Missionfest 2025

Missionfest Manitoba, this year, will be at Church of the Rock in Winnipeg from February 7th to 9th (2025), and our theme will be How Shall They Hear? This is taken from Romans 10.

We all long to see our friends, our family, our co-workers, our neighbours all come to know the Lord, as well as people from around the world. We long to see them know His grace, His love, His hope, and of course His salvation. 

In Romans 10, Paul sets out this reverse set of conditions for people coming to faith: “All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how shall they call upon the One in whom they’ve not believed? And how shall they believe in the One of whom they’ve never heard? And how shall they hear if nobody goes and preaches, proclaims this Good News to them? And how shall they go and proclaim this Good News if they are not sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring Good News.’” 

However, Paul points out in verse 16 that not everybody who hears this Good News comes to faith for various reasons. What are these reasons? We’re going to explore these reasons at Missionfest ’25. 

One possible reason for people not coming to faith would be access: They never get a chance to hear the gospel! And that’s true for up to a third of the world’s population. 

Another possibility is that the gospel is proclaimed, but it’s not proclaimed clearly, in a way that people can understand. Or perhaps another obstacle is that the lives of the messengers are inconsistent with the truth of the gospel. 

Another possible obstacle is the conditions, the context for these people and how they live: poverty, persecution, even affluence can affect how a person responds to the gospel. Just consider the parable of the soils and the sower. 

And, of course, there’s one more obstacle: the obstacle of the cross itself, which Paul in 1 Corinthians notes that to some is foolishness and to others is a stumbling block. Of course, this is not an obstacle that we remove, but that we overcome through prayer and trust in the Holy Spirit. 

One of our speakers is Brian Hogan, who was at the beginning of the church in Mongolia in the early 1990’s. Another speaker is Nard Pugyao. Nard comes from the Philippines, and he lived in a village that had no access to the gospel until missionaries came to translate for his people. And another speaker is Andrew Goodman, who works among the Shan in Southeast Asia.

We hope you’ll join us for Missionfest 2025, February 7th to 9th at Church of the Rock in Winnipeg. Come and hear, so that they can hear.