InterAct Ministries, Inc.

Summary

InterAct Ministries ("InterAct") activity is cross-cultural church planting through indigenous leadership development. Church planting has one main goal: to see local, culturally relevant evangelical churches established and led by indigenous leaders committed to further missionary outreach. It's an arduous task, and it requires special communication skills and a knowledge of the Word to convey the love of Christ within a different culture. "InterAct" ministers to largely unreached groups of people in Alaska, Canada, and Russia, whose backgrounds, languages and cultures isolate them from the rest of the world. Many have never heard the gospel in an understandable way, even though they may have churches all around them. InterAct’s church-planting missionaries share the gospel while living among these people, befriending them, and learning their culture (and language, if necessary). This organization is a nonprofit. Contributions to it are fully tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. It is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA).

Contact Information: [ Back to top ]

Organization Details [ Back to top ]

Purpose [ Back to top ]

InterAct Ministries ("InterAct") activity is cross-cultural church planting through indigenous leadership development. Church planting has one main goal: to see local, culturally relevant evangelical churches established and led by indigenous leaders committed to further missionary outreach. It's an arduous task, and it requires special communication skills and a knowledge of the Word to convey the love of Christ within a different culture.

InterAct ministers to largely unreached groups of people in Alaska, Canada, and Russia, whose backgrounds, languages and cultures isolate them from the rest of the world. Many have never heard the gospel in an understandable way, even though they may have churches all around them. InterAct’s church-planting missionaries share the gospel while living among these people, befriending them, and learning their culture (and language, if necessary).

Staff at The Resource Center (Alaska) and Native Bible Center (Canada) train native leaders using extension Bible education, correspondence courses and Area Bible Schools on location. Other missionaries serve as administrators, mechanics, secretaries, bookkeepers, pilots or in radio and video production. InterAct was founded in 1951 as a non-denominational mission agency of nearly 130 staff members supported by a large number of churches and individuals.

This organization is a nonprofit. Contributions to it are fully tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. It is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA).

Mission Statement [ Back to top ]

InterAct Ministries exists to glorify God by fulfilling the Great Commission among unreached people groups.

Program Accomplishments [ Back to top ]

Alaska
Alaska is a vast land of mountains, rivers and tundra. The native people--Eskimo, Indian and Aleut-- live in remote villages as well as in the cities. Most speak English, since the government has provided schools for many years. Today, InterAct staff serve in villages along the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers and in the urban areas of Anchorage, Fairbanks and Kodiak.

Canada
While many Indians still live in remote northern areas or reserves scattered across the country, nearly 70 percent have migrated to the cities. Traditional native religions are on the increase. InterAct staff serve among Canada's native people in the western four provinces (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba). InterAct also seeks to reach Muslim and Sikh immigrants. Nearly 170,000 Muslims and 200,000 Sikhs live in western Canada.

Russia
Russia, especially Siberia and the Russian Far East, is populated with native people who are very closely related culturally to the native people of Alaska. Many of these Russian people have a deep spiritual hunger after living in a moral vacuum for 70 years. InterAct's ministry has centered around the city of Yakutsk in central Siberia.

Statement of Faith [ Back to top ]

InterAct uses the following to express its statement of faith:

1. We believe the Bible is the verbally inspired Word, revelation of God, inerrant, infallible, and God-breathed. It shall be our guide in all matters of faith and conduct. (Psa. 19:7-11; II Tim. 3:16-17; II Peter 1:19-21; Matt. 5:18)
2. We believe in the triune Godhead, composed of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, coexistent, eternal, omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent. (Deut. 6:4; I Peter 1:2; John 1:1; Acts 5:3-4)
3. We believe in the deity of Jesus Christ, his virgin birth and sinless life, that he is God incarnate, very God of very God, for whom and by whom all things were created, and that he is the head of his body, the true church. (John 1:1-14; II Cor. 5:21; Col. 1:18)
4. We believe that man was created in the image of God. Man chose to sin and thus became totally lost and absolutely incapable of saving himself by his own works. Therefore, apart from Jesus Christ, all human beings incur physical, spiritual and everlasting death. (Gen. 1:26; Gen. 3; Isa. 64:6; Rom. 5:12,19; Eph. 2:1,8-9; Rom. 6:23)
5. We believe that because of the very nature of the gift of eternal life, because of the present intercessory ministry of Jesus Christ, and because of the sealing of the Holy Spirit, all true believers once saved, will be kept saved by the power of God forever. (John 5:24; 10:28; Rom. 8:29; Eph. 4:30; Heb. 7:25; Jude 24)
6. We believe that the true church is one body composed of all believers with Jesus Christ as the head. We further believe that baptism and the Lord’s Supper are scriptural ordinances and are to be observed by the church today. (Eph. 5:23; Acts 2:41; Matt. 28:19; 26:26-29; I Cor. 11:17-34)
7. We believe in the great Evangelistic Commission of the Lord Jesus Christ: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost.” (Matt. 28:16-20; Acts 1:8)
8. We believe in the personal, bodily, imminent, visible return of our Lord Jesus Christ to complete His work as Messiah and to judge all people. We believe in the bodily resurrection of believers and unbelievers. Those who accepted Christ as Lord and Savior will be with him in heaven forever, and those who have rejected him will be separated from him in the lake of fire forever. (I Thess. 4:13-18; I Cor. 15:50-59; Rev. 19:19-20; 20:1-6; Matt. 25:41)
9. We believe that Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit, was born of the virgin Mary, and was fully God and fully man. We believe in his sinless life, his miracles, his death for sin, his bodily resurrection, his ascension to the right hand of the Father, his ministry on behalf of true believers, and his personal return in power and glory. (Matt. 1:18; Luke 1:27; Phil. 2:5-7; Heb. 4:15; John 19:30; Matt. 28:6; Luke 24:6; Col. 3:1; Heb. 7:25; I Thess. 4:16-17; Rev. 19:11-16)
10. We believe that Christ died for our sins as a substitutionary sacrifice; and that all who receive him as personal Savior and Lord are declared righteous by faith on the basis of his shed blood. (Isa. 53:6; Heb. 10:14; Eph. 5:2; John 1:12; Rom. 19:9; Rom. 5:1,18-19; Eph. 1:7)
11. We believe in the power of the Holy Spirit to give unbelievers a new life in Christ. The Holy Spirit baptizes all believers into the Body of Christ and permanently indwells them at the time of salvation. The filling of the Spirit enables believers to live a godly life and empowers them for service. (Titus 3:5-6; I Cor. 12:13; 6:19-20; Eph. 5:18)
12. We believe in the personality and reality of Satan as well as his present and ultimate judgment. (Rev. 12:9,19; Matt. 4:2-11; Isa. 14:12-17; John 8:44; 16:11; Rev. 20:10)
13. We believe that all followers of the Lord Jesus Christ have eternal life and are expected to maintain good works. This involves separation from the sinful pleasures of the world system. (I John 2:15-17; Titus 2:1-15; John 10:27-29; Rom. 5:10; John 3:16)

History [ Back to top ]

1946-1950:
The stage is set: Church of the Open Door in Anchorage, Alaska hosts annual conferences for independent missionaries from Alaska's "bush." The need for a fellowship organization is born.

1951:
InterAct Ministries is begun as "Alaska Missions Inc." in Anchorage, Alaska. Sixteen missionaries become charter members.

1956:
Oops! Another organization shares that name! Name is changed to Arctic Missions.

1966:
We need a training facility! Arctic Bible Institute (ABI) opens in Alaska. Originally a resident Bible school, ABI now concentrates on extension training for church leaders in village and urban areas.

1967:
There are native people in Canada, too! Work among native people expands into British Columbia, and later into Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

1971:
Yep, that's right! We need to train native church leaders in Canada, as well. Native Institute of Canada opens (now called Native Bible Centre). Similarly begun as a resident school, it, too now trains through extension classes and courses.

1983:
Sensing the usefulness of new technology, InterAct begins using video to support church-planting and leadership training efforts.

1984:
There are "other" Indians, too! Work begins among Canada's East Indian immigrants.

1988:
With expansion into southern, less frigid regions, "Arctic" no longer describes us. Name is changed to InterAct Ministries.

1989:
With the melting of the "ice curtain" between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, InterAct begins researching the possibility of developing an outreach to the native people of Siberia.

1993:
InterAct signs a partnership agreement with Serve Ministries, an indigenous mission organization in northwest India, to assist in reaching India's lost. First resident InterAct missionaries arrive in Siberia.

1995:
InterAct's board declares northwest India an official field.

1996:
Aggressive research begins on Canada's Muslim population. Board approves work among this people group. Mission family numbers over 150, with growing ministries in four countries.

Ministry Needs [ Back to top ]

This organization has not offered MinistryWatch.com with specific needs to be posted on the profile. At such a time that MinistryWatch.com receives a response from the ministry, it will be posted immediately.

Research Analysis

Transparency Grade [ Back to top ]

MinistryWatch.com 5 Star Financial Efficiency Ratings [ Back to top ]

Ranking Category	Rating	Overall Rank	Foreign Missions Sector
Overall Efficiency Rating		89 of 348	18 of 54
Fund Acquisition Decision		89 of 348	18 of 54
Resource Allocation Decision		of 348	45 of 54
Asset Utilization Decision		of 348	45 of 54