The Mission
The primary mission of Beyond Us Ministries will be to help Christian college students build upon the biblical foundation they have in Jesus Christ. In addition, the ministry’s goal will be to help them overcome the many temptations of the college atmosphere and increase their love and service for Jesus during their college years.

To accomplish this task, a housing and discipleship ministry will begin in the fall of 2011 for Christian students at Lake Land College in Mattoon, IL. The ministry will implement discipleship by imitating many of the aspects of the original discipleship setting that God put in place with families. Jason and JoLee Reichert will be the directors of Beyond Us Ministries; they will have an attached housing facility for them and their two children. In addition, the building will have a housing area for males and an additional housing area for females. The plan will be to house approximately fifteen to twenty students who will be the primary target for discipleship. However, the ministry will also develop opportunities for outreach and discipleship with students of the college that do not live in the housing facility.

The Scriptural Foundations
Colossians 3:23-24: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” This is the key verse of Beyond Us Ministries and holds the foundation for the ministries’ goal, which is to help the Christian students look beyond themselves and realize that Christ and others should come before themselves. Matthew 22:37-39 gives a further foundation for this when Christ tells us to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” and goes onto instruct us to “love your neighbor as yourself.” This is a change to a biblical worldview, which is key to being a disciple of Christ and reaching the lost world around us. (also see John 13:34-35 and 2 Corinthians 5:15)

Matthew 28:19-20: In the great commission, Jesus instructs His followers to “go therefore and make disciples.” In order to follow this command, Beyond Us Ministries will seek to find Christian students who desire to live as Christ instructs them to live and help them succeed in this mission. In addition, the great commission also tells us to teach disciples to observe all things that He has commanded.

2 Timothy 3:16: This verse shows us the power and authority of the Bible, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” As a result, it is the best source of teaching for ministry. As the verse states, it is profitable for reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness. Therefore, it is vital for all Christians, but especially college students as they go through this difficult time in their life. Studying Scripture will help them know who God truly is, know the commands Jesus gave us, and discern what is right and wrong in the eyes of God.

1 Corinthians 12: This section of Scripture along with Romans 12:3-8 and Ephesians 4:11-16 reveal that the Holy Spirit gives every Christian a spiritual gift and also lists the different gifts. It is important for Christians to know their spiritual gift, understand them better, and learn how to use their spiritual gift in their lives and the local church.
Various Scriptures: An additional Scriptural guide is the fact that God has frequently used a family or family like setting to bring about the next generation of disciples. This is initially seen in Genesis 2:18 where God said that it was not good for Adam to be alone, so He provided a helpmate and therefore created the first family. Later in Genesis, He established Israel through Jacob and his sons. A less traditional family was established in the beginning of Acts as the church was started and Christians took care of each other’s needs. Paul also exemplifies this in 1 Corinthians 11:1 when he instructs his follower to “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.” Again, Paul compares the care that he gave to the Thessalonians with that of a mother and child in 1 Thessalonians 2:6-10. As a result, we can see that the family is God’s chosen way to place people together. Therefore, Beyond Us Ministries will in many ways imitate the family setting as we encourage each other, care for each other, and hold each other accountable during our time together in the ministry.

Goals and Tools
Biblical Worldview – Beyond Us Ministries will strive to teach the Christians at Lake Land to have a stronger biblical worldview. Our hope is that when they finish their years at Lake Land they will discern everything they observe through biblical lenses. In other words, they will compare the things they are taught to the teachings of the Bible and they will make their decisions in life based on the desires God has for them. This will involve two main areas.

First, this will involve discerning right from wrong. Everyone has a worldview and attempts to come up with their own standards of right and wrong. However, true righteousness is based on the biblical standards God has revealed to us in Scripture. This will be accomplished by various bible studies and a concentration on the ministry’s key verse. Successfully living out a Christian worldview is strongly affected by who we are living for in our lives, naturally we live for ourselves, but Christians should live for Christ. Demolishing Strongholds, a DVD worldview curriculum developed by Answers in Genesis, will also be used to teach a Christian worldview.

Second, other religions all have their own beliefs. Beyond Us Ministries will work to give knowledge of some of the other beliefs that the students may come in contact with at school and in life. This will help them defend their faith, reach individuals of other religions with the message of Christ, and recognize when non-biblical ideas attempt to mix with Christian teaching.

Discipleship – Discipleship will be a major part of Beyond Us Ministries. This will be a two part process. First, each student will need to have a mentor that will help them grow spiritually during their time living at the facility. Second, they will also begin to be a mentor to someone else by having a specific person that they will mentor and help in their spiritual growth. To accomplish this task, each resident will be required to have on file who their mentor is and who they would like to disciple. The directors of Beyond Us Ministries will be available as mentors, but they may choose someone else, especially if they already have someone who is a mentor in their life. However, each student will need to meet with one of the directors on a regular basis to update how these relationships are progressing. The goal is to make sure discipleship is a part of their lives and the purpose is to ensure that discipleship continues to the next generation.

Accountability and Overcoming Temptation – As Christians, we are called to be holy as God is holy. (1 Peter 1:16) As a result, we are to act different than the culture around us. We are called by God to observe the commands of Scripture. This is in no way to obtain or preserve salvation, but it is still vital for the Christian life.

To promote proper Christian behavior, the ministry will utilize a strategy of accountability. It will start with the directors, but the goal will be for it to spread to the students. We hope that their desire will be to act like a Christian should, and then help other do the same. Therefore, accountability will not only be with the leadership, but students will also be asked to keep each other accountable. They should have accountability relationships with each other where they will be expected to confess sin to each other and confront sin when necessary.

Disciplinary steps will also be in place for when self-control is not practiced. The goal will be correction above punishment. In addition, the severity of the discipline will be less if confession takes place prior to the leadership discovering the issue in other ways. People make mistakes; therefore the primary goal will be to help each other through the temptations as they come about in their lives.

Active Church Attendance – Beyond Us Ministries is a non-denominational ministry and therefore will not force the residents to attend any particular church or denomination. However, the students do need to attend on a regular basis and have an active part in serving at their church. God requires the assembling of believers and he also requires us to actively serve and use our abilities to serve the body of Christ. The directors will regularly meet with the residents to discuss how they are serving the church and if they need any additional help to improve their service ability. Being active in a church is sometimes very difficult for Christians at this age. This can be because of their lack of interest and can also be because of the church’s reluctance to allow Christians this young to serve in certain capacities. Either way, the individuals needs to further prepare themselves for service later, serve in a different capacity, or ask again and show his or her willingness to serve if they are truly prepared.

Evangelism and Apologetics – Beyond Us Ministries will promote evangelism and help the students be prepared to share the gospel. All the students will have relationship in their lives with non-Christians. The primary purpose of these relationships should be to show God’s love to them. The result will be that they will know that the student is a disciple of Christ and see that he is different because of it and ultimately accept Christ as their Savior.

The primary source of teaching in regards to evangelism will be an annual training event that will usually take place over a weekend. A special speaker will be brought in for the purpose of promoting and teaching evangelism. This event may concentrate solely on teaching or may also include actively sharing the gospel through a special outreach event.

In addition, apologetics will be studied. The primary purpose of the apologetics teaching will be to prepare the students to defend their Christian faith. This will be for the purpose of keeping them strong in their faith as well as showing people of other beliefs that Jesus is the true Savior and the only way to the Father. Some of the sources used for this will be Understanding the Times by David A. Noebel, The Unexpected Journey by Thom S. Rainer, and Fast Facts on False Teachings by Ron Carlson and Ed Decker.

Leadership – Leadership will be taught first by example. In addition, a Bible study will take place once every two years that will center on leadership. The study will center on the many godly examples that Scripture has revealed to us.

Spiritual Gifts – Nearly two-thirds of Christians either do not know their spiritual gift, say they do not have a spiritual gift, or claim a non-biblical spiritual gift. Therefore, at the beginning of each year a lesson will be given to all new residents centered on what the Bible teaches about spiritual gifts. Following this, the student resident will participate in a spiritual gift inventory and a follow-up lesson on their results. The source that will predominately be used is available from Elmer Town’s web-site. This test will produce results ranging from the spiritual gifts of prophecy, helper, teaching, exhortation, giving, administration, mercy shower, evangelism, and shepherding. Each student will begin by taking the test, then printing and studying the results. This will be followed by several small group meetings for students with the same spiritual gifts. This session will guide the students through what the Bible says about their spiritual gifts and a discussion on how each specific gift can be utilized in life and the local church.

Target Group
While part of the goal of Beyond Us Ministries is to reach the lost students at Lake Land College, the main target group will be Christians who desire to stay committed to Christ during their college years. Many young Christians have gone to college and walked away because they give into the worldly temptations that are present in the college atmosphere. Studies have shown that this number is as high as ninety percent. Some of this ninety percent’s goal was to get away from home so they could live like they wanted to live, but others left with the best intentions and simply failed in their goal of continuing to live for Christ. This is our target group; students who go to college and want help in continuing to grow and serve Christ with their lives.

Vision Statement
As mentioned above, Beyond Us Ministries’ key verse is Colossians 3:23-24 which states that “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” We hope that we can help Christian students live out this verse and in turn live out the name of the ministry, “Beyond Us”. Our vision is to help them take the focus off themselves and move it to Christ and others. We should consider God and others more important than ourselves. In addition, our vision is long term and may not be able to be realized until years down the road. Our goal is not to help the students have a short term change, but to have a change that lasts for the rest of their lives. Therefore, the expectation is to be able to look at these students 10 to 20 years later and see that they are still focused on Christ and how they can bring glory to Him.