One of the questions I'm often asked has to do with the name of our ministry. What does FAST stand for? Is it an acronym? Is there some meaning behind it?

The answer is actually a surprisingly long story.

To save time, I usually go with the short version: we're simply helping people "hold FAST" to the Bible (I Thessalonians 5:21Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.). If they seem especially interested, I might add we also want to help believers "stand FAST" in the faith (I Corinthians 16:13Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.), and then "work FAST" in ministering to others (Ezra 5:8Be it known unto the king, that we went into the province of Judea, to the house of the great God, which is builded with great stones, and timber is laid in the walls, and this work goeth fast on, and prospereth in their hands.). These three things lay at the core of our ministry. They are foundational. We're unswervingly committed to helping believers take in, live out, and pass on the Word of God.



But there's more to the story. There actually is an acronym...

The Hidden Meaning

Initially, when we launched our ministry, we developed an acronym to describe the character qualities a disciple would need to grow FAST and baked it right into our first training program: Basic Training. Later, we developed a list of attributes to describe what would SLOW a person's spiritual growth.

But rather than simply telling people what the FAST acronym stood for, I'd tell them, with a bit of a smile, that they would have to go through Basic Training to find out! My motivation, of course, was not to be cryptic--but to use their curiosity to motivate them to seek out FAST training.

But the mystery around our ministry name created an unintended side-effect. People started trying to guess what FAST stood for and came up with acronyms of their own!

One couple wrote to tell me that so many people were enjoying a closer walk with Christ, they had come up with their own acronym: Finding A Savior Today. I loved it.

Another time, a student came up to me and said: "I figured out what FAST stands for!" So I invited him to tell me: "You guys are always talking about personal application, it must mean Faithfully Applying Spiritual Truth". It wasn't right, but it was another good one.

Once at a pastor's retreat, a pastor came up and told me how he used to run week long "FAST's" in his church. But it wasn't from food, it was a challenge to "Forsake All Secular Thoughts". He would urge the entire congregation to give up one week of media to focus their thoughts on God. That seemed to fit too!

And the suggestions continued to come in over the years:

Fervently Asking for Spiritual Treasures
Focused on Accomplishing Specific Tasks
Forward Advancing Support Teams
Freely Announcing Salvation Together

One of our early leaders latched on to our vision to equip an army of workers through the power of the Bible, and came up with one of my all-time favorites: The Final Army's Scripture Training. It described our mission as perfectly as anything I could come up with!

And then I remember praying myself one time about our mission, and another acronym flashed into my mind completely unbidden: Finishing A Sacred Task. That was our goal, after all, wasn't it? To see the work of God finished on planet earth, so we could go home at last?

The Problem Compounds

The more we told people they would have to go through our training to find out what FAST stood for, the more acronyms people seemed to come up with. And they were all pretty amazing. Any one of them could have worked! The problem was, it became impossible to pick just one!

So we decided to adopt them all...

Now when people ask what FAST stands for, I have to give them a different answer. Yes, the short answer is still the same: we're all about helping people hold FAST to the Bible. And to stand FAST. And work FAST. Nothing has changed about our commitment to helping believers take in, live out, and pass on the Word of God.



But for the long answer, rather than saying they have to go through Basic Training to discover the meaning of our name, I now have to explain there's quite a story behind it. The story I've briefly recounted here in this memo! That there's not just one acronym behind FAST any more, but lots of them.

Oh, and that original acronym? Back when we first launched our ministry, all those years ago? It's still there in Basic Training. And yes, if you want to know what that is, you still have to go through the class! :)

Comments

Quite a story isn't it? What does FAST mean to you? Which acronym do you think best describes what our ministry means to you? And why did you pick that one? Share a thought in the comments below.

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