So, exactly where did this EPIC idea come from, and what’s it all about anyway?
Well, the idea of EPIC was originally conceived last spring when several of us from the Student Priority were at a conference led by Alan Hirsch, author of “The Shaping of Things to Come” (great book…I highly recommend you read it!).
Alan was describing what the DNA of a Missional Church looks like, and in that context he brought up the idea of “Organic Systems” and what it looks like to maintain the core DNA of an organization within all it’s constituents.
Too often core values barely even stay in the head, and are even farther from actually being lived out and practiced.For example, the Benedictines have 90 core rules…imagine trying to remember and practice all those!
For us within Agape it’s a new day in the Student Priority, and as we work with students across Europe we need to help them grasp and live out our core practices.But how do we do that?Alan suggests that the students of today are much like the people of Jesus’ day.Change comes through action, not just through ideas.
The old paradigm is to change thinking and that will influence actions.But the way Jesus worked, and the way the students of today are wired is that action actually becomes a way of changing their thinking. You come to own the core DNA of the movement because you’re doing it.
Yes, we need to teach them all the core parts of our DNA, but we also need to challenge them to practice, even before all their “whys” have been answered.Practice helps make core things become truly core to the individual!
Alan then introduced the idea of using an acrostic of common practices that help all the members of a group practice those things that are most core to the movement while also helping the group to grow in community .It’s the idea of “practice these, and then multiply them into others.”With that in mind, the Student Priority Leadership Team set out to create an acrostic that reflects the core practices that we would want any and every “multiplying disciple” within Agape to be doing.Thus, EPIC was born.
The dictionary defines epic as:Celebrating the feats of a legendary hero. Surpassing the usual or ordinary. Heroic and impressive in quality.
Our version of “celebrating the feats of our hero” Jesus is as follows:
Evangelism: talk to someone about Jesus 3x/week
Prayer:talk to Jesus with someone else 3x/week
Invest: pour your life into faithful followers of Jesus every week
Community: celebrate Jesus and be in His Word with others every week
Who is EPIC for?
As mentioned above, the true target for EPIC is any “multiplying disciple” involved in any Agape Student Priority movement around W. Europe.It’s assumed that as staff we do all these things, and hopefully in much greater numbers, but what about the students we’re investing in?
Do they know what our core DNA is?
Do they know what it means to be a multiplying disciple?
EPIC is intended to help our students know what we’re about. And it should be a tool to help us to challenge them to the very core practices that we stand for.
Is EPIC all there is to the life of a multiplying disciple?Of course not…but it is a helpful tool to build your disciples with.And by God’s grace it will help us to help build an army of multiplying students across W. Europe who will hopefully take these practices to heart not only for their student years, but over their lifetimes.
(great book…I highly recommend you read it!).