vheraldTo the Ark and beyond,It is with great joy that I see the story of Jesus Christ spread through our community and beyond through the first ever Ark Newsletter. The goal of this letter is to inform all who are interested in what the Spirit of God has been doing amongst us and through us here at the Ark and to share the vision that God has put in our hearts for the future.

We have prayed and labored for His glory, and this, in a way, is a bringing together of the spoils of battle. We have seen Him do amazing things in this past season, and it is our hope that as we testify of His over-the-top goodness that it will serve as the living word of God to the reader, sparking hope and faith. “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy”, so as your read on please do so knowing that the best of what we have experienced is available to all who will receive Him and to those who grab hold of the truth that He really is just that amazingly good! The blessing accessible for all who believe is beyond comprehension and we press on to experience all that Jesus paid for us in it’s fullness.

To Him be the glory and honor and praise!

Ryan LongfieldSr. Pastor, Ark Ministries

worship ministry

The Ark has had some pretty awesome times of worship. But in all the reality of heaven, we have not arrived to the fullness of what God intends for our time together. We are just dipping our little toe in the vast ocean of him.

The vision for the Worship

The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy

(Revelation 19:10)

Ministry is to hawve the most musically excellent, anointed, and creative worship in the Bay Area. This is our starting line :-).

Imagine our meetings to having such an impact in the spiritual realm, that when we worship there are breakouts of healings

and God encounters all over our city! The Lord has put it on my heart to see our worship ministry become fully developed in training capable and confident leaders, and in significantly shifting spiritual atmospheres wherever we lift up our voices in praise.

by Lynn Honglynn@arkministries.org

One of our goals in achieving that vision is a training program for worship leaders, musicians, and vocalists. I’m particularly excited about this because I want to see more people encouraged and equipped to pursue their heart’s desire to lead worship in the church. From the outside it can seem like a worship leader was born to lead overnight, but the reality is that no one ever gets authority by climbing the mountain with one big step. It takes a series of small, but faithful steps.

pastor’s note:In addition, we also want to train our musicians to be amazing. We’re making the music room at the Ark fully functional for

ark college group

ACG 2011: Going Organic

Hey y’all, ACG is on the MOVE.

Now we enter into the 2nd semester of being an official college ministry this year and we’re pumped about what the Lord has put on our hearts for this season! Our target this semester is Organic Community. Simply put, we want to experience community as a culture that extends beyond a weekly gathering. A culture marked by INTERDEPENDENCE & FUN! One of the main things we got set in motion currently is the plan to see the 1st floor of the Ark House thrive as a hub for fun and fellowship! Whether it’d be

jam sessions in the music room, a Smash Brothers tournament in the Rec room, movie nights on the wide screen, a semester-long “stARKbucks” study hall, doing quiet time in the upper room, or enjoying homemade meals in the kitchen, our aim in this season is to deepen our relationships with one another. We believe that the Lord is building a tight knit family within our group in order to take us to that next level of moving together as an army. In addition to the Ark House initiatives, we’re also in the planning stages for some fun outings and field trips! Did somebody say first ever ACG Retreat?! GET ITTT.

We’re also excited for the

launching of our new topical series in our Thursday night gatherings! Building on the momentum from fall 2010 - where we experienced a fresh hunger for prayer and an awakening to the love of God for this campus - this semester we’ll be going deeper into specific topics and themes for our spiritual growth such as Purity and Living in Supernatural Reality. We’re going to encounter God and get equipped! Moreover, another recent development for our Thursday nights is the building of our 1st generation ACG worship team! Wahoo!

COMMUNITY starts NOW! And it don’t stop.

by Isaac Kimisaac@arkministries.org

practices (hence the new vdrum set!) and invite anyone who wants to practice to utilize the music room! Come over and jam Arkers!

We are a group of young adults committed to seeing and being heaven on earth in the city of Berkeley and beyond through our everyday lives. Whether we are at the bar, open mics, the grocery store or BART, we are called to love and be available to the Holy Spirit through power evangelism, the prophetic and intercession. Our heart is to see salvations and healings break forth through us in the city and to see everyone integrated into the family of God.

Dreams to Reality: Prayers AnsweredSalvations: Thus far, God has revealed His loving presence to 2 new believers through people in our community! One of them wants to be baptized soon and attended a dinner hang-out in the Fall. Another person who attended the dinner hang-out said he wanted to come to church for the first time in years after hanging out with us. THANK YOU JESUS. We are trusting Him for our family to grow this Winter.

Healings:One significant deliverance took place this Fall for a friend of a person in our house church. She was thinking suicidal thoughts and was paralyzed with fear. She couldn’t be alone without seeing dark images and hearing scary voices. Through a counseling session with one of the head pastors, Vera Speed and the support of a person in our house church, this friend left

us literally dancing, singing ‘Im free!’ and said ‘I haven’t felt joy in so long!’ We are all believing in Jesus to lead us into all kinds (emotional, physical, spiritual) of healings this Winter.

Overcome fear and celebrate BIGGG mistakes: Each person in our community has taken action to be bold and audacious in their faith. People have chosen to rekindle their love and practice for writing, dj-ing, speaking and music-creating. In

addition, people are being more authentic and wild in obedience and love for Jesus and being more explicit with non-Christians about God. We are asking God for complete victory over timidity and grace to be ourselves uninhibitedly as He created us.

Community-building: We ended the Fall with every attendee at In and Out, committing to being a part of the community. This is a huge first step. In addition, people shared a personal dream and prayer for this next year, speaking

vulnerably about their desires. As a leadership team, we realized we needed stronger relationships outside of our weekly meetings, so we started having ‘fun time’ once a month together and have begun weekly prayer partners. We are asking for more depth of trust and love in our group.

Intimacy with Jesus: Worship and prayer to Jesus have maintained our number one priority. Collectively, Jesus spoke a lot to us during

worship and prayer times about his SUPREMACY, his WORTHINESS, and his incomparable LOVE; his POWER to SAVE and DELIVER all of us, the FATHER’S HEART for EVERYONE, and the EMPTINESS of the world, a life lived for the self or to please others. We have met Him consistently through soaking, journaling, prophesy, musical worship, and prayer. This winter, we ask that we would keep the first commandment first, and abide in his presence more than ever collectively.

young adult house church - in n out

by Christina Hiselchristina@arkministries.org

Whether we are at the bar, open mics, the grocery store, or BART, we are called to love and be available to the Holy Spirit through the prophetic and intercession.

God has been speaking to me lately about the power of video and film. I’m currently in talks with Jason King and Kerwin Kuniyoshi about doing several video projects, from putting together an Ark Vision video to

Remember when our house church had that lame name and everyone made fun of us? Well here (hopefully) is our redemption: we are now called The Treehouse!Let me explain why. The term comes from one of Pastor Dennis’ sermons about taking ownership. He likened the world to a treehouse that our Father God made for us and told us to take care of. If by some chance we were struggling to make things work he, like a good earthly father, would come by and help us along but his heart was for his children to assume responsibility.

Our house church has gone through a lot this year. I ain’t gunna lie; we were struggling somewhat in the beginning and had to constantly have our Father come and save us from our own pessimism and lack of enthusiasm. But God, being the faithful God that he is, consistently met us and in doing so, taught us how to be better stewards. After some major restructuring, things are finally falling into right

order. My biggest prayer for our house church this season was for God to instill ownership in all of us, because with ownership individuals have the chance to color the community with their own unique giftings. We wanted a house church that truly represented and served its members well. As we continue on, we hope to see even more leaders rise up from our members and pursue their own vision for our house church.

Currently we are working on expanding our gift of prophecy and learning how to use it to better love each other, our communities, and our workplaces. And, while we

young adult house church - the treehouse

by Lana Choilana@arkministries.org

learn to better hear the voice of the Lord, we are practicing practical ways of stepping out in faith. This year we’ve had the privilege of introducing prophecy to Christians who never had previous exposure to it, only to find they are incredibly prophetic! We also had the opportunity to step out on a treasure hunt, prophesying

over complete strangers! This was done with such faith and boldness from our members that I couldn’t help but feel honored serving with such an amazing group of people. I’m so excited to see what ways God will be stretching and challenging us as we continue to mature into our destinies!

creating films to proclaim many of the truths the Lord has shared with us. I believe the Lord has called us to seriously expand our influence in this season and video promises to be one of the main avenues of that expansion.

video

by Dennis Coledennis@arkministries.org

This section is stuff that the Lord has given us the vision and leadership for and is currently in the works! We’re excited for everything God has in store for us!

In the works:

“One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in his temple.” Psalm 27:4

Jesus, our Lord and Lover, desires that we be with him where he is, and that we behold his glory forever. As a smitten bride, and an unconditionally loved child, our response is to fulfill the desire of the one we love.

We are overflowing with excitement as we partner with Holy Spirit to establish a dedicated and consecrated place where we all can come to fulfill this desire of his and ours. This place is going to be a temple of worship, meditation, thanksgiving, prayer, and ministry unto our beautiful Lover and God. It is going to be a place of abiding in God’s love, and beholding his glorious face. This temple will be saturated and overflowing with the love, presence, power, and glory of our awesome God.

Please, keep us in prayer as we are just starting to build the foundations of this temple.

The Lord told me that if you don’t have authority in an area you’ll do your best to just fit in. But when you have authority, you can create something to fit you perfectly. I feel this applies to many areas of life, but specifically to business. Many of us at the Ark have struggled with the reality of living in a world with bills while having the desire to use our time to minister or pursue other not-as-financially profitable dreams. I feel convicted that we as a church are to gain an entrepreneurship anointing, to create profitable businesses that bless the world by providing needed products, creating jobs, and empowering visions with systems to make them financially viable.

This past semester I’ve been working with several members and formulating ideas for possible business ventures and we’re looking for 2011 to be the year we launch our first business.

On January 16th, some of the young adult women gathered for a “Date with Mama (Vera)” to fellowship, love, and pray for one another. What has been birthed since, is a group of women who are committed to fight, stand, and run with one another. As a whole, we were able to confess the need for sisters, comrades and RAW friends who can work out REAL issues together in a safe and loving space.

There is such a unique and powerful CALL that God has put inside of women. As God fights for us to become healed, restored, and whole, we must also acknowledge that there’s a kingdom that is warring to see us wounded, broken, and all together deficient. We are envisioning a women’s group that will be vulnerable enough to expose the works of the enemy and see VICTORY as we invite God and one another into our struggles.

I’m SO EXCITED to see a unified bride that is filled with confidence and tenacious joy. A bride who is FREE to run as fast as they can, and to jump as high as they want. I invite you to pray for our women’s group (for it is still in the making) and share in the abundant fruit, as Jesus renews our minds, souls, and spirits!

entrepreneurship

by Dennis Coledennis@arkministries.org

house of prayer

by Joseph Kimjoseph@arkministries.org

women’s ministry

by Grace Kimgrace@arkministries.org

For a long time now, God has put our meeting place on my heart. We have had a few different locations (one that we have called home and another that has been good to us) but nothing that I feel is reflective of and fully beneficial to what God is doing in us. While I am extremely grateful to Pastor Ben Robinson for his godly hospitality and generosity to us, I greatly desire a place of our own in Berkeley. God has called us to this city and our passion is in this city! The people we are reaching are primarily in this city and the move of God that we are laboring for will prayfully spread forth from this city.

My vision... a venue right in the heart of south-side Berkeley on or just off of Telegraph. When I walk in I see a space for two to three hundred people minimum. At first we could enjoy this large space by having some unorthodox seating: couches throughout the room, cafe style table and chairs, and the like. But, as the lost are brought in and we grow aggressively, we would soon need to change to folding chairs for additional capacity. We won’t mind this change because we are seeing broken lives transformed and we welcome all into our family. I see a stage with the very best worship and sound

equipment. The sound quality would be off the hook. We could maybe even house a studio in one of the side or back room for our teams to record Ark Worship albums and for our musicians to lay down original tracks and more full support their dreams in music. There would be plenty of room to dance in front of the stage of course. I can already see us, hands lifted and voices loud,

worshiping the Lord side by side. Behind the stage is a big, empty, rugged cross. To the side of the cross is a large screen for lyrics and to project our Ark produced videos. Our video team would have a great place to stage there creativity before sending them virally around the world over the Internet. These videos would be cut and edited in the small video room in the back filled with top of the line equipment and computer software. On one side of the main room I see offices for the staff to do work and for mid-week counseling sessions to be held. I see an inner healing ministry birthed for people to be set free from fear and shame. People would come from around

the Bay and beyond to receive freedom from our anointed, prophetic teams. I see a large room dedicated to an Ark House of Prayer creating a resting place for the King right in the heart of Berkeley. The HoP wouldn’t be limited to Arkers though, it would be a coming together of the saints of our city and beyond. It would serve as a unifying place for young people to meet with the

Lord. Often, day and night prayers would go up to Him in worship, adoration, and petition for the hurting and broken. I see awesome decor, with murals on the walls from

the Ark artists and maybe even some from our city who don’t even know Him! They would be welcomed to contribute to creating a house for the Lord even before they recognize Him for all that He is. I see mid-week trainings going on for the building up of the Body and feasts set forth for the hungry! I see a whole lot beyond this, but I will stop here.

Lord, I ask that You would provide the path for a building in the heart of our city. I pray for strategy and finances. I pray for open doors and miracles. I pray for the endurance to pursue the things that you have put on our hearts. Amen.

venue

by Ryan Longfieldryan@arkministries.org

I can already see us, hands lifted and voices

loud, worshiping the Lord side by side.

for more information, please visit arkministries.org