How we started
Jay Gary and his wife,
Olgy, founded the AD2000 Global Service Office (AGSO) in 1989 as a
religious non-profit organization. Their mission: to help form new
enterprises aimed at renewing the world and the Church in the third
millennium. Their founding values: partnership, social
entrepreneurship and a Kingdom mindset.
While the organization grew out of the movement exemplified by
the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, Jay also wanted it
to focus beyond the year 2000 toward a larger, ongoing engagement
with contemporary culture. That is, in part, why he wrote The
Star of 2000---to point to the 2,000th anniversary
of the birth of Christ and what it could mean for the 21st century.
In the 1990s, Jay and Olgy also trained and consulted with churches
in the Middle East, and strongly sensed a calling to serve "the
underserved," in the tradition of the apostle Paul (Ephesians
3:7).
Then, in 2005, when Jay was an
adjunct professor in the midst of developing the Strategic
Foresight Program for Regent University, he re-connected with Rich Lotterhos,
whom he had met in the late '80s when serving as a consultant for
the Worldwide Student Network (WSN).
"I knew Rich's heart," Jay recalls. "I knew he was focused on
adaptive, not just traditional endeavors…We had a great deal of
common heritage."
Rich had been looking to expand his ministry as a life coach and
consultant for mission organizations and other NGOs
(Non-Governmental Organizations). "My thought at the time was
'serving leaders in mission,' especially in smaller mission
organizations."
After hearing Rich's vision for creating an organizational
"refuge" for Christian missionaries and ministers, Jay invited Rich
to join the ministry. They named their collaborative effort,
"Global Service Associates" (GSA).
As Rich clarified his own personal ministry, he became aware of
a larger need. "I began to realize that there was a…pressing need
to provide a place for experienced missionaries or church planters,
people who had been in ministry, to have the freedom to pursue what
they believed was God's vision and calling at that point in their
lives. And they didn't feel there was any particular place where
they had the freedom to do that."
In one sense, GSA is a new kind of
mission organization, because it focuses on helping to facilitate
the God-given calling of its members, rather than on accomplishing
a list of specific objectives, like most traditional mission
organizations and NGOs. In another sense, GSA is steeped in the
Christian tradition, because it is based on and governed by a "Rule
of Life" adapted by Jay Gary from venerable monastic orders, such
as the lay Franciscans. What ties all members, or associates, of
GSA together is their commitment to live according to the
Gospel.
"It went from, basically, Bruce and me, and I invited two
others, and before long they talked to a few others," Rich recalls.
"We didn't [actively] recruit anyone, but it just seemed that God
began to bring people into our lives…It wasn't that they were
disgruntled, it was just that they were wanting something greater
for their lives than where they found themselves to be."
"There were other organizations that provided financial
stewardship, but I didn't want us to just be that," Rich says.
"It's new wine in new wineskins...It's an organization that's flat.
It's not based upon authority. It's based on mutual
commitments."
As an order, GSA is committed to never owning property for its
own sake and to keeping costs as low as possible. While some
missionary organizations takes out 12 percent or more of every
donation to pay administrative costs, GSA allocates only about 5
percent.
"Our members don't work as staff of our organization," Rich
says. "They are actually shareholders in the future of the order.
They are more than employees. They are free to hire staff to
support their work, as funds are available. We don't have a
headquarters or a central office, because we want as much of a
donation as possible to go towards the member or the member's
project."
GSA associates are committed to financial
stewardship, mutual accountability, and becoming and remaining a
community of action. Some associates are bi-vocational. Others lead
several different ministries at the same time. Rich, for instance,
serves GSA as "general manager," but he also runs a Boulder, Colo.,
business, in addition to continuing his life coaching and ministry
consulting, and overseeing GSA's small and entirely part-time
administrative staff.
Rich says, "We have people that have the ability to see
broadly…and because of the breadth of their vision they have an
ability to connect different people to accomplish something."
For example, through Matt Booker's work with high-level leaders,
the U.S. Navy now provides 8,000 hard-working volunteers for a San
Diego-area school district. Through Ken Miller's attempts to facilitate
collaboration in Boulder, Colo., a medical respite for the homeless
is being created. Through Craig Johring's growing network in Mexico
City, interns are working to end human trafficking, young women are
being mentored in life and in the Scriptures, and partnerships
between evangelical groups, the Catholic Church and broadcasters
have been formed to broadcast the Jesus film on Mexican TV. The
list goes on and on. God willing, the list will continue to
grow.
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