Our Mission, Vision, and Values
Our Mission
To Invite, Integrate, and Send Asian Americans to reach the world for Christ
INVITE: We invite Asian American students and communities to come and see who Jesus is and his mission given to each of us. (Luke 14:15-24, Isaiah 55:1-2)
INTEGRATE: We integrate our faith in every area of our lives, helping each other grow, multiply and build on God’s faith in us.
SEND: We develop mission-minded followers of Christ, who are surrendered to God’s calling wherever he may lead them in the world.
Our Vision
Asian Americans proclaiming and demonstrating the Good News of Jesus, bringing his hope and honor to the world.
Asian Americans
Epic Movement is a ministry that exists to bring the gospel to the world through Asian American students and communities in ways that honor people and contexts. Being an “Asian American” movement doesn’t mean that everyone in our movements is Asian American; rather, Epic embraces diverse Asian American cultural expressions as they manifest in relationships, identity formation, leadership and ministry. Epic values intercultural relationships and collaboration, and our desire is to help all involved to embrace their identity as we work together. We believe that developing leaders who can do this will result in the most God-honoring, transformative and fruitful kind of mission.
We hold in tension that the beauty in God’s creation of over 40 unique communities has been collapsed into one term, “Asian Americans.” We acknowledge the limits of language and the cultural erasure that is inherent in current terminology. Epic’s vision is not only for East Asian Americans, it is also for Southeast Asian Americans, South Asians, Pacific Islanders and anyone who is drawn to our community. Our relationships with one another are interdependent and should be characterized by mutuality and solidarity, with our diverse heritages as an expression of God’s multifaceted wisdom.
Proclaiming and demonstrating the Good News of Jesus
Throughout the gospels, we see how Jesus offered the Good News through his words (announcing the kingdom of God) and performing visible signs of this kingdom (John 14:11). His mission included proclaiming the Kingdom of God and demonstrating the Good News through social actions: healing the sick, feeding the hungry, standing up for justice, and proving his authority over creation through miracles.
We envision Asian American students and communities whose lives have been transformed, who are growing in their relationship with Jesus Christ, embracing the value of their culture and joining in faithful proclamation and demonstration of God’s Kingdom. We are mobilizing movements of Asian Americans who are coming together, fully surrendered, actively engaged in God’s work on earth, fulfilling the great commandment and the great commission.
Bringing His hope and honor to the world
While we were created to experience the honor and delight of living at peace with God, ourselves, others and creation, the entrance of sin in the world brought disconnection, dishonor and hopelessness. Through Christ’s ministry on Earth, he brought hope to the downtrodden and honor to the marginalized and dishonored. We believe that as Asian Americans experience the beauty and honor of their cultural identity intersecting the redemption found in Christ, they will become carriers of that hope and honor to others.
In a larger culture that pathologizes and dishonors the Imago Dei of Asian Americans and other communities, the Epic Movement is often experienced as a place of rest and a home for students living through the stresses that come from living liminal lives. We who have suffered dishonor have a unique ability to embody and offer to others the hope and honor of Jesus.
Our Values
Faith, Growth, Fruitfulness & Restoring Honor
FAITH
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. …And without faith it is impossible to please [God] …” (Hebrews 11:1,6, English Standard Version).
To join in Christ’s mission on Earth is to believe that life is more than what we can see. In working toward reconciled relationships with God, ourselves, others and creation, we will undoubtedly go through periods where we wonder if anything is happening. In these times, we aim to trust that God’s work is bigger than ourselves. Faith is needed not just to “do,” but to “be.” Jesus invited us to abide in him moment-by-moment “… for apart from Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5, ESV) We realize our need for him in every aspect of life and ministry. We depend on his Spirit, consent to his leadings, abide in him and seek to remain in wholehearted devotion. Jesus said we would do greater things through the Spirit who lives in us; therefore, we seek to be spirit-filled. We trust his Spirit amid adversity, and seek his guidance to engage, love, and be like Christ to others. We are led by his spirit as we trust the Lord to do the work of the ministry, and as we go and share the Gospel to locations local and abroad. We are organized and ultimately led by the Spirit.
GROWTH
“Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ” (Colossians 1:28, ESV).
We are committed to the maturity of the people God has entrusted to us. This challenges us to develop multiplying leaders who care for people and who are committed to life-long learning. We focus our efforts on discipleship — both in ourselves and in others — pursuing character change over the completion of a spiritual checklist. Not only do we care for individual growth, but we also care for our collective growth and the peace and flourishing of our communities. We make disciples of Christ from integrity of heart and skillfulness of hands (Psalm 78:72), guiding emotional maturity and ministry competence while learning to empower other leaders. We value practices that lead us to humility in becoming who God wants us to be (Colossians 1:28-29). Collectively, we seek to grow in the grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ (II Peter 3:18).
FRUITFULNESS
“… Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he is that bears much fruit … but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide …” (John 15:5,16, ESV).
Jesus assured us that we will bear fruit, and also warned us that we would know a tree by the fruit it bears. Because the Lord has entrusted so much to us, we strive to be good stewards, and we make a careful examination of the fruit we bear. We look for fruit in personal transformation and kingdom-transformation as we participate in God’s mission to restore relationships and communities. We trust that God will bring people to Christ, to be changed into Christ’s likeness, to take his message to the world so that individuals, families and communities are transformed (Romans 12:1-2). Fruitfulness drives us to focus not on our activity, but on what is being born in our community as we abide in Christ and live out his mission.
RESTORING HONOR
“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness… “ (Genesis 1:27, ESV).
Each person is an image-bearer of God and we value each person and each communities’ unique identity and story. Believing that we bear God’s image (Imago Dei) leads us to live out and teach discipleship that integrates faith, culture and mission. Ignorance or the dishonoring of our own stories and the stories of others can keep us from living in integrity with God’s will for our lives. We acknowledge that all are made in the image of God, and have intrinsic worth and value.
Epic seeks to honor, connect, lead and love others in the way of Christ as the One who restores honor. As we are all called to minister and serve, we will practice having a cultural consciousness that will be modeled after the ways in which Jesus related to all people groups. The practice of seeing the story that God has written in the lives of individuals and communities will help us to discern and participate in his active mission of restoring honor. As Epic seeks to invite people of every tribe, tongue and nation to encounter this beautiful restoring God, we will seek to honor and value the image bearer in each person and in all communities.