We believe that the church exists to make disciples of Jesus  Christ. Being disciples is all about relationship. Making  disciples is all about relationships. We can establish programs  and funnel people through "canned" plans but all of them will  fall short of the mark unless relationships remain high on  the charts for churches. In Mountain/Plains Region we value change.  But there must be enough reason and thought and order to verify  that the change is necessary and that it will produce fruit  and assist us in making disciples and advancing God's Kingdom.

   
Change is a word that is characteristic of our culture today.  The advance of technology has modified the shape of the family,  altered the face of education, and transformed how we do business.  From DVDs to MP3's to the internet and I-Phones our world  is in a constant state of change. Those who were born after  1985 have entered a world filled with fluidity and advance.  Many spend their life in front of a small game boy screen,  video arcades, computers and big screens. Many have minimal  real interaction with real people except via technology. This  gap created and extended by technology is evident in the continual  breakdown of relationships. Text messaging and e-mails leave  us short on people skills and having something tangible to  anchor our life to. There are so many valuable advances related  to technology that have advantaged the entire culture, but  there is still that relationship gap.
 

Therefore we have placed a few values at the front of our  priority list.
 

We highly value the Word of God

We value having a deep experience with the living God through  His Word. One Scripture comes to mind: "…for You have magnified  Your word above all Your name" (Psalms 138:2 NKJV). The  value of the Word of God cannot be overestimated and we resist  any effort to supplant it with gifts or charisma or experience.  Of top priority for all of our churches is the inerrant Word  of God. Other scriptures that further reinforcement this value  are: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and  is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for  instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete,  thoroughly equipped for every good work." (II Timothy 3:16-17  NKJV); and "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words  will by no means pass away" (Luke 21:33 NKJV).
 

We value relationship

All relationship in our region has its beginnings with John  3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave His only  begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish  but have everlasting life." Relationship with God (vertical  level) established through the blood of His Son helps all  of us to establish healthy relationships with people (horizontal  level). We value connectedness to one another allowing a network  of relationships to take place in order to assist us in fulfilling  the destiny we have from God. To develop a relationship culture  we are attempting to move more and more of our regional resources  back to the grass roots (local church). In that process we  will provide additional training and leadership development  in a cluster or district setting. We believe the facilitating  of cluster groups will assist our unique call to carry the  gospel to our specific community. It will also allow for quality  time together for pastors.
 

Across the networks we will join our efforts with the greater  Open Bible family to become more effective outside our unique  call and community. Knowing that most people can only truly  have seven or less deep relationships we will seek to facilitate  that community which links to the greater community: "Having  predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself,  according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise  of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted  in the Beloved" (Ephesians 1:5-6).
 

We value the harvest

Matthew 28:19 says: "Go". Matthew 9:38 says: "Therefore  pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His  harvest." John 4:35 states: "Do you not say, There  are still four months and then comes the harvest? Behold,  I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for  they are already white for harvest!" We value the person  who is on their way to discovering the truth of the gospel.  The heartbeat of God is with every beat relating to a lost  and dying world and we will champion the cause of doing the  impossible to get this accomplished. We will assist every  church to be in a constant state of alert to keep what is  the main thing the main thing: making disciples. No disciple  can be made without a conversion experience. We will teach  compassion and ministry to the lost.
 

We value the planting of new churches  

"So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and increased  in number daily" (Acts 16:5). We know that the apostle  Paul planted churches in the cities he traveled to in his  missionary journeys. We are emphasizing that every church  in our region can assist in the planting of churches in our  region. Each church can send, pray and provide funds to assist  other cooperating churches in the establishment of churches  in every place God calls the region and each local church  to launch a new congregation of disciples. We are charged  and excited about this expansion of the Kingdom in our states.  We will place funds, assist with training, provide prayer  teams, and ongoing coaching to all of our church plants.
 

We value leadership

We value the training and mentoring that will afford us the  ability to ever be effective in reaching our current culture  with the gospel message: "And the thing that you have heard  from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men  who will be able to teach others also" (II Timothy 2:2).  It will be a constant emphasis of Mountain/Plains Region to provide  training to our local pastors and their teams of leaders in  order to facilitate greater missional effectiveness. We do  think the old adage is true: "everything rises and falls on  leadership", both for our region and our local churches. It  is one of our primary purposes to help raise the leadership  level of our local constituency.
 

There has to be a limit to the number of things that take  higher priority in our region. Implied in all that has been  stated is the fact that the shepherd/servant leader of each  local congregation is of high priority to us. To care, pray,  minister and assist our pastors is on the top of our list.  We believe that is a natural working of leadership training,  relationship, and applying the Word of God. We are impressed  that our generations need the gospel and we are the ones to harvest.

Thank you for allowing us the privilege to share the joys  and trials of this adventure.

Yours,
Chuck Loftis
Executive Director