The Alaska Mission for Christ began in 1984. The following explains the process that led from the vision in 1984 to the present expansion of ministry.

Visioning a Model

Traditional models of ministry are not practical in most of Alaska's smaller communities. We knew in 1984 that Christian ministry would have to be accomplished without the physical on-site presence of a pastor. These communities are so scattered, with such large distances between them, that even the multiple-point parish model would not work.

We developed a new paradigm of ministry, a paradigm we call the frontier outpost. That paradigm is actually a revision of the mission outpost concept developed by Kennon L. Callahan. Since Alaska is often called ``The Last Frontier," we have changed Callahan's term, ``mission outpost," to ``frontier outpost." In this paradigm the church is less a castle to protect people from the world than it is an outpost in the last frontier to provide people with supplies and training for ministry where they live. In this paradigm the church actively goes out to recruit (or convert) people to Christianity and to train them for daily ministry.

The heart of this paradigm of ministry is lay ministry. It emphasizes that ministry occurs not just in formal religious settings but also in small groups and in the lives of individuals committed to Christ. Instead of clergy and laity in opposition to each other, each has a special place in this paradigm. Each is, first of all, the teacher of the other. Clergy can bring expertise in theology, and in Biblical understanding. Laity can explain the unchurched culture and the needs of their communities and ministry locations to the clergy. Together, forms of ministry can be developed which meet the needs of the church of this new paradigm. This is a cooperative ministry, not a hierarchical one.

The model ultimately visioned was one in which each ministry site was autonomous and unique. The AMC did not design one set of ministry materials and then try to transplant it into each community. Instead, it was decided to survey each community, identify their needs, and then develop a model to meet those needs. We felt, in order to do this, that a pastor with skills in needs identification and small group leadership would be essential. From that we developed the concept of the circuit rider, a pastor who could travel to a community, remain there for several weeks at a time, if needed, and do this survey and planning work. Once the needs were identified the circuit rider would then recruit, train, and support lay leaders from that, or another community. The mandate given the circuit rider was not to be the pastor to each ministry site but rather to be the recruiter, trainer, and supporter of lay-led ministry. Once ministry had been established in a given area, the circuit rider would move on to another, returning to the original site infrequently for support purposes.

Because residents of these communities are suspicious of outside groups coming in to do ministry and leaving again in a few months, we decided to use children's ministry as an avenue of getting into these communities. The plan was to gain the trust and respect of the adult members of the community through providing a meaningful ministry with the children. Our circuit rider thus would have a reception in those communities in which we had previously worked. An extensive program of children's ministries was planned to accomplish this.

The next step would be to connect the scattered ministry sites so they could pool resources and ideas. The form of this connectedness is through a large-area congregation, Denali Lutheran Church, made up of all ministry sites that wish to join.