What's APT?

Today Gary will be interviewing Rod on a topic that describes how the Church and CityLife work together in apartments. The Church has been the teaching ground to live holy, to live humbly and to be hungry for the Word of God. The Church is also a sending church. This conversation will talk about the Church getting outside the proverbial four walls and work with CityLife to pray, care and share Jesus with employees and residents. 

Listeners will hear how important it is to fill the Gospel gap that exists in apartments and how churches partner with CityLife to do extraordinary things for God. 

There were 9 nonprofits, 3 businesses, 30+ volunteers from 6+ churches that came together to serve, love and make friends in an apartment complex that desperately needs transformation. 

Rod and Gary will talk about a Saturday event called Opportunity Day that CityLife did in partnership with a local attorney who loves and feels called to Haynes Garden Apartments, a HUD housing community, in Nashville. This event will help listeners to know why and how to partner with several nonprofits, businesses and churches to meet the needs of an entire apartment complex. Listeners will hear the stories of how this all came together with the manager of the apartment leading and contributing to the event. 

This is a sequel to Episode 15 "The Ministry of Networking." Rod and Gary go deeper into the purpose of networking as well as what the blessings and fruit of networking. Listeners will hear how networking accomplishes great things for Kingdom work in the context of apartment ministry. Rod and Gary will also answer the question of where networkers and disciple-makers go fishing for people resources. Finally, listeners will gain some great insights on how networking is the foundation for multiplication of making disciples who make disciples. 

If you would like to make a huge impact on an apartment community, then this episode is for you. We will talk about a specific access ministry called The Angel Tree Project that we did twice at the same apartment that is ninety percent Hispanic. We will go in detail on how this incredible experience was put in our laps and how God used it for His Kingdom work to begin transforming this apartment into a community. 

Rod and Gary will also talk about the "why" which is the most important part of this episode. We don't just serve...we serve with purpose. The Angel Tree Project was a monumental event that brought several churches together to take care of nine-one kids at Christmas time. 

One of the most important tools for making and multiplying disciple-makers is Discovery Bible Study. It's simple 8 question inductive format is being used all over the world to help people discover the God of the Bible in all languages and cultures. We have covered a lot about Discovery Bible Study in Episodes 4 and 5 however today's episode is focused on how to select the right scripture sets for any challenge, need or issue in life. The DBS questions don't change but the selecting the right scripture sets are even more important to learn how to obey God's Word so that His will is being done through our lifestyle of obedience. Listen in as Rod asks great questions to stir the conversation with Gary that will be helpful to you as a facilitator of DBS. 

This is part 2 of a short series on how disciplemakers change the world. This episode is a discussion on how to get started as a practitioner and multiplier of disciples. Rod and Gary go back and forth with prodding questions and stirring conversations about Experiencing God and how that study has affected believers to become disciplemakers. 

Rod and Gary talk about what it means to be a disciplemaker and the Biblical mandate to multiply. This is a two-part series with this episode focused on how and why disciplemakers are actually world changers. This is a great conversation for individuals, churches and faith-based nonprofits to get a fresh look at the Great Commission and our obedience to Jesus' final command. This will encourage current disciplemakers to retool to become disciplemakers who multiply disciplemakers as well. 

This episode is a robust conversation about how important and effective prayer walks are for the apartments we serve. Prayer walks are strategically necessary as we start CityLife in an apartment but also how prayer sustains the ministry. We've said it before but it's worth saying again...."Prayer is the work!!!"

The last part of the episode is dedicated to "trash talking." You'll see how this cheesy idea is becoming one of our most significant access ministries in serving and praying for an apartment. Apartment managers love it! The apartment management technicians love it even more. 

We are flipping the roles of Rod and Gary on this episode. Gary interviews Rod this time to talk about how and why we work with apartment management instead of knocking on doors to share the Gospel. We discovered four years ago that CityLife's ministry model fits into the apartment industry business model of retention. CityLife, in effect, becomes a partner with apartment management to help them build community. 

This is a very important session to help other individuals, ministries and nonprofits see how our commitment to apartment management is easily reproducible and sustainable because it's built on long-term relationships and their need for help in building a healthy apartment community.

You will hear Rod and Gary talk about how CityLife uses access ministries in apartments they serve. CityLife has used several ministries and events to gain access to residents as we work with apartment management. You will hear some of those access ministries and the stories that resulted in serving with purpose. 

Access is about entry into a community to whom we are strangers.  Appropriate access is about entering this new community without adding additional barriers to being a stranger. The point of access is to meet people, to demonstrate a spiritual life that draws the Person of Peace and do so in such a way that no one is put off.  The precursors of all this activity are prayer and planning.