Vision Statement

Our Vision

We exist to make students into disciples of Christ.

Our Strategy

Our goal is to Build students up into a mature faith in Christ, to Equip them with the skills they need to reach their peers for Christ, and then Win students to Christ through peer to peer evangelism.

Our Process

Each of Heir Born’s programs or activities is designed with a specific purpose in mind. Whether that purpose is building, equipping, or winning students to Christ, the challenge is ministering to students at their level of spiritual interest and challenging them toward a deeper commitment to Christ. Heir Born seeks to follow the example of Christ’s ministry by developing a balance of building, equipping, and winning students to Him. Below are some examples of the “discipling” ministry that Jesus had.

Building

Jesus laid the foundation for His entire ministry by creating a healthy environment for the spiritual growth of His followers. The following are six foundational principles that we at Heir Born try to follow in all of our building events:

Creating a loving environment

• Jesus was able to develop an environment that was compelled by compassion, driven by love, and that permeated all of His activities with his disciples. Traveling, teaching, ministering, eating, resting, and meditating were all things that Jesus and the disciples did together.
• John 13:35 says, “By this all men will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
• We see this principle at work in the first church. Acts 2:46-47 says, “ Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.”

Prayerful dependence

• Prayer was a priority to Christ! (Mark 1:29-35).
• Spiritual battles are only won through prayer! (Eph. 6:10-18 & Luke 11:1).
• Prayer moves the hand of God! (Dan. 10:12-14).
• Prayer is effective! (James 5:16).
• Prayer builds confidence! (Eph. 6:19-20).

Priority of the Word

• We believe that God’s Word and the truth it teaches is relevant to teenagers lives today. The proper communication of God’s Word and its life-changing message is a top priority in our ministry.
• II Timothy 3:16-17 says, “All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Communicating a proper concept of Christ

• We believe that in our society people are spiritual but have misconceptions about Christ. We need to communicate who Christ was and all that He has done for us.
• Knowing Who God is, what He has done for us and who we are in Christ frees us to let God be the center of our lives.
• In Matt. 16:15 Jesus asks of Peter, “Who do you say that I am?” We seek to teach our students the right answer to that question; “You are the Christ”.

Building a Biblical ministry image

• A healthy group-image directly affects the amount students will participate, how much they will learn, and the degree to which they will want to bring friends.
• Scripture shows us that the believers in the first church had a tremendous sense of unity and purpose. A closeness that can only be attributed to the Holy Spirit. Christ intended his followers to be a group that was healthy, unified, and loving, where true fellowship occurred. (Acts 2:41-47, I Pt. 3:8, Eph 4:3, II Cor. 13:11)
• Philippians 2:1-4 says, “Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.”

Building a relational ministry

• “You can impress people at a distance; you can only impact them up close. The general principle is this, the closer the personal relationship, the greater the potential for impact.” -- Howard Hendricks
• John 3:22 says, “After this, Jesus went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them…”
• We don’t expect students to just come to us, we reach out and meet them on their turf in order to minister to them.

Equipping

Jesus spent some of his time ministering to the masses, but he always made time to withdraw from the crowds and spend time with his “fishers-of-men”. In our ministry we seek to take the students who want more and equip them with the skills that they need to reach their peers for Christ. In Heir Born our primary way of Equipping is through Student Ministry Teams, we also have equipping events and mission trips yearly. A key skill the students are equipped with is how to do Spiritual CPR:

Cultivating

• Teaching students to build friendships.This allows for a credible spiritual influence in the future.

Planting

• Teaching students to share the truth of God’s Word and equipping them to turn ordinary conversations toward spiritual things.

Reaping

• Helping students to communicate the life-change that comes with walking as Jesus did (I Jn. 2:5b-6) and challenging the lost to repent and believe.

Winning

Jesus’ heart for the lost (Luke 19:10) was crystal clear as was his expectation that his followers have that same heart. “Outreach” or ministry to lost sheep, was a regular, everyday occurrence for the disciples. We are to fulfill the Great Commission, and this means we are to have Christ’s heart for the lost and actively and aggressively seek the lost.

Why

• The purpose of outreach ministries is to expose the un-churched to Christ and our ministry in a positive way and to see them either accept Christ or to take a step closer to accepting Christ.

How

• In addition to training and encouraging students to share their faith, Heir Born will sponsor events specifically designed to share the gospel with seeking students.

Multiplication

We see in Acts that Jesus’ ministry did not end when he ascended into heaven. This is because he developed shepherds who could continue to build, equip, and win others to Him. This phase of Heir Born’s ministry is for proven workers, who are then trained be a shepherd over smaller groups or ministry segments.

Our Product

The final product of this process is a “Discipling Ministry” – one which ministers to students at their level of interest and brings them along to maturity in Christ. A more detailed look at the characteristics of a discipled student can be found in our “Description of a Discipled Student” booklet.