Mission, Vision and Values

We define mission as a work of God through Christ, a work we are invited into, to redeem and reconcile all creation to God and bring flourishing, fullness and peace to the earth.

A world transformed by the power of Christ at work through His people in every sphere of society.

Missions Fest Vancouver (with Mission Central) is a catalyst to help people become mature missional disciples of Jesus. 

We do this by connecting people, virtually and face-to-face. These encounters are directed to mentoring, knowledge sharing and partnership development, so that the good news of Jesus is proclaimed and the spiritual and physical needs in communities, locally and abroad, are met.

As a non-profit Christian organization we desire that all that we do be Christ centered.  We believe that “’mission by us’ in Christ is a continuation of ‘mission by Christ’ in the Father.”[1] Thus through the Spirit we are enlivened to, by word and deed, minister compassion, justice and forgiveness and to disciple others in a journey towards Christlikeness.  Essential to this ministry is the truth that our usefulness in the “expansion” of mission (width) is dependent on “the extent to which” we live “into the depth of the triune communion of love by the Spirit.”[2]

The implication of this is that while our predominate interest is in activities that support the accomplishment of the ‘Great Commission’ we need to be diligent to actively acknowledge God’s mission in the broadest possible sense of bringing his shalom to all of creation.  Our goal, as Ross Hastings notes is that “the telos (end) of Christian mission is thus human beings becoming humans fully alive.  However this equally asserts the ecclesial nature of the new humanity.  God’s mission was to be carried out by the church – the church as a signal of the new humanity, the church as the sign and servant of the kingdom of God, for the re-creation of the cosmos.”[3] Because the church is central to mission our goal is to make the church a key partner in Mission Central & Missions Fest Vancouver, the key beneficiary of the work that we do. We need to reflect the interest of the local church in mission and meet needs relationally and through partnership.

1Hastings, Ross; Missional God, Missional Church, p249, p272, p31

Mission Central & Missions Fest Vancouver believes that the mandate for mission rests on the people of God who make up the church. The church as an organism needs to be engaged through relationship and partnership, not just programs and structure.  If we, at Mission Fest Vancouver, exist to be a reflection of the local churches’ interest in mission then we need to be advocates for relationship and partnership between the local church, communities and agencies. A conscious decision needs to be made to avoid promotion of a consumeristic relationship between attendees and agencies. We need to be advocates of a servant posture with agencies so that when they engage the church of Vancouver that they come to listen to the stirrings that the Holy Spirit has placed in the heart of the church as much as we (attendees) come to hear about what God is doing in the world.