The Significance of Values

Missionary organizations have many similarities, yet each has it’s own culture and priorities. This is not to say that one is better than another. Each has it’s place in God’s plan. However, it does mean that a few clear core values can distinguish a ministry. It is important to us that these core values are reduced to writing and frequently reviewed, discussed and refined. The Scriptures, for example, constantly bring God’s people back to the basics, including the priorities for loving God and loving our neighbors.

The more effectively a ministry articulates it’s core values, the sharper their focus will be. These should be few in number and succinctly stated. They should reflect both the reality of what one will find in the ministry, as well as the vision of what the ministry aspires to achieve in the future.

A Passion for God

We want to have faith in God. We want to be passionate about knowing, trusting, and glorifying Him in everything we do around the world. This will be reflected in our dependence upon prayer, our integrity, and our enthusiastic obedience of His Word. We want to be a ministry that is genuinely led by God.

Partnership with the Local Church

The church is the leading edge of the advance of God’s glory among all the peoples of the world. It is the most constant, continuous and powerful expression of God’s presence on earth. The church is at the center of what God is doing. It is not an appendage or in addition to God’s plan. It is the entity charged with the commission to declare God’s glory and bears direct and immediate responsibility to make God’s name great among the nations.

Therefore, EPIC works closely in partnership with the local church, both in the sending and resourcing process as well as in the fields of ministry. It is our desire to serve local churches in the United States with excellence as we facilitate their ministries in other parts of the world. And where there are national churches with a heart for the unreached, we work in partnership with them in the harvest.

Servant Leadership

We believe that the most effective work done among unreached peoples will be done by the local worker and not by missionaries from the outside. Therefore, we offer assistance to those who are called of God to reach their people and the other unreached groups. Our attitude is one of a servant who desires to be aligned in resourcing, training and equipping the workforce that God can use within their own cultures.

Unreached Peoples

We believe that our primary calling from God is to proclaim Christ among the unreached peoples – those groups remaining in the world who have the least opportunity to hear and understand the life-giving message of the Gospel. There are still thousands of ethno-linguistic groups who do not have their own churches. Our passion is to bring the first spark of light to these dark places.

Accountability

We believe that accountability is a Biblical principle and are eager to hold accountable every facet and person of our ministry. Thousands of dollars in funding is distributed worldwide and each recipient and ministry is held accountable to the purpose for which the funds were given. Field workers are accountable to an area coordinator who is accountable to the director who is accountable to the board who is accountable to you…and we are all accountable to God.

Visionary

We are aiming to significantly increase our efforts among unreached peoples in the coming years. As we seek God, strategize, and plan toward the goal of 100,000 new churches planted among unreached peoples, we are visionary in all that God can do. We have an undeniable determination to see Jesus glorified and exalted in every tongue, tribe and nation…to see God have a place of honor and adoration above every other god and pursuit.