Hillside Church is proud to be a part of the Foursquare Gospel Church of Canada.
The mission of the Foursquare church stands on the firm foundation of the Great Commission given by Jesus to his disciples in Matthew 28. The goal is not just to make converts, but to make disciples who not only believe but live by the truths that Jesus is our Saviour, Healer, Baptizer with the Holy Spirit, and Soon-coming King.
The vision is of an expanding network of churches because new church plants have proven very effective in introducing people to Jesus and spreading his gospel. These churches need to be healthy because a healthy church is the best environment for a disciple’s growth. The pastors in the vision “serve” and “lead by example” because servant leadership is what Jesus taught and the lives of our leaders speak louder than their words. The believers in the vision are actively growing because being a follower of Jesus is a journey, not a destination. We seek to grow in our knowledge and likeness of him. Believers share their faith because they have captured the heart of Jesus for the lost and use their own stories to introduce people to him.
We value being interdenominational in spirit because we accept true believers of all denominations as a part of God’s family. We don’t compete with other churches, we cooperate with them when it is helpful and celebrate their victories as members of the same team.
We value being inclusive in leadership because we believe that God calls men and women, the young and the old, and people from every race to lead his church. As it says in Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
We value being dependent on the Spirit’s power because if the disciples who were trained directly by Jesus needed this power, then how much more do we need it today? We express our dependency through prayer and we minister with an expectation that the Holy Spirit will operate spiritual gifts through us.
We value being balanced in doctrine and ministry because we believe that knowledge must be balanced with experience, doctrine must be balanced with the fullness of God’s word and ministry should never be expressed through an extremism that turns people away from Christ. We believe that the Foursquare doctrine reflects a balanced position on biblical truth.
We value being relational in our operations because relationships are bridges for ministry and opportunities to express Jesus’ love. This value leads us to embrace a culture of honour and to invest in building, preserving, and restoring relationships.
We value being global in our reach because Jesus’ desire was for us to make disciples of all nations. We have gifts to share with the world and our global interactions also allow us to receive from the gifts of believers in other lands. Investing beyond ourselves also helps us to grow beyond a self-centered approach that would only contribute where we could see a gain for our own ministries.