AccessTruth exists to answer questions like these and to provide an exhaustive range of resources to help individuals, teams and churches share their faith effectively across cultures. We recognize that the scope of this vision is beyond us as a small team, but we are continually amazed by how God continues to provide. By far the most valuable provision has been a wealth of contributors who’ve been willing to make their time, experience and expertise available as part of the ever growing pool of AccessTruth resources. It is our desire to help to equip God’s Church, not only where it has been historically strong, but also to provide translated, relevant materials for areas where local fellowships are under-resourced for reaching out to their own people and beyond
As our name suggests, we exist to help Jesusʼ disciples – His Church – make Godʼs truth more accessible in the world. We are moved by the reality that numerous barriers stand in the way of countless people in the world finding the forgiveness, peace and joy that He wants for them. AccessTruth is all about resourcing and equipping Godʼs people to understand those barriers clearly and, in his strength, find ways to overcome them. We believe the Scriptures are the inerrant and infallible Word of God, providing the foundation for all that we believe and do and that He has commanded us as to go to all the nations with the Good News of Christ (Matt 28:19-20), the only hope of salvation.
With that as our core commitment, we have identified some things we want to characterize who we are as a team, what we prioritize, how we work, and how we relate to others.
Working in collaboration:
We have tried to create an avenue through which the widest possible range of contributors can share their experiences and insights. We highly value the opportunity to relate to a growing network of Godʼs servants and to give them a wider voice through the resources we collectively develop.
Non-aligned but well defined:
AccessTruth is not aligned to any particular organization or denomination. This is not from a desire for independence but because we want to serve all of Godʼs people who are seeking to engage the Harvest effectively. It also does not represent an eclectic approach: our resources are shaped by some very clear principles we find in Godʼs Word, and that experience demonstrates about effective cross-cultural ministries. (We list a few of them in a later point.)
Partnerships that link discipleship to theory:
We initiated AccessTruth to fill a need we observed for widely accessible, good quality cross-cultural training resources. But, however good or accessible we make them, and as important as theory may be, effective equipping involves relationships and discipleship. So even though we are glad for anyone to utilize our resources as individuals, we highly value partnerships with churches, teams and agencies who can relate personally with learners.
This plays out practically in the consultancy we offer new and existing programs using the resources, and in the online facilities we provide as they work alongside their students.
A flexible model for ministry:
As mentioned, the curriculum, media and literature we produce are based on principles that determine appropriate goals for cross- cultural work and how to effectively reach them. Together these principles form a model that is robust but also flexible enough to apply in any context.
Just a few areas it addresses are; sharing Godʼs Word as one complete Narrative through clear communication at a worldview level, ensuring the Bible is available and can be read and applied to life as God intends, helping groups of believers develop an appropriate identity within their own community, and establishing patterns of discipleship that see Christʼs truth and life passed on.
Pursuing excellence:
We want to use whatever skills, gifts and finances God graciously gives us to the very best of our ability. He does not do things half- heartedly or poorly and we would like our small efforts as a team to in some way reflect the excellence that characterizes his work. This includes utilizing the most recent technology and advances in telecommunications, while also being willing to provide resources in older forms for communities that need them.
Staying relevant in a changing world:
We are committed to producing media that is relevant to a rapidly changing world and a Harvest field that is being profoundly impacted by globalization, urbanization, ideological conflict and mass migration.
We try to stay up to date and to glean from the latest trends in theology and missiological thinking without being uncritically swept along. Our preferred response is to measure these movements against the patterns we find in the Biblical Narrative and to allow that to inform our perspective; also to observe whether these theories and strategies result over time in the Great Commission actually being served.
As AccessTruth, we want to serve our training partners and the wider Church through a feed of fresh stories from ministry contexts and up to date, practical advice from workers who are currently involved. We are committed to ensuring that the theory of our curriculum is hard-wired to the realities of live contexts.
