Our Mission
The short version of our mission is that Novo Canada supports, empowers, and equips missionary communities in Canada to be catalysts for disciple-making movements (Gospel Movements), here and around the world.
We believe that every follower of Jesus is called to participate in his mission. If you feel like you’d like to join a group of people who are passionate about seeing the world transformed by the love and power of Christ, then reach out to us. Our main qualifications for team members are obedience to Jesus and fruitfulness. Send us an email at info@novocanada.org
WHAT ARE GOSPEL MOVEMENTS?
A movement is a sociological phenomenon, which, in its most basic form, is a group of people working together to passionately advance their shared commitments.
More specifically, the movements to which we are committed happen when the good news of Jesus and the power of his Kingdom spreads contagiously through a network of social relationships whereby many people become committed followers of Jesus and groups of these disciples rapidly multiply. Such movements have the potential to radically impact whole towns, cities, and nations.
Gospel movements—regardless of culture, place, or era—have five essential components, all of which are necessary for a movement to reach its full potential.
ACTIVATING PRAYER
While prayer pervades every aspect of a movement, it is critical in laying the foundation and creating the conditions for a movement to launch and thrive. “Activating prayer” is a specific type of prayer and is movemental in nature. It operates comfortably in the supernatural, expecting signs and wonders, dealing with the demonic, and knowing how to appropriate the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit. It includes spiritual mapping, prayer walking, strategic prayer, and is often declaratory. It harnesses the spiritual authority God has delegated to us and exercises the power of blessing.
ENGAGING CULTURE
Engaging culture means wisely undertaking an array of cultivating activities and actions—all of intrinsic Kingdom value in and of themselves—which serve as powerful “bridges of God” into the cultural context for the good news of Jesus to take root and spread. Such engagement means meeting the felt needs of people in the name and power of Jesus. It means discerning where the Spirit of God is uniquely active, people are receptive, and responding appropriately. For movements to occur, cultural engagement must be fully integrated with the gospel in power through activating prayer, and must lead to and connect with the gospel in word as people become fully committed and obedient disciples of Jesus.
MAKING DISCIPLES
Every gospel movement has, at its core, effective tools and processes to help people far from God become committed followers of Jesus and then make disciples of others. Such multiplication is at the heart of our understanding of discipleship and spiritual growth.
While the history of the Church contains many evangelism and discipleship models, we favor a highly effective “discovery process” which does not rely on experts, is organic, and is easily reproduced regardless of setting or culture.
GROWING LEADERS
Unless leaders are developed intentionally, from within a gospel movement itself, the movement will inevitably collapse under the weight of its own success. Such movement leaders will exhibit a wide array of gifting, all of which are necessary to guide and build ministry momentum that will go far beyond themselves. It is imperative that these leaders know how to identify new leaders and how to appropriately coach, mentor, and launch them into ministry.
FORMING CHURCHES
History shows that for every successful gospel movement, there are two essential structures of the Church that work synergistically and in partnership: the missionary and the local. Apostolic mission structures, like Novo, are always somewhere in the mix. And healthy local church expressions—not institutions—also emerge and multiply to steward the fruit of the movement. It is always “both and…,” not one or the other. In the disciple-making processes used by Novo, the functions of a healthy church are coded into the values and structure from the beginning. Novo also implements a range of tools to help new or established church expressions thrive missionally.
