access to some of the premier training and equipping materials and personnel

  available today.

vMember ministries currently offer significant training in prophetic ministry, healing and deliverance, marital

  relationships, anger and conflict management, evangelism, worship arts, and apostolic community. Other are

  as of focus are available as well.

vCurrent relationships provide STAR Christian Network with the ability in some instances to coordinate

  the institution of a comprehensive package of business development, incubation, training, and mentorship. We

  will also work to coordinate training for churches and ministries in the important areas of personal financial

  freedom, rapid debt reduction, and the development of personal financial growth.

vConsultation and support in making transitions from a pastoral orientation to an apostolic stance are available

  to churches that are moving into the apostolic. Through the Executive Director, we offer a church consultation

  package that can provide core training in church planning, effective budgeting, and basic leadership evaluation

  and training. Churches are able to schedule this service on  an individual basis.

vMember ministries have protected access to specific areas within the website that provide valuable insights

   into apostolic expansion, business development, financial growth, personal integrity, ministry grace, and many

   other helpful things.  These are provided by member leaders who contribute wisdom and insights into

   specifically defined areas of ministry. 

vWe can coordinate opportunities for business-minded ministers to communicate their knowledge and

  insights into the church community. Such collaboration will better prepare Christians to be high integrity,

  successful  employees and business people and market-wise investors. We need effective Christian leaders in the

  arts,  education, medicine, government, the military, sports, or any other arena of activity in which God has

  placed them. Through such coordination, we can expand and validate the awareness that Christianity is

  inseparable from daily life. Our conviction is that every Christian is a full time minister of the Gospel of

  Jesus Christ. We seek to provide tangible evidence that this is not merely the whimsical desire of a few fringe

  people. It is the heartbeat of Christendom.

vAs opportunities arise, we will pursue international connections to generate mission opportunities for

  interested churches and individual ministries. Most overseas mission ventures are expensive and require a level

  of financial involvement that makes such events difficult. STAR Christian Network is not designed to finance

  individual or even group international travel and ministry. Our involvement is focused on discovering

  opportunities and assisting in the coordination of such events when possible.

vWhen feasible, STAR Christian Network will either sponsor or join in supporting significant conferences,

  convocations, and symposiums that will extend the effectiveness of the Christian witness in the world. Our

  relationships with other networks and apostolic alliances will provide ample opportunity to promote specific

  and beneficial events. However, our major focus will be in the development and promotion of training and

  equipping events in member organizations. When such schools and workshops are conducted, we hope to

  extend the opportunity to other organizations that are geographically accessible.

WHY ANOTHER NETWORK?

Several noteworthy reasons can be cited to justify this network. First of all, there is nothing we have found that is comparable to the kind of network we are projecting in the Southeastern United States. By providing mutual access from business/commerce to church and church to business/commerce, we are offering a unique and practical opportunity. We are working to build a bridge between the very separate spheres of church and marketplace.

Over the next few decades, Christendom will experience a huge shift, and the sociological data clearly demonstrates that the church will have to adapt to meet the growing demands. STAR Christian Network offers a resourcing alternative both to the church and to the business community. By recognizing and cooperating with both, we are committed to integrating the two cultures into a more effective, productive and moral community. Trends in our target audience indicate that a rapidly growing number of churches and ministries are embracing either apostolic perspectives and/or marketplace concepts. We believe these two concepts are inseparable; the church must be in the marketplace because the marketplace is in the church.

Second, a significant number of pastors and leaders are in serious need of spiritual covering for their churches and ministries. Beyond that, many Christian business leaders need genuine recognition of their call to ministry. These leaders, called of God to the marketplace and not to the church, have a heart to see the Kingdom of God extended into their spheres of influence. Many of them have not been recognized as ministers because there is no specific venue to achieve that end in the church community. Even when they are recognized, they are often overlooked because their energies are directed toward the marketplace rather than toward church programs, meetings and activities.

We are convinced that this is an oversight that must be corrected. Christian leadership should not all be focused on internal church activity. The future expansion of the Kingdom is dependent on the development of a broader venue of evangelism. It needs a more specific voice of ministry in the places where people are found the most. And it will require a committed band of disciples who do not separate their daily life from their life of faith.

By establishing a spiritual covering, the important functions of identity, relationship, counsel, and recognition can be better met in both venues. By resisting the temptation to generate a governmental structure over member organizations, the power of influence and the acceptance of relationship based counsel will better empower member organizations and individuals to achieve the vision and goals God has set before them.

Third, the financial demands of the future require greater collaboration between churches and other organizations than has been in the past. Currently, most donor based ministries are faced with serious shortfalls in revenue. Obviously, the practice of the tithe is a profound biblical principle that cannot be overlooked. Biblical giving is and must continue to be a priority of Christian life.

Businesses and ministries with developed insight and skill in meeting the financial demands they face can provide a tremendous service to less informed ministries. Collaboration here is not simply to provide a flow of funds from the “haves” to the “have nots.” STAR’s goal is to coordinate opportunities for those with knowledge and skill to impart those skills to others who are not as well informed. Such training and development will aid those who are struggling to find a way to better success financially and as a result, in ministry as well.

Numerous avenues of financial increase can be righteously pursued to elevate the material resource base of ministry operations. The recognition and empowering of marketplace ministers, something long overdue, will enlist the expertise of the marketplace in ways totally overlooked within the church community. Without question the secular side of life has much to learn from the church. In the same way, the church has far more to learn from the world of business and commerce than it has previously been willing to admit. Acknowledging these areas of inadequacy and engaging skilled and anointed ministers to empower the church can only prove to be a benefit.

MEMBERSHIP

Being a member of STAR Christian Network provides individuals and organizations a clear advantage in facing the challenges of the coming years. Our purpose makes us a clear choice in the process of providing effective ministry training. Utilization of tried and proven educational, training, and developmental materials, coupled with the skilled presentations of leaders with established records is a significant advantage. Moreover, these leaders constantly train and empower others who are called to various arenas of ministry. This process of discipleship and duplication advances the message and the skill into the next generation of leadership.

Being a member of STAR Christian Network provides a valid identity with an effective, recognized apostolic and prophetic community. Standards are high and will be maintained. Our intent is to provide authentic covering that has real meaning and honest concern. We do not intend to be a shadow organization, providing identity without integrity. We will endeavor to validate any ministry we endorse so that it can be trusted. We will work to elevate the quality of every school, training event, seminar and conference we support or coordinate. We will not accept ministry or training venues into our curriculum base unless they have met a specific criteria of excellence, biblical accuracy, and credibility.

Being a member of STAR will require individuals and churches to maintain a level of personal accountability, corporate responsibility, and honest communication. This will serve to establish and protect a reputation of Christian integrity, moral purity, and educational excellence.

STAR Christian Network

PROSPECTUS

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