Living Stones recognizes that we have all been sent on God’s mission, entrusted with the Good News of the Gospel,
and empowered with the Holy Spirit to be ministers of reconciliation both locally and abroad.
Living Stones is in engaged in the local mission in Reno though large group gatherings, community groups, and mission.
Living Stones is dedicated to the mission abroad through partnering with the field missionaries and ministries listed below. As a philosophy of ministry, the Living Stones Elders have set the missions budget at 10% of the overall church budget, with hopes of this percentage increasing in the future. Living Stones also sends short-term mission teams every year to partner with supported ministries.
The Missional Elder Team has strategically broken down the mission’s budget into five categories to maintain a balanced approach to world missions. The percentages below reflect the percent that category makes up of the overall missions budget.
Acts 29 Network (20%)
- Foundation Fund - The Acts 29 Network exists to start churches that plant churches. God is using the network to influence and shape the church planting culture through both solid theology and contextualizing the gospel. www.acts29network.org
- Acts 29 Church Planters - This fund is designed to financially assist new church plants across the country get established
their first year of planting.
- City of God - Eric Rosenberry planted COG in the fall of 2009 in Lafayette, IN near the University of Purdue. www.cogchurch.org
"Paul" Type Missionaries (18%)
We have defined "Paul" type missionaries as those who are actively spreading the Good News of the Gospel to unreached people groups and countries closed to the Gospel.
- Elam - In 1979, there were less than 500 known Christians from a Muslim background in Iran. Today the most conservative estimate is that there are at least 100,000 believers in the nation. Elam's vision is that all the people of the Iran region would have the opportunity to come to know the Lord Jesus Christ and follow Him as a disciple, and that they would be instrumental in taking the Gospel to other Muslims. To achieve this Vision they train, equip, and send leaders to strengthen existing churches, establish new churches, and provide relief to the poor and persecuted. www.elam.com
- "Walkins" - The Walkins are involved in Church Planting among unreached people groups on the Arabian Peninsula. Their name has been altered for their protection and safety.
- Vision 2030 - Working in India and throughout Asia to identify and train indigenous leaders to plant ten thousand missional, gospel-centered churches throughout Asia by the year 2030. The strategy is to pour into 1000 church planters for seven years. During this time, he will plant three churches (one church every two years, with a one year grace period) with the expectation that at the end of seven years he will be fully supported by his congregations. In this way, we train our men to look to God as Provider and avoid breeding a dependence on Western funds. The remaining 1,000 churches will be planted by the men who do not stop at three. Many of the planters we currently work with in Asia have planted more than three churches. www.visionnationals.org/2030/
"Timothy" Type Missionaries (18%)
We have defined "Timothy" type missionaries as those who are involved in church planting, pastoring, and reaching out to non-Christians with the Gospel.
- Mike Cutler - Mike is a deacon at Living Stones Church who serves as a full time missionary to international students at the University of Nevada, Reno. God is bringing hundreds of students from over 60 different nations to study in Reno allowing the ministry to strategically reach nations normally closed to the Gospel. Mike and other volunteers work to meet, befriend, serve and share Christ's love with these people.
- JD Senkbile - JD is currently planting VOX City Church in Cape Town, South Africa. As a church they seek to proclaim the Gospel, experience the transforming power of the Gospel and demonstrate the Gospel in Cape Town through practical expressions of mercy, justice, compassion, and restoration. JD also serves as the Acts 29 Network’s Director for Church Planting in Africa. www.voxcc.com
- Casa de Libertad - Pastor Francisco is native to Guatemala and planted CDL in Guatemala City about two years ago. Casa de Libertad is also part of the Act 29 network. Their mission is to “Be the church, not just a church building, promote an atmosphere of responsible Christian liberty and true worship of Jesus [most evangelical churches in Guatemala are in many ways very legalistic], that leads our families to serve and transform our community. www.casadelibertad.org
Mercy & Justice (18%)
- International Justice Mission - Secures justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression. IJM lawyers, investigators and aftercare professionals work with local officials to ensure immediate victim rescue and aftercare, to prosecute perpetrators and to promote functioning public justice systems. Living Stones financial support of IJM is split between the Emergency Fund and the Regional Fund focusing on Latin American countries. www.ijm.org
- Strong Tower Ministry - Steve and Robin Braun work in the rural mountain villages of Guatemala ministering to the indigenous Mayans. To help earn the trust of the villages they show them that God loves them, while they are telling them. STM helps meet physical needs through medical clinics and various water/construction projects. They are also currently helping pastor a village church and hope to establish a small Bible school to help build up and train indigenous pastors to plant churches all over the mountainside. For the last several years LS has sent short-term mission teams to partner with STM. www.strongtowerministriesinternational.org
- Tonilynn Steere, Casa Bernabe - Casa Bernabe is an orphanage outside Guatemala City that currently cares for over 150 orphans. Living
Stones helps support Tonilynn a social worker for the orphanage. Living Stones is specifically working with Tonilynn to minister to
children in the “Quince” group. These are teens nearing the age when they will leave the orphanage. The goal of the Quince group is
to intensely disciple and prepare the young adults for the “real world” outside the orphanage.
www.foce.org