VISION & VALUES

OUR VISION

KNOWING JESUS AND MAKING HIM KNOWN

We are a community of people on a discipleship journey as we seek to follow Jesus.
We are a community of people representing a diversity of backgrounds and cultures worshiping Jesus as we respond in faith to the gospel.
While we comprise people of all ages, we are a church family where ministry to children, youth, and their parents is an integral focus.
Because the gospel is transformative, we are growing in our love for Him, for His Word, for the spiritually lost and broken in our community and throughout the world by making this gospel known to others.
We are a church family that has an intentional and well defined discipleship path that equips people toward spiritual maturity.
We are a people responding to Christ’s call to surrender our lives to be His faithful witness living on mission wherever He places us.
We are a church that experiences a multiplication of ministry as lives are transformed one person at a time.

BY GOD’S GRACE, MAY THIS VISION BECOME REALITY.          

OUR CORE MINISTRY VALUES

We affirm much of our past core ministry values yet we seek to intentionally elevate and pursue some biblical values that have been lacking in our ministry.  Additionally, we recognize that there are many things that could be core values but realistically every church tends to focus on several core values rather than many.  In one instance in the following list of values, we have chosen to use the phrase “intimacy with God” because we believe it captures what our collective heart has been saying about worship, prayer, and our “being” as opposed to “doing.”  We submit what follows as our guiding core ministry values.

GOD’S WORD

The Bible is our authority for matters of faith and life and must remain central to our ministry focus.

INTIMACY WITH GOD

Through personal and corporate worship, prayer, confession, intercession, solitude with the Lord, we see an opportunity to grow in our understanding of what it means to “know Jesus” and “be” His disciple.

EVANGELISM

In order to “make Jesus known” we see a significant opportunity to elevate the value of evangelism and pursue personal and corporate growth in this area.

PEOPLE

We have valued people in the past and we must continue to make people our priority as opposed to programs.  Yet within this value, we see a specific focus on the next generation.  The reality of our immediate community on the Sumas Prairie and the fruit that the Lord has granted us from the very beginning of our history reminds us that we must invest in children, youth, and their parents.  This is the “one thing” that we must pursue well as opposed to dabbling in many other things.

COMPASSIONATE SERVICE

We have been a people who love to serve others and this has manifested itself in countless ways through our history.  Moving forward, we want to ensure that our service springs from a heart of compassion for people whom Jesus loves.  May the love of Jesus within us spill over to those we serve in His name.

DISCIPLESHIP

As mandated from Jesus in Matthew 28:18-20, we seek to be disciples who also make disciples and to do so with a much greater intentionality than in the past.

RISK-TAKING OBEDIENCE

Collectively, we humbly acknowledge that we have been a people of safety and security.  We have often been reticent to take kingdom risks.  We desire to be people who are willing to take big steps of faith and obedience as Jesus calls us from security in ourselves to security found in Him.

STATEMENT OF FAITH

As a Mennonite Brethren church, we hold to the Confession of Faith of the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.

Find out more by clicking HERE.

HISTORY

BEGINNINGS

Arnold Mennonite Brethren Church was established in 1943 when Mennonite immigrants settled in the area to begin farming land on Abbotsford’s Sumas Prairie.  The church thrived as the area continued to be settled.  Baptisms took place in Stewart Creek in Yarrow (pictured above) and weddings were community events.

Through the 1960’s and 1970’s  the community saw numbers decline as families moved away from farming and into the nearby cities.  A crucial meeting took place in 1990 where the remaining members determined that God still had a desire for a church body in Arnold and they decided to seek God for a new vision and purpose.

Rebirth and growth occurred in the 1990s and in the early 2000’s the church family sought God again as ministries were expanding and the existing building had reached its maximum capacity and life-span.  A building project was embarked on in 2007 where the congregation relocated for that season.  Since returning to the renovated building in September 2008, God has continued to expand and grow the ministries that happen under our roof as well as the lives of the people who call ACC ‘home’ as His people have desired to seek Him with their whole hearts.

TODAY

Arnold Community Church is 80 years young enjoying the dynamic and vibrant work of God’s Spirit among us!  Located in rural Abbotsford on the Sumas Prairie, our faith community has grown in diversity and developed a strong ministry to children, youth, and their families to the point where we touch the lives of nearly 400 people of all ages each week. Bible-centred preaching and teaching, contemporary worship, warm relationships, a strong sense of community, and a dynamic army of servants are at the heart of our ministry.

With our current vision statement of “Knowing Jesus and Making Him Known”, we anticipate that God will call us to bigger things, to sacrifice more and to see the people of our community and city brought into a transforming relationship with Himself.

AFFILIATION