Ministry Strategy

Beginnings

The seeds of a vision for Josiah Venture were first sown in Germany in 1989 among a group of American youth pastors who were ministering on U.S. military bases in western Europe. The sweeping changes that followed the removal of the Berlin Wall that year opened new doors of ministry to central and eastern Europe as the region became accessible for summer missions projects. Those youth pastors brought teams of youth to Hungary, and then to Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Yugoslavia.

In spite of forty years of communist oppression, they found an unexpected openness to the gospel. A new generation of young people was hungry for truth and anxious to chart a new course. Soon it became obvious that more than short-term work was necessary. In 1992, three couples made initial 10-year commitments to help local churches in central and eastern Europe reach young people for Christ.

By June 1993, the couples entered into strategic partnerships with Sonlife Ministries and International Teams. Sonlife gave permission to adapt their training materials to the needs of central and eastern Europeans, and International Teams provided the organizational infrastructure necessary to support the work. The partnership took on the name “Josiah Venture” in honor of the godly Jewish king in 2 Chronicles whose devotion to the Word of God brought revival to an entire nation while he was still in his teens.

In November of that year, the first two Josiah Venture couples moved into Czech and Poland and began learning the language and training youth leaders. By the fall of 2001, the work had outgrown the original structure, and the leadership recognized the need to open the way for expanded growth. In January of 2002, Josiah Venture was launched as its own mission organization, with administrative offices in Wheaton, Illinois. Today, Josiah Venture has grown with over 350 staff members in 16 countries across Central and Eastern Europe.

today

Josiah Venture has grown from three couples in 1993 to over 350 staff members today.

Our staff, over half of which are nationals, are located in 16 countries in Central and Eastern Europe, along with support teams in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Thousands of young leaders are trained each year by our staff, and through those young leaders hundreds of new believers are entering the local church as a result of evangelistic and discipleship efforts.

Our Missionaries

How does a movement of God gain momentum?

God’s own breath gives life and energy to his church, and we believe that he has begun to move in a special way in Central and Eastern Europe. We know from the book of Acts that the church grows through faithful disciples, as those who have been reached go on to reach others.

In the gospels, we see this process of disciple-making modeled in the way Christ challenged his followers to move from their initial positions of unbelief to a point of spiritual maturity and fruitfulness. The disciple making process can be summed up in five basic challenges from the ministry of Christ: “Come and see” EXPOSE, “repent and believe” EVANGELIZE, “follow me” BUILD, “I will make you fishers of men” EQUIP, and “I am sending you” SEND.

Our Strategy

Our goal in Josiah Venture is to walk young people through this process of disciple-making, challenging them to take the next step in the journey from unbelief to spiritual maturity. Our strategy for training young leaders is based on the life and ministry of Jesus and his disciples.

Christ’s commitment to “become flesh and live among us” is a great inspiration to us. We believe that an incarnational ministry style, with its emphasis on relationships and an understanding of the local setting, is essential if ministry is to bear long-term fruit. In addition, we desire to be multiplicational, ultimately impacting entire nations for Christ.

Style of Ministry

Incarnational

John 1:14, 1 Thessalonians 2:8

We become students of local youth ministry before we teach it.
We apply ourselves to mastering the language and culture.
We identify with a local body of believers and work through the national church.
We develop ministry models that maximize the local culture.
We rely on the power of God in our lives and the channels of friendship.

Style of Ministry

Multiplicational

2 Timothy 2:22

We strategize to affect an entire nation.
We model in order to multiply.
We codify key concepts to make them easily transferable.
We commit to developing key leaders.
We work to leave a self-directed and self-sustaining movement, a group of nationals who are multiplying a passion for Great Commission ministries within the local church.

Organizational

Structure

In order to give maximum ownership to emerging national organizations in Central and Eastern Europe, Josiah Venture is structured as a partnership. Ownership is not top-down from North America, but shared by each of the countries as a joint effort. The Josiah Venture Council, formed of two key leaders from each country, gives strategic direction to the work and is accountable to the JV Not-for-Profit (NFP) Board of Directors. The partner organizations from each of our countries are joined by a common vision and a mutual covenant.

Programs

Each of the Josiah Venture teams uses a wide variety of programs to advance a movement of God in their region.

The JV team has created two discipleship programs, Elements & Turbo 316, designed for small group use, which teach new believers how to be rooted and built up in their faith as they follow Christ.

This is a strategic need in Central and Eastern Europe since evangelical believers number less than one half of one percent in most of the countries of the region. Within JV, we have created outreach English, music, and sports camps and Exit 316 to serve as evangelistic tools to reach the next generation.

Within Josiah Venture, we have created a care team. It exists to provide care, support, and resources for the entire JV team.

Practical resources in the form of Bible studies and web development tools for ministry are developed to support young leaders as they serve in their local contexts.

Truth is more often caught rather than taught. Since our goal is to equip leaders to make disciples, training occurs life-on-life, in the context of experience and long-term relationships. Jesus modeled this in a holistic way. Because Jesus equipped his core team, JV makes discipleship a focal point in the context of model ministries and intensive internships.

Doctrinal Statement

JV Statement of Faith

We believe that the Holy Scriptures, both the Old and the New Testaments, are fully inspired by the Holy Spirit, without error in the original manuscripts, infallible, and the final authority in all matters of faith and practice.

We believe in one God, Creator of all things, eternally existing in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We believe that man was created in the image of God, but through Adam’s sin became alienated from God, acquired a sin nature, and came under the judicial sentence of death. As a consequence, man is lost, unable to save himself from the wrath of God, and needs to be saved.

We believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, born of a virgin, sinless and perfect, the only Savior. We believe that he carried our sins in his body on the cross, rose from the dead, ascended to heaven, and is now at the right hand of God, mediating for us. We believe in the personal and physical return of Christ in power and glory.

We believe that salvation is a gift of God, sovereignly offered by grace to those who repent and place their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; and that all who truly believe in him are eternally saved on the basis of his shed blood.

We believe in God the Holy Spirit who indwells all believers to convict, enlighten, sanctify, empower, and guide them in life and service.

We believe that the true Church is composed of persons who, through saving faith in Jesus Christ, have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit and are united together in the body of Christ, of which he is head.

We believe in the bodily resurrection of both the saved and the lost; they that are saved unto eternal life with God, and they that are lost unto eternal punishment separated from God.

We believe that Christ commanded the church to make disciples of all peoples, by going into all the world, baptizing people in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that Christ commanded.