Values & Vision
Our Mission
"Loving God...Loving People"
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” - Matthew 22:37-39
Our Vision
"That everyone who calls the AVC their church home would be serious about God."
"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it." (Luke 9:23-24)
Our Values
Bible Study and Prayer
We consider the bible the final authority of all matters regarding faith and conduct. We recognize the importance of studying and knowing the Word of God and applying it to our daily lives for spiritual guidance and directions. We also want to be people of prayer, offering God our thanksgiving, petition and intercession. Spending time studying the Word, learning more about God, and in prayer ahe scripture and applying it to our daily lives for spiritual guidance and direction. Spending time reading and studying the bible is an extremely important part of maturing in our faith.
Worship
Our desire is that our personal and corporate worship would be an intimate and passionate time of meeting with our Father and that our daily lives would reflect the heart of God. We want to be people characterized by a lifestyle of worship and not just focus on a worship event (ie Sunday mornings).
Being actively outward-focused
A big part of who we are is an outward focused church. We are not about buildings or having big programs. We want everyone in our church to invest in the lives of people both here in Abbotsford and beyond. Missions and Outreach are a high priority and we encourage everyone to engage in the outreach efforts in our city (Free!Style, Food Bank, Prison Ministry, etc.) as well as our missions to Mexico, Haiti and Oliver and other areas as the Lord leads when possible. We feel a renewed call to stand for mercy and justice and want to live our Isaiah 58 both in our personal lives and as a church body.
Generosity
We want to be people who are generous with our time, gifts, resources and finances. Our giving should be sacrificial. As Proverbs 3:9 in the Message translation says ..."Honor God with everything you own; give Him the first and the best."
Authentic community
We want our church to be a safe, yet challenging environment. We pray that everyone would have relationships that support, encourage, mentor, disciple and provide accountability for one another. We highly values families and smaller relational groups where these things can happen most effectively.
Walking in the Gifts of the Holy Spirit
We believe that God is still very involved in our lives today and that He is speaking to us (the prophetic), healing, and
working other miracles in us and through us. So while God doesn’t always choose to heal, we pray for healing, and while he doesn’t always work the
miracles we ask for, we continue to ask and take the risks we feelHe is leading us to take, knowing that God can work in us and through us more
powerfully than we can imagine.