Reading: House to House: Appendix B DOVE International’s Vision, Mission, and Values

Appendix B

DOVE International's

Vision, Mission, and Values

OVE International is an international apostolic family of churches and ministries from six continents of the world. We share common vision, mission, values, goals, and a commitment to plant and nurture churches and ministries throughout the nations.

As DOVE International, we are called to build the Church from house to house, city to city, and nation to nation through small groups.

This apostolic movement has a God-given authority and responsibility to serve, train, equip, release, and protect the people, ministries, and churches throughout the movement and advance the Kingdom of God.

DOVE is an acronym that states, "Declaring Our Victory Emmanuel.” We are called as an international family to declare our victory in Emmanuel (God with us).

For more about DOVE International, visit www.dcfi.org

 

DOVE International Vision, Mission, and Values

Our Vision

To build a relationship with Jesus, with one another, and to reach the world from house to house, city to city, nation to nation.

 

Our Mission--Prayer, Evangelism, and Discipleship

Our mission is to exalt Jesus Christ as Lord, obey His Word and to encourage and equip each believer for the work of ministry. This mission will essentially be accomplished by the threefold mandate God has given us: prayer, evangelism, and discipleship.

 

Prayer

In prayer we worship God; we bring our needs and the needs of the world to Him; and we allow the Holy Spirit to transform us, to empower us and to reveal to us His specific strategies for fulfilling the Great Commission.

 

Evangelism

Through evangelism we seek to make known the glory of God and the name of Christ through verbal proclamation, publishing, the arts, acts of compassion and service, both to our own neighbors and cities, and also by going to the peoples of the world in cross-cultural mission. We desire to see children, youth, and adults come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, the unevangelized hear the Good News, and churches planted in all nations.

 

Discipleship

Engaging in discipleship, we build relationships with and care for one another, training each other in godliness and good works, so that we would all be mature disciples engaged in the threefold mission of prayer, evangelism, and discipleship. Discipleship thus becomes ongoing, as those who have been trained in turn train and disciple others.

We engage in this mission in humility, with dependence on God, and in cooperation with all brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ, working for unity in all that we do.

 

Our Values

All values and guiding principles for the DOVE International family must be rooted in the scriptures (2 Tim. 3:16-17, 2 Tim. 2:15).

DOVE is an acronym: Declaring Our Victory Emmanuel (God with us).

 

1. Knowing God the Father through His Son Jesus Christ and living by His Word is the foundation of life.

We believe that the basis of the Christian faith is to know God through repentance for sin, receiving Jesus Christ as Lord, building an intimate relationship with Him, and being conformed into His image. God has declared us righteous through faith in Jesus Christ (John 1:12, John 17:3, Rom. 8:29, 2 Cor. 5:21).

 

2. It is essential for every believer to be baptized with the Holy Spirit and be completely dependent on Him.

We recognize that we desperately need the person, the presence and power of the Holy Spirit to minister effectively to our generation. Changed lives are not the product of men's wisdom, but in the demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit as modeled in the New Testament church (1 Cor. 2:2-5, John 15:5). We believe it is essential for every believer to be baptized with the Holy Spirit and to pursue spiritual gifts (2 Cor. 13:14, John 4:23-24).

All decisions need to be made by listening to the Holy Spirit as we make prayer a priority and learn to be worshipers. Worship helps us focus on the Lord and allows us to more clearly hear His voice.

We recognize that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against demonic forces. Jesus Christ is our Lord, our savior, our healer and our deliverer (Eph. 6:12, 1 John 3:8).

 

3. The Great Commission will be completed through prayer, evangelism, discipleship, and church planting.

We are committed to helping fulfill the Great Commission through prayer and fasting, evangelism, discipleship, and church planting locally, nationally, and internationally reaching both Jew and Gentile (Matt. 28:19-20, Matt. 6:5-18, Acts 1:8).

We are called to support others who are called as co-laborers, as churches are planted throughout the world. The Great Commission is fulfilled through tearing down spiritual strongholds of darkness and church planting (1 Cor. 3:6-9, Matt. 11:12, 2 Cor. 10:3-4, Acts 14:21-23).

We are also called to proclaim the gospel through the arts, publications and the media and will continue to believe God to raise up other resources and ministries to assist us in building the church (1 Cor. 9:19-22).

 

4. We deeply value the sacred covenant of marriage and the importance of training our children to know Christ.

It is our belief that marriage is between one man and one woman. Both marriage and family are instituted by God, and healthy, stable families are essential for the church to be effective in fulfilling its mission. Parents are called by God to walk in the character of Christ and to train their children in the nurture and loving discipline of the Lord Christ (Mark 10:6-8, Eph. 5:22-6:4).

The Lord is calling His people to walk in the fear of the Lord and in a biblical standard of holiness and purity. Marriage covenants are ordained by God and need to be honored and kept. We uphold the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman. (Prov. 16:6, Mark 10:9, 1 Thess. 4:3-8, 1 Cor. 6:18-20).

 

5. We are committed to spiritual families, spiritual parenting and intergenerational connections.

Believing that our God is turning the hearts of the fathers and mothers to the sons and daughters in our day, we are committed to spiritual parenting on every level of church and ministry life (Mal. 4:5-6, 1 Cor. 4:15-17).

Participation in a small group is a fundamental commitment to the DOVE family. The small group is a group of believers and/or families who are committed to one another and to reach others for Christ. We believe the Lord desires to raise up spiritual families in many levels including small groups, congregations, apostolic movements and the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 12:18, Eph. 4:16).

We believe each spiritual family needs to share common values, vision, goals, and a commitment to build together, with the need to receive ongoing training in these areas (Ps. 133, 2 Pet. 1:12-13, 2 Tim. 2:2).

We are committed to reaching, training and releasing young people as co-laborers for the harvest, as the young and the old labor together (Acts 2:17, Jer. 31:13).

 

6. Spiritual multiplication and reproduction must extend to every sphere of kingdom life and ministry.

Multiplication is expected and encouraged in every sphere of church life. Small groups should multiply into new small groups and churches should multiply into new churches. Church planting must be a long term goal of every congregation (Acts 9:31, Mark 4:20).

The DOVE family of churches will be made up of many new regional families of churches as apostolic fathers and mothers are released in the nations of the world (Acts 11:19-30, Acts 13-15).

7. Relationships are essential in building God's kingdom.

Serving others and building trust and relationships is a desired experience in every area of church life. We believe the best place to begin to serve and experience trust and relationship is in the small group (Acts 2:42-47, Eph. 4:16, Gal. 5:13).

We are joined together primarily by God-given family relationships, not by organization, hierarchy, or bureaucracy (1 Peter 2:5).

 

8. Every Christian is both a priest and a minister.

According to the scriptures, every Christian is a priest who needs to hear from the Lord personally (Rev. 1:5-6).

Every believer is called of God to minister to others and needs to be equipped for this work with the home as a center for ministry. Fivefold ministers are the Lord's gifts to His church. He uses fivefold persons to help equip each believer to become an effective minister in order to build up the body of Christ (1 Pet. 4:9, Eph. 4:11-12).

We need to be constantly handing the work of ministry over to those we are serving so they can fulfill their call from the Lord (Titus 1:5, 1 Tim 4:12-14).

 

9. A servant's heart is necessary for every leader to empower others.

We believe every sphere of leadership needs to include a clear servant-leader called by God and a team who is called to walk together. The leader has the anointing and responsibility to discern the mind of the Lord that is expressed through the leadership team ( 2 Cor. 10:13-16, Num. 27:16, 1 Peter 5:1-4).

Leaders are called to listen to what the Lord is saying through those whom they serve as they model servant-leadership. They are called to walk in humility and integrity, in the fruit of the Spirit, and in the fear of the Lord (Acts 6:2-6, Acts 15, Matt. 20:26, Gal. 5:22-23).

We believe God raises up both apostolic overseers and partner church elders to direct, protect, correct and discipline the church. These leaders must model the biblical qualifications for leadership (Acts 15, Acts 6:1-4, 1 Tim. 3, Titus 1).

Those with other spiritual gifts including administrative gifts (ministry of helps) need to be released to fulfill the Lord's vision on each level of church life (1 Cor. 12).

In every area of church life we believe we need to submit to those who rule over us in the Lord and esteem them highly in love for their work's sake (Heb. 13:17, 1 Thess. 5:12-13).

 

10. Biblical prosperity, generosity and integrity are essential to kingdom expansion.

Biblical prosperity is God's plan to help fulfill the Great Commission. The principle of the tithe is part of God's plan to honor and provide substance for those He has placed over us in spiritual authority. Those who are over us in the Lord are responsible for the proper distribution of the tithe and offerings (3 John 2, Matt. 23:23, Heb. 7:4-7, Mal. 3:8-11, Acts 11:29-30).

We believe in generously giving offerings to support individuals, churches and ministries both inside and outside of the DOVE family. We encourage individuals, small groups, congregations and ministries to support fivefold ministers and missionaries in both prayer and finances (2 Cor. 8:1-7, Gal. 6:6, Phil. 4:15-17).

We believe that every area of ministry and church life needs to be responsible financially and accountable to those giving them oversight in order to maintain a high standard of integrity. Spiritual leaders receiving a salary from the church are discouraged from setting their own salary level (Gal. 6:5, Rom. 15:14, 1 Thess. 5:22, 2 Cor. 8:20-21).

 

11. The gospel compels us to send missionaries to the unreached and help those least able to meet their own needs.

Jesus instructs us to take the gospel to the ends of the earth to those who have never heard. Our mission is to reach the unreached areas of the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ by sending trained missionaries and through church planting. Together we join with the body of Christ to reach the unreached (Matt. 24:14, Acts 1:8, Acts 13:1-4, 2  Cor. 10:15-16).

We are also called to help the poor and needy, those in prison, orphans and widows. This includes our reaching out to the poor locally, nationally and internationally. When we help the poor, both materially and spiritually, we are lending to the Lord (Deut. 14:28, 29, Deut. 26: 10-12, Matt. 25:31-46, James 1:27, Prov. 19:17).

 

12. We are called to build the kingdom together with the entire body of Christ.

Our focus is on the kingdom of God, recognizing our small group, our local church, and DOVE International is just one small part of God's kingdom. We are called to link together with other groups in the body of Christ and pursue unity in His church as we reach the world together (Matt. 6:33, Eph. 4:1-6, John 17, Ps. 133).

We wish to see God's kingdom come not just in and through the church, but in all areas of life. Therefore, we are called to minister in the church, the family, government, the arts, education, business and the media, so that all such spheres come under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and reflect the values of His kingdom. (Matt. 6:10)

We believe in utilizing and sharing the resources of people and materials the Lord has blessed us with. This includes the fivefold ministry, missions, leadership training, and other resources the Lord has entrusted to us (1 Cor. 12, Acts 2:44-45).

Our unifying focus is on Christ, His Word and the Great Commission, and we believe we should not be distracted by minor differences (Romans 14:5).

We subscribe to the Lausanne Covenant as our basic statement of faith and Christian values. The scriptures serve as a light to guide us; the Lausanne Covenant, and these values and guiding principles unite us as partner churches (Matt. 28:19-20, Amos 3:3, 1 Cor. 1:10, 1 Cor. 15:10).