10/40 Window: The 10/40 Window is the rectangular area of North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, approximately between 10 degrees north and 40 degrees north latitude. It includes the majority of the world’s Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists, and 88% of the 3.6 billion unreached people live in or near the 10/40 window. (Joshua Project and Traveling Team)
100 UPG Cooperative: The 100 UPG Cooperative is a cooperative of churches, ministries, organizations, and leaders whose vision centers on a passion to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all” (Matthew 28:19-20) that Jesus has commanded us. The cooperative is pursuing a church planting movement in 100 unreached people groups.
Advocacy Team / A-Team: Advocacy Teams are groups, typically of 6-12 individuals, that formally commit to supporting a particular goer’s thriving and staying on task. Advocacy Teams provide tangible care and representation for their Goers.
Agency Member Care: Mission agencies often provide a care service to goers sent out through their agency. What this care service includes and how often the goer is in touch with this care service will differ from agency to agency and from goer to goer. Often, the member care team serves as an extension of the agency's human resource department for the Goer. Often, the care service is driven by individual need and desire and includes routine check-ins, prayer, and mediation of team conflict.
Approved Team Leader (TL): An approved Team Leader is an individual who has been appointed by their agency and vetted by the Field Office. This is not to be confused with the affirmation process which is for The Austin Stone aspiring TLs. Approval by The Austin Stone includes the FO’s vetting process and is approved to receive Austin Stone Goers on their team.
Aspiring Team Leader: An Aspiring Team Leader is an individual sent from The Austin Stone who is engaged in the formal Field Office process of becoming a team leader.
Care Coaches: Care Coaches are goers who are largely responsible for caring for goers and promoting their overall thriving. In direct coordination with and oversight of the Field Office and/or Care Hubs, they provide this care to encourage the thriving and staying on task of Goers. As such, Care Coaches are themselves Goers with proven experience and maturity.
Care Hub: Care Hubs are places where Care Coaches gather in proximity for the sake of mutual learning and efficient support to Goers. Each Care Coach associates with a specific Care Hub. Other support specialists may also participate in the Care Hubs. Care Hubs aim to be proximate to Phase 2 Hubs.
Church: A "group" has become a "church" when they meet the requirements listed below, as the first steps on the pathway towards the growth of a healthy church. The group is two or more (Matthew 18:15-20). They regularly gather as baptized believers in Christ (Matthew 28:18-20). They gather for the proclamation of the Scripture and the worship of Christ (1 Corinthians 14:26). They gather for the service of each other and others outside the church (Hebrews 10:24-25, 1 Corinthians 14:24-25). They administer the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s supper (Matthew 28:17-20, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26)
Church Planting Movement (CPM): A Church Planting Movement (CPM) is a multiplicative increase of indigenous churches within a given people group or population segment (Garrison, Church Planting Movements). A reproducing church becomes a “movement” when there are multiple streams of fourth-generation churches. In a movement, there are multiple occurrences of a church planting a church, that plants a church, that plants a church (and so on) within a given people group or population segment.
Committed: When a potential goer is accepted to a GMC, they are considered “committed”. Stone envisions committed goers launching in the next 18 months.
Contingency Plan: A Contingency Plan is a document written by team leaders that describes various levels of danger or threat, and action steps team leaders and members will take corresponding to the level of danger or threat.
Cousins: Cousins is a common term among goers for Muslims. Usage stems from Muslim’s heritage descending from Ishmael and Christian’s spiritual heritage descending from Isaac.
CPM Catalyzation: CPM Catalysts are church planters who come alongside local kingdom partners in order to mobilize workers and catalyze gospel movements.
Crisis Management Teams: Crisis Management Teams assist during an undesired event that threatens a person, team, organization or ministry. Typical roles within the team consist of a crisis manager, an operations officer, an information officer, and a support officer. Teams generally contain representatives from the Field Office, sending agency, and the Austin Stone.
Discovery Bible Study/Group (DBS/DBG): A Discovery Bible Study is a discipleship study which enables people to read the Bible and discover what it has to say to them. It includes simple, easy to remember questions that allow participants to understand the character of God, encourage them to obey what they are learning, and help them to share it with others.
Evangelical Christian: Evangelicals are followers of Christ who generally emphasize: The Lord Jesus Christ as the sole source of salvation through faith in Him, personal faith and conversion with regeneration by the Holy Spirit, a recognition of the inspired Word of God as the only basis for faith and living, and commitment to Biblical preaching and evangelism that brings others to faith in Christ. Joshua Project defines Evangelicals as: All affiliated Christians (church members, their children, etc.) of denominations that are evangelical in theology as defined above, and the proportion of the affiliated Christians in other denominations (that are not wholly evangelical in theology), and in denominations in non-Western nations (whose doctrine is less well defined) who would hold evangelical views.
Field Annual Partnership Renewal (APR): Goers receive their Field Annual Partnership Renewal from the Field Office. The APR serves the purpose of maintaining relationship with the Austin Stone, and affirms goers’ decisions to remain under the authority of The Austin Stone elders through the Field Office in matters of doctrine and moral conduct.
Field Team: The long-term team a goer serves with in an unreached context.
Field Term: For the Austin Stone, a field term is considered to be 3 years. Field Term is not the time period between HMA (often 2 years), but a time commitment to field work. For example, a goer signs an MOU for a 3 year term. If they return stateside indefinitely after 3 years, it is considered that they have completed their work.
FISHing: Intentional time out in the harvest forming meaningful, gospel-centered relationships with the lost. Also an acronym that stands for Find, Interest, Share, Help. “Find” includes finding out about who they are, their spiritual openness, interests, and more. “Interest” can be better remembered as creating interest in the gospel and person of Christ. “Share” is simply sharing the gospel, but often includes sharing stories of Jesus and personal testimony. “Help” refers to helping them make a decision to follow Christ or continue learning about Him.
Focus Missions: Focus Missions is the Austin Stone’s online trip management tool. It facilitates support raising, trip details, and other information for both vision trips and short-term trips.
Goer: Someone who has launched to their long-term field context.
Goer Gathering: Goer Gathering is a time for Austin Stone goers to gather for encouragement, connection, and teaching. It occurs every three years, typically in the summer.
Growing Participator Approach (GPA): The Growing Participator Approach is a six-phase language acquisition approach in which language and cultural awareness are acquired through participation in the life of a new community. GPA emphasizes the sociocultural nature of language learning, the cognitive processes involved, and the spiritual role of language.
Home Country: Home country is often used interchangeably with terms such as home context or culture, or home community. These all refer to a goer’s passport country, or country of origin.
Home Ministry Assignments (HMA): A Home Ministry Assignment is time spent stateside for the purposes of rest, recuperation, medical checkups, connecting with supporters and sending churches, and spiritual and ministry preparation for the next term of service. HMAs generally range from a few weeks to three months every two years. HMAs are often called “furlough” outside of the Austin Stone.
Host Country: Host country is often used interchangeably with terms such as field context or culture, local context, or host community. These all refer broadly to a goer’s local context on the field.
Launched: A goer is considered launched when they have boarded their plane to their long-term field context.
Launched Stateside: A goer is considered “launched stateside” when they have launched, and are temporarily stateside for any reason.
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU): A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is a type of agreement between a goer and their field team, upheld by their sending agency and affirmed by their church. MOUs are generally written by team leaders and commonly indicate an intended team vision, theology, conduct, team rhythms, strategy, and security policies. MOUs are not legally binding, but the Austin Stone and sending agencies respect them as an official agreement between team leaders and team members.
Ministry Safe Awareness Training: A training intended to educate adults on child safety practices and increase awareness of the prevelance of child abuse.
Mobilizer/Mobilization Coach: A Mobilization Coach helps the church body discover God’s heart for the nations and their role in His plan, engages in life-on-life discipleship to develop Goer Missional Community participants to work toward CPMs among UPGs, and helps them deploy to strategic opportunities among the unreached.
National Apostolic Visionary (NAV): A National Apostolic Visionary (NAV) is a local believer among the unreached who has a high level of vision to see their entire society transformed into the image of Christ. NAVs are often referred to as “indigenous Pauls”; they are those who will spearhead church planting movements among their own people group.
“The Nations”: The nations, in the context of the Austin Stone, refers to the phrase “all the nations” or “every nation” found frequently in scripture. This wording, panta ta ethne in the Greek, points to the ethnicities, the languages, and the extended families which make up the world population. When we talk about the nations, we do not mean geopolitical nations, but rather, all the ethnolinguistic people groups.
Non-Strategic Ministry: Non-strategic ministry at the Austin Stone is perhaps better defined by what is considered Strategic Ministry. We consider strategic ministry to be work that engages unreached people groups and establishes multiplying churches in unreached areas of the world. Non-strategic ministry is work that does not meet those criteria.
People Group: A significantly large group of individuals who perceive themselves to have a common affinity for one another because of their shared language, religion, ethnicity, residence, class or caste, situation, etc., or combinations of these. For evangelization purposes, a people group is the largest group within which the Gospel can spread as a church planting movement without encountering barriers of understanding or acceptance. (The Lausanne Committee in Chicago, 1982)
Personal Leadership Review (PLR): A PLR is a form intended for future and current goers that calls them to reflect and report on their personal and spiritual health, as well as the health and thriving of their vocation, team, support, personal management, time usage, and overall ministry progress. Pastors and Care Coaches use PLRs to support the thriving and staying on task of goers under their leadership, oversight, and care.
Phase 1 Hub: Phase 1 Hubs recruit, train, and send CPM-focused goers. They mobilize and train the local church, as well as send out national workers to UPGs. These Hubs ensure that goers are trained in CPM principles and practices before ever leaving their “home” context. Goers implement CPM principles and practices, and learn the common core of processes, language, relationships, and expectations, in their home context before they move to their UPG context. Phase 1 Hubs facilitate the growth of three local networks: Goer Network, Sender Network, and Mobilizer Network.
Phase 2 Hub: Phase 2 Hubs facilitate rapid, healthy, and strategic adaptation of CPM-focused and CPM-trained Goers into UPG contexts. They are provided primarily to allow goers time to adapt and refine their strategies in indigenous contexts through the close help of experienced CPM practitioners and leaders. Goers are provided the space and time to make personal and logistical transitions from their home context to their new UPG context; including learning language, learning and adapting to local culture, undertaking specialized training, launching platforms, etc. Phase 2 Hubs also mobilize and train the indigenous people for CPM-focused mission.
Platform: A goer’s platform is their reason for being in their field country, or their vocation in the field. A goer’s platform is typically tied to the visa type they select or are issued. A goer’s platform could be on a work visa, business visa, student visa, tourist visa, missionary visa, etc.
Potential Goer: Someone who’s exploring going in any capacity.
Pre-Field: The span of time a potential goer experiences from entering GMC to launch.
Primary Sending Church: The Primary Sending Church is a single fellowship which acts as the Goer’s spiritual authority in the areas of doctrine and discipline. While a Goer may count many sending churches (fellowships which provide prayer and/or financial support to a Goer) in their support network, The Austin Stone functions as the Primary Sending Church for all Austin Stone Goers.
Professing Christian: Anyone who professes to be Christian. The term embraces all traditions and confessions of Christianity. It is no indicator of the degree of commitment or theological orthodoxy. This definition is based on the individual's self-confession, not his or her ecclesiology, theology, or religious commitment and experience. This includes professing and affiliated adults and also their children (practicing and non-practicing) who reside in a given area or country, or who are of a particular ethno-linguistic or ethno-cultural people. This is the broadest possible classification of Christian and includes the six ecclesiological types of Christians: Protestant, Roman Catholic, Other Catholic, Orthodox, Foreign marginal, Indigenous marginal as defined in Operation World. Professing Christian numbers include the Evangelical subset. (Joshua Project)
Re-entering: A goer is considered "re-entering" when they have returned from their long-term field context to their home context with no near-term or concrete plans to return to the field, and are in a period of transition.
Returned: A goer is considered “returned” when they have returned from their long-term field context to their home context with no near-term or concrete plans to return, and are considered by For the Nations staff as successfully transitioned.
Stateside Care Team: The Stateside Care Team is an arm of the For the Nations team, residing in the Austin Stone offices. The Stateside Care Team supports A- Teams, facilitates resource acquisition for stateside goers, and provides care and shepherding for goers when they are transitioning on and off the field.
Stateside Visits: A stateside visit is any time a goer on the field returns stateside for a limited period of time. They generally occur for a variety of personal reasons pertaining to the goer.
Staying On Task: Staying on task means faithful alignment with the goer’s vision and strategy. This alignment should be evident in all levels of decisions (big and small, days and decades) in the life and ministry of the goer and their team.
Support Team or Partners: A goer’s support team, or financial partners, is the team of people who have agreed to provide ongoing financial support to the goer. Sometimes, a support or partner team could refer to a broader network of prayer and financial partners of a goer.
Thrive: A goer is thriving when they are healthy, happy, and holy.
Unengaged People Group: An “unengaged people group” (UUPG) is a subset of a UPG, wherein there is no apostolic team in residence among them aspiring to plant churches in the language and culture of the people group.
Unreached People Group (UPG): An unreached people group is a people group among which there is no indigenous community of believing Christians with adequate numbers and resources to evangelize this people group without outside assistance (Joshua Project). Often numerically defined as a people group in which less than or equal to 2% of the population are evangelical Christian, and less than or equal to 5% of the population are professing Christians of any sort (including nominal Christians, Catholic, Orthodox, etc.).
Unevangelized People: Unevangelized people are unconverted individuals in places where there are established churches (The Gospel Coalition). They have at least a vague understanding of God and Jesus and if they wanted to know more, they just need to show up at any of the dozens (or typically more) of churches in their community (The Traveling Team).
UPG Teams: Goers and teams launch from their Phase 2 Hubs into the new UPG contexts to catalyze new CPMs. Phase 2 Hubs are largely responsible for the coordination and oversight of CPM initiatives among UPGs. As the concentration of Goers largely dissolves among UPGs, these UPG teams are largely expressed in terms of foreign, proximate, and local goers and workers.
Vision Strategy Plan (VSP): A Vision Strategy Plan is a document written by team leaders that outlines their team’s vision and strategy for reaching that vision. Team culture may be addressed in the document as well.
Vision Trip: Vision trips, or confirmation trips, are short trips (usually 1-2 weeks long) potential goers take to visit a team or teams they are interested in partnering with. The focus of the trip is not to create interest, but to bring a sense of confirmation about which team to join.
