By Lloyd Mackey

A MAJOR mission awareness initiative developed two years ago by one Kelowna church, has now become a shared activity involving a yet-to-be-determined number of congregations.

Extending six days, from April 27 to May 2, this year’s MissionsNow will kick off with Billy Graham youth/mission specialist David Nasser.

The event will wrap with motivational missions speaker and sometime U.S. presidential advisor Tony Campolo.

Campolo, a sociologist associated with Eastern University in Philadelphia, is well known in Canada for his advocacy of evangelical Christian social development, through his sermons and speeches at World Vision and Missions Fest events.

Iranian-born Nasser fled that country at age nine with his family, just weeks before the revolution of 1979.  He became a Christian at age 18 – and eventually emerged as an outstanding ‘gen X’ speaker, addressing some 700,000 people a year.

Laurence East, Glocal (Global + Local) missions pastor at Willow Park Church, under whose leadership MN was originally developed, says it is “exciting . . .  that ‘the church’ of Kelowna is standing up in unity to proclaim that we desire to see our city, region and world reached with the message of Jesus Christ, and we are going to do it together.”

Asked if the project is patterned after Missions Fest  events occurring in such cities as Vancouver and Toronto, East confirms that they consulted with the Vancouver Fest leaders on the subject.

“But this is a radical departure from MissionsFest,” he says.

He notes that MN is a range of individual church-inspired activities during the designated week, “bookended” by the Nasser and Campolo events. Those will be held respectively in the largest venues available, Trinity Baptist and Evangel churches.

“We want to see the week refocus on what we are already doing as churches,” East says. “In churches and other venues all over the city, events will be held to challenge Christ-followers to step out of their comfort zones and to engage with their world, serving and loving others – being the hands and feet of Christ.”

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Prayer, worship and teaching events will be an integral part of the week’s activities. Further, missionsnowkelowna.com will provide a master calendar for all the events set up, both jointly and by individual churches.

In that way, says East, “people from various congregations can visit events at other churches, which may appeal to their particular interests.”

The April 27 opening night Nasser session at Trinity will be followed later in the evening by a worship concert featuring Starfield, Shane & Shane and Bethany Dillon.

Beginning at 6 pm May 2, and continuing after the 7 pm Campolo appearance, will be a ‘Marketplace’ in the foyer of Evangel Church, where mission and ministry organizations will set up exhibits.

The mid-week activities will include:

• A youth event on April 30, with social activist and UN Peace Prize winner Angelina Atyam, at Willow Park Church.

• A May 1 banquet hosted by International Justice Mission, featuring Canadian executive director Jamie McIntosh.

Details about these events and the backgrounds of the speakers will be on the website. Notes East: “We must continually challenge ourselves to look again at ‘being church’ rather than simply ‘doing church.’ On the surface, the church does so much, is involved in so many aspects of life and there are many opportunities to serve, both in Kelowna and beyond.”

MN media contact Louisa Wiebe says the churches signing on to “this strategic missional initiative,” as of press time, included Trinity Baptist, Willow Park, Evangel, Mission Creek Alliance, Kelowna Christian Centre, New Life, Kelowna Gospel Fellowship and First Mennonite. Others will be posted on the website as they opt in.

KCC, which has produced a one-church missions conference for several years, continued that tradition with its own event in early March – but agreed to throw in with MN, as well.

Wiebe says lay leaders from each of the participating churches have been meeting every two weeks for prayer, planning and networking.

East says MN costs will be covered in various ways: budget contributions from participating churches, a $2 entrance charge for the Campolo event and exhibit rentals for the Marketplace.

In their promotional material, the MN leaders express the hope that “this is the start of an annual effort to strategically put aside one week of the year, to rally people and focus on the missional call to reach out to the world.”

April 2008