Authored By John Hall, Executive Director, Missions Fest Vancouver
Missions Fest Vancouver has served the Christian community of Vancouver and the Fraser Valley for 34 years. What began as a small collaborative effort to put on a mission conference between a number of churches in the region, has now grown to be an organization that serves the church community all year long. In fact, we now run the largest annual Christian mission conference in North America. The motivation has remained the same through all these years. We desire to inspire people with the work of organizations who are making a difference in the world while, at the same time, sharing the importance of who Jesus is.
Central to the Christian faith is the command to love our neighbour as ourselves. Throughout the ages this command has given rise to the expression of our faith through social justice and evangelism. Specifically, we have all benefited from hospitals, social services, human rights, education, emancipation, and advances in arts and science which arise from the Christian understanding that each of us is created in God’s image.
One of the most amazing things about Missions Fest is that our conference is still a collaborative effort and is an amazing picture of unity among churches. To give you some sense of the scale of 
the conference, here are a few facts:
- It is held on the last weekend of January each year in the Vancouver Convention Centre.
- Throughout the weekend we welcome 10,000-15,000 attendees, with something for every age.
- General admission to the conference is free, underwritten by donations from Sponsoring Churches and individual donors.
- More than 250 Christian charities exhibit from different fields, denominations and ethnic backgrounds.
- On the Friday, we host a field trip for students from grade 4-12 with registration in excess of 1000 students, and Saturday’s youth rally is always packed out.
- We have more than 50 seminars, a Film Festival, Arts Café and plenary sessions throughout the weekend.
- The whole event is staffed by approximately 600 volunteers who come from all over Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley.
- Many of our volunteer coordinators have served in their positions for more than 20 years.
While our conference is the highlight of the year, we intentionally try to mirror the activities of the conference all year long. Our website has regular blog articles from churches and missional 
leaders that feature ways in which people are bringing hope and love to the world around them. We are always trying to add to the inventory in our online store so
that the public can benefit from the wisdom of our past conference speakers. Each year we collaborate with other organizations to develop one day seminars where we explore issues in more depth than is possible at the conference. We also promote collaboration between the local church and parachurch organizations, acting as a bridge linking those with similar vision and mission.
To give you a practical example of something amazing that came out of the synergy of churches working together, I want to point to the local response to the refugee crisis which the world started paying attention to in 2015. As the situation in Syria began to worsen, we had the privilege of partnering with three refugee service organizations to help churches mobilize and respond to the crisis. With our partners in place, we held an information seminar where approximately 200 people had a chance to find out how they could help bring refugees into the country, partner with existing organizations to support their efforts, or enhance the government services for refugees. This initial meeting gave rise to a number of spin-off meetings. By the time the conference came around in January, the hunger to help had not abated and every seminar that dealt with understanding our Muslim neighbours exceeded room capacity, eventually causing us to move the seminars into rooms which could hold double the original capacity. This was also the catalyst for our annual special project to focus upon care kits that will be distributed to refugee families overseas. While
churches are not the only organizations to privately sponsor refugees, we are pleased that so many did take up that challenge and continue to make a difference in the resettlement process of many refugees in Metro Vancouver.
We continue to work hard to identify missional issues that the Christian community can engage
with in Canada and around the world. This year our conference is tackling the subject of what justice is from a Christian perspective, and ways that we can live justly in a world that is unjust to so many. We’ll be touching on women’s issues, aboriginal reconciliation, sex slavery, the rights of migrant workers and more. If you’re in the Vancouver area between January 27th – 29th we welcome you to drop by the Vancouver Convention Centre to experience Missions Fest Vancouver first hand. You’ll be glad you came. For more information, visit missionsfestvancouver.ca.
This charity has been certified by the Canadian Council of Christian Charities. Charities that display our Seal of Accountability demonstrate ongoing compliance with high standards of financial and organizational integrity. To find out more about this charity or other Certified charities, visit giveconfidently.ca.
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