Act Beyond
Act Beyond starts church planting movements to transform unreached people groups—where obedient disciples make obedient disciples and reproducing churches start reproducing churches—who make Jesus known while transforming lives, relationships, and communities.
A church planting movement is a fast growing network of churches that spreads the gospel within a region and people group who have never heard the good news of Christ.
Our Approach
Act Beyond joins with Great Commission Christians (GCCs), churches, and ministries across the globe to equip, send, and support Strategy Teams who prayerfully and strategically serve among Unreached People Groups (UPGs). The organization stimulates transformational Church Planting Movements among UPGs, trains missionaries throughout the world, and helps other GCCs to catalyze movements to Christ among UPGs.
This model came from many years of experience working in the mission field. Mission work among many of the people groups served by Act Beyond becomes less effective when only a few unrelated people in a group are converted. These new believers return to their families and their culture only to slowly be drawn back away from God. The forceful influence of culture and family upon these isolated believers deters them from pursuing God further.
Act Beyond approaches these people groups with the whole group in mind. Our model creates a revolution for God in the hearts of a people group and results in contagious church planting. After part of our team spends extensive time within a people group, we are able to leave with the confidence that these new churches will plant more new churches and the movement will grow.
Reaching Japan
To achieve the goal of seeing unreached people transformed by the gospel in Japan, the key question is: “What must be done to catalyze a church planting movement amongst these people?” Not: “What can I do to evangelize or reach each these people?”
We seek more teams in Japan to be involved in catalyzing a movement using a strategic church planting movement approach. The team will also be involved in being a liaison between national and international GCCs. This effort will include prayer, media, and scripture and literature translation and/or distribution. They will also recruit additional personnel.
Currently we have two works in Japan. One CPM work is in Chiba Prefecture (rural Japan) and Shizuoka Prefecture, and the other work is in Nagano Prefecture (Sanbi no Ie), which serves missionaries in Japanese study and both missionaries and Japanese people in ministry.
Act Beyond website: http://beyond.org/
Our international history
1981: Launched in Seattle as Mission to Unreached Peoples (MUP) to bridge the gap between traditional missions and Christian relief and development.
1983: First missionaries sent to Nepal.
1990: Added focus on holistic church planting and sent increasing number of missionaries.
2001: Ethne Unreached People Group Network formed, with influence from two who would later become President and a Vice-President of Act Beyond.
2008: MUP re-focused on being exponentially effective by starting reproducing disciple movements (church planting movements) among the 30% of the world’s population still cut off from the gospel. Began recruiting effort to launch hundreds of agile and effective teams to start movements to transform whole people groups.
2009: Ethne09 held in Bogota, Colombia. MUP became the steward for US donations to the global network. Kent Parks, President of MUP/Beyond, continued as Ethne Co-Facilitator and Program Director.
2010: Home office moved to Plano, Texas.
2013: MUP became Act Beyond to reflect strategic focus and greater effectiveness.