The Rescue Ministries aspect of our church focuses on providing meaningful and genuine opportunities for people to share the Good News of Christ with the people of our community, our city, and our world.

Although I was raised in the church, like most of us I fell away from God. At an early age I started using and abusing drugs to the point that they consumed my life entirely. It was at that point that I met Christ in a powerful way. In that moment I knew that Christ’s love was real and the only thing I needed. Over the years I have learned that His love for me in my brokenness is something He shares for everyone and that His desire for my life is to share that Love with the broken and hurting people of our world.  

The Rescue Ministries Department is the Salvage Yard’s outreach department. Our focus is to use our gifts and passions to bring the Good News of Christ to a hurting and broken world. We serve as a network of the different existing outreaches as well as a jumping off point for new ideas for reaching our world for Christ.

Our focus is to bring the love of God and to be a people that are actively involved in bringing forth his kingdom. As a church we have been rooted in outreach from the beginning. We began as an outreach to the outcasts of our society and we believe that our call as a church is to continue in reaching out to our world.

I believe that God provides us opportunities to bring His Good News into our broken communities and my desire for our church is to be a people that acknowledge that and actively take part of that; not out of obligation, but stemming from an abundant love for Christ that compels them.

If anyone is interested in learning about the current outreach opportunities available in the city, or if you have ideas for new possibilities in the area of outreach, please contact me, Josh Iniquez.

Jesus came because we were lost and did not know how to get home...

The Salvage Yard is committed to making disciples (Matthew 28:18-20). We use three words to describe this process: rescue, restore, and release. The release aspect of our vision is something that has been a part of us from the beginning. We have promised to not only have an open hand on all of our people, but to actually encourage them to leave. From the beginning we have talked about being an Antioch church (Acts 13); we send out our best people. So...go.

Every week Pastor Mark closes our service by stating that you (the members and attendees) are the staff of the Salvage Yard. He releases us all to go and meet the needs of people in the name of Jesus. We truly believe that God has called us to be salt and light in our schools and at work, in our neighborhoods and at home, and in the various ministries at the Salvage Yard and other churches. So...go.

Not only do we believe that we are all called to be salt and light, we also want to be intentional about preparing and sending out individuals and teams. We send dozens of people every year to the New Age Festival, on tour with No Longer Music, and to many other short-term missions trips. We have one person (Sarah Allen) who is currently getting ready to leave the Salvage Yard and live in Sao Paulo to work with a ministry in the slums. Another team is planting a church on the West Bank in Minneapolis. So...go.

We are at the beginning stages of developing a process for releasing teams to start new churches and ministries in different areas of the city, state, and country. There are already opportunities for ministry in other parts of the world as well through Steiger, our parent organization. Steiger has a three month Radical Missions School in New Zealand to help give future Steiger missionaries the foundations for ministry. Please talk to Mark Johnson about your dreams and ideas for new ministries in new places. So...go.

“Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and morning. Rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.” Joel 2:12-13

A good friend in Seattle recently reminded me recently that our lives of continuous prayer are largely internal – an ongoing conversation with God. Most of our life in prayer is far from visible, and it can take on all kinds of forms: internal conversations, journaling, meditation on the Word, reciting liturgical prayers, speaking in tongues, or singing.

Hopefully, we choose daily to come before the Lord in prayer because we want our hearts to be moved by the things that move God’s heart. Or at least we want to want to. In return, He hears our cry and turns to us. When we choose to press in, He awakens our hearts with love and we can’t live the same way anymore. We push through the hard times because He is worth pursing violently.

Some people are gifted to serve, study the Word, or to evangelize. For others, prayer is what they were created for. The body of Christ does not truly look like Jesus without each one of us operating in our gifting. However, we are all called to be a people of prayer. If we are not, we run the risk of missing the heart of God entirely and ending up burnt out and frustrated or worse. Although praying corporately is not always comfortable or natural, we are drawn closer to one another for having experienced Him together. Fortunately for us, there are numerous ways to join together in prayer at the Salvage Yard.

How to be involved:

• 6:45pm Tuesdays – prayer in the side room before the service
• Prayer for individuals is also held after Tuesday night services on the stage steps.  Contact Jackie Liberto (612-481-7632) if you would like to be on the prayer team that prays for people on a monthly rotating basis.
  
• 1st Tuesdays – extended time of prayer following communion
• Prayparation quarterly (or so) evening of prayer
• All-church prayer chain – pray for emergency needs, informed by phone or e-mail (contact John Fournelle)

Overseer: Lorie Voshell
Now, before you get bored and skip over this article, let us just say “Thank you!” The support ministries exist to serve the SYC and we love the opportunity to put our skills to work for you, the congregation. We love helping you go and meet the needs of the Twin Cities by making the SYC a healthier and smoothly run body of believers. The SYC support ministries include: Communication , Finances , Facilities , and the Website .

Because we started out as punks, leadership has been a tricky issue for us over the years. I remember a retreat that we did where one person was quite upset that we even had to use the word leader. “Why do we have to have any leaders!?”

Well, leadership is a fact. There will always be leaders in any group even if we pretend there aren’t any. And as the years went on, we realized that many people have just been hurt by insecure and immature leaders. Or they have had a conflict that was not handled well. Or maybe they just did not get their own way. We also realized that in Scripture, God used leaders.

The Salvage Yard is committed to having healthy leadership. We understand that all of us have areas of insecurity and immaturity, and that conflict and offense are inevitable when there is more than one person in the room. We also are painfully aware of our own shortcomings. Leadership development is an area that we have identified as vital to accomplishing our vision of rescuing and restoring people for Jesus and releasing them into a life of ministry. We want our leaders to lead well by serving with love, integrity, and humility.

Leadership development deals primarily with the Elder Board and the Servant Leadership Team (two groups that help serve the organizational and spiritual needs of the church) and also individuals who hold responsibilities in the church. I am the one who heads up this area of ministry. I lead the elder board and, with the help of the other elders, I lead the Servant Leadership Team. I also spend much time individually with different leaders within the church. Leadership development has been pretty informal, but will become more intentional and focused as this year progresses.

-Mark Johnson