Optimus Template

What we are at the completion of any given day is the definition of Heartland. It builds itself upon the cornerstone of Christ, is founded upon relationships that represent apostolic and prophetic ministries, determined by the heart of God's will and purpose for the building of His church. As far as appropriate spiritual authority is concerned, that's it. The developing core team of emerging apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, i.e. the equipping ministries as described in Ephesians 4 feed off this vine. Together we intentionally relate to each other within the 4 atmospheres that typify an apostolic company as introduced by David Cannistraci in his writings about emerging apostolic leadership; i.e. mutual accountability, voluntary submission, interdependent cooperation and relational autonomy (my slant on Cannistraci's 'local autonomy'); and we present ourselves to the spheres within which we live and work as 'life celebrants' (i.e. people who facilitate & resource the celebration of life).

My prayerful desire always is that God provides me and us with appropriate apostolic mentor(s) and so we continue to seek these people out as God directs.  In the everyday God has and I'm sure will continue to bless our journey with wonderful, Godly friends who are engaged for wise counsel and journey reflection. In its affiliation with the Crosslink Christian Network, Heartland operates as a partner in a kingdom advancing endeavour which has its core focus in relationships formed for the primary purpose of completing our God given task.  Beyond this it will however, continue to relate to, network with, seasonally seek blessing and covering from, and befriend individual Christian workers and in some cases whole assemblies that it has things in common with that are worth celebrating communally.

Heartland will not look very much like any recent historical model of 'church', even though some of its doorway strategies and transitional approaches may resonate with familiar models. At times it may resemble a church plant in any given location, but should be more accurately described as a hub or a church planting company / community from which many communities of hope and passion in Jesus will multiply throughout neighbourhoods, schools, workplaces, market places, corporations, government and in a variety of global contexts. These plants will be the result of cross cultural mission in our own backyard and beyond, all the while focusing on 'being' Jesus and representing the gospel of the kingdom wherever He has planted us.

We are under no false illusions and do not pretend to have all the answers but we hunger for the truth. We want to grow in our understanding of life AS mission and we want to take the risk of living it out. Heartland believes that God is moving throughout the world and recognises that communities of hope which are having impact in the spaces God has ushered them into, are engaging the supernatural resource of the Holy Spirit, are using worship (revering and adoring God for who He is) as evangelism and warfare, are encouraging the prophetic in individuals and through communities, are actively seeking miraculous healing including demonic deliverance, are releasing strategic prayer resources and are prepared to step up to the next level of intentional existence toward the reaping of the final harvest. Whatever the appropriate and culturally acceptable language is for all of that, we must simply hang out together and proclaim the year of our Lord's favour every day.

As part of Heartland's key strategies we will work hard to provide resources that some Christians who have been previously active, or may even be currently active in other christian centres of worship, celebration and mission; may respond positively to. It must be stressed that Heartland has absolutely no desire to shuffle 'christian' deck chairs and as such be a drain on the existing Christian community.

'Partners' of Heartland will be people who have made a personal covenant to commence a journey of mentored involvement as they grow in commitment to the Heartland cause. 'Friends' of Heartland are people who want to promote and in some tangible way, support the vision and mission of Heartland whilst remaining committed to their Christian community or mission endeavour. A key focus for any Heartland initiative will be the engaging and discipling of people who don't express faith in God through redemptive community and have no, little or an unrecognised faith heritage. An understandable spin off may be that existing Christians seek to view or even engage what Heartland is doing, utilizing it for inspiration and encouragement. Anyone and everyone is welcome to hang out with us but this never equates to membership per se.  Our prayer is that any involvement of this nature only serves as a genuine blessing to the whole, existent christian community, re-energising mission everywhere.