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Mission, vision and values

The Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches currently numbers around 243 churches coast to coast. (Use the Find a Church feature on this site to see where they are.) For our conference to function as a whole, we have developed the following mission and vision statements, named our strategic goals, and outlined our values.

• Our mission statement
• Our vision statement
• Our strategic services and goals
• What are our values as a conference?

Our mission statement

Healthy, growing churches reaching their worlds.

By this we mean that each church has a “world” or sphere of impact within which to share the good news of God’s kingdom. This sphere is primarily local, but it also includes sharing in another culture or country. The conference exists to help each church achieve that potential.

Our vision statement

Our vision is to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ through the development of godly character in every member and the mindset of multiplication in every congregation.

• We see members (including adherents) being faithful to their Christ-calling of radical discipleship.
• We see a prayer movement for non-believing friends being the foundation of our commitment to reaching out with the gospel.
• We see members actively leading their non-believing friends to Christ, and mentoring them into discipleship.
• We see healthy congregations being faithful to their kingdom calling as biblically functioning communities, growing in faithfulness and character.
• We see congregations developing healthy leaders from within, able to establish various kinds of church reproduction.
• We see congregations regularly reproducing through new initiatives, including church plants.
• We see congregations birthing daughter churches and coaching them to reproduce when they are ready.

We envision building a multiplication movement: multiplying disciples, multiplying leaders, and multiplying churches.

Our strategic services and goals

We have six strategic services and goals which help us move towards our vision. These are carried out for churches under the guidance of David Wiebe (executive director), Cam Rowland (director of church health and communications), Ewald Unruh (director of leadership development and Evangelism Canada), and John Wiebe (chief financial officer) and their staff.

1. Board of Faith and Life – David Wiebe
   Mandate: Upholding biblical and ethical integrity

   Guide the conference in matters of faith, doctrine, and the Christian life, giving leadership through the clear teaching of our Confession of Faith.

2. Church Health – Ewald Unruh
   Mandate: Equipping churches

   Focus resources (people, programs, finances) to facilitate pastoral and church health and effectiveness.

3. Developing Leaders – Ewald Unruh
   Mandate: Leadership development

   Create an environment where leaders are intentionally discerned, developed, and empowered to lead in new and established ministries.

4. Multiplying Churches – Ewald Unruh
   Mandate: Reaching out

   Develop and implement a strategy to cultivate a multiplication mindset in our churches and ministries.

   Move church planting efforts from primarily denominationally driven programs towards church-based multiplication initiatives.

5. Communications – Cam Rowland
   Mandate: Fostering community

   Focus communication efforts and events towards mission, leadership, confession of faith, and ethnic inclusion.

   Rethink our communication strategy so that conference churches sense a greater connection to each other, the larger body of churches across Canada, and the worldwide Mennonite Brethren fellowship.

6. Financial Ministries – John Wiebe
   Mandate: Mobilizing financial ministries

   Support the ministries of the conference and provide vital financial services to our churches and conference staff.

This diagram demonstrates how our six strategic services function together in targeting our mission. The arrow consists of the services of equipping churches (EC), developing leaders (DL) and reaching out (RO). Guiding the arrow are the services of upholding biblical and ethical integrity (UBEI), fostering community (FC) and mobilizing financial resources (MFM).

What are our values as a conference?

We are a believers church: we emphasize personal salvation and discipleship for each of our members.

We are a biblical movement: we encourage study and knowledge of the Bible.

We value covenant community: we stress the importance of individuals belonging to a local church, and belonging together as a conference for mutual accountability and “spurring each other on to love and good deeds.”

We are a missionary church: we emphasize sharing the good news of God’s kingdom in local and global settings.

We value peace and reconciliation: we emphasize our need to be peacemakers in all levels of relationship.

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