What is Epic? - Epic Movement

Written by: Ginny Yan, Sheldon Chu, Christian K. Kim, Andrew Ondy Pagan And the Focus Fox of Focusing

Contrary to popular belief, EPIC is not an acronym. It does not stand for: Educated People In College, Ethnic People In Christ, Every Person Is Chinese (or Canadian…), or even EPIC People Inspired aCronyms.

In its simplest form, Epic Movement is a college campus ministry founded upon the ideal of reaching the world through Asian American students and faculty. SLO’s Epic Movement is not on its own, by far. A plethora of Epic Movements are located on many other campuses across the nation, stretching from the West to East Coast, serving the Asian-American population. Epic SLO is one of many fellowships that serves the two campuses of Cal Poly and Cuesta, along with its surrounding community.

As a body of Christ, Epic is founded upon a loving and constantly growing community characterized by the Gospel itself. By not only knowing the Gospel, but living it, we are thereby called to live missionally and love one another.

Epic’s community is best described by the following criterion:

We’re not just a social club.
We’re a community of people (many who are Christian, some who aren’t; many who come from Asian backgrounds, and many who don’t).
We want to build a community that passionately seeks after Jesus, and loves one another beyond human wisdom. – Brendon P.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” – Matthew 22: 37-39

As a movement, Epic seeks to foster the development of faith, serving to encourage personal walks with God for those who seek to continually develop themselves in Christ, as well as serving as a potential stepping stone to introduce Christ to those who would not normally find themselves in a typical church environment.

Our mission? Win, Build, and Send:

Win: Help to bring others to Jesus and activate those who have plateaued or become
lukewarm in their faith.
Build: Grow in knowledge of The Word, of God Himself, and to experience life change by His love
Send: Go back into our dorms, workplaces, classes, and the world to bring forth God’s radical love

It is often a probability that we are so consumed with the idea of bringing people to Epic that we lose sight of the “SEND” aspect of our ministry’s mission statement. Not “BRING”.

Epic is a ministry that we are blessed with; it is not a way to Heaven nor a way to Salvation. Attending Epic weekly meetings does not make us Christian.

God can indeed do many wonders through this ministry, but exponentially more potential can be unlocked through His use of us as individual members of our own respective communities. The people we find ourselves in contact with throughout our daily lives as students, our professors, our peers, our co-workers, our friends from home, our immediate family, and even our extended family are all part of our own communities. Communities that one has already been established in; communities whose outreach potential is nearly unlimited.

We are therefore called to move to people and not focus primarily on moving people to Epic. Doing so demonstrates the adage of “making our faiths our own” rather than relying on Epic as a pseudo-crutch to bring faith into the forefront.

It is faith that makes us Christian, and through that, we are given life through Christ. It is not our faith in Epic that makes us Christian, nor are we given life through Epic. It is this same faith that calls us, as brothers and sisters in Christ, to spread the Good News, to love God, and to love our neighbors.

So wherever you are, whether you’re a small or large group:

How would you describe your community? Are a social club just for Christians or Asian Americans? Or something else?

What is your mission? What does that look like on a daily or weekly basis?

What are you doing to win, build, and send? What are some steps you can take to grow in all these areas?

For more on Epic at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (SLO):