YHM Mission Statement, Values and Statement of Faith

Mission Statement 
Our Mission
1. To reach young people with the gospel by sharing heart to heart and to show the Lord Jesus Christ in the hostel.
2. To equip and train our staff members for this purpose.
 
Values 
1 Witnessing
We want to know and love God. We want to serve God with our lives and share the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ; not only in the hostel but in our daily lives. We want to reach out to those who do not know God, especially those who are staying as guests in our hostels, with the longing that they will come to recognize the truth and accept Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Lord.

2 Bridge building
We want the atmosphere in the hostels to be relaxed and to meet the needs of the tourist and traveller. We would like to maintain an open Christian character in the hostels so that even the guests with whom we do not speak will be able to see something of God during their stay. The goal of our house rules is to maintain these values. The starting place for our message is to have a genuine intrest in the guest, his life, and his ideas. By starting here we can build a bridge to the gospel.

3 Service
We want to commit ourselves completely to the kingdom of God and are prepared to take on all of the tasks and duties that the hostels and staff community present. We want to honour God with dedication and discipline, but know also that we do not have to be perfect to be loved by Him. We recognize the human authority of those placed over us in the YHM.

4 Fellowship
As a team, we want to love, respect and encourage one another in Christ. The living community plays a essential role in the spiritual development of our volunteers. Small group meetings and inter-cultural relationships are part of discipleship training. We also want to have good relationships and work together with other ministries and churches in Amsterdam.

5 Prayer
We want prayer to be a essential part of our lives. We recognise Gods authority  and we are prayerfully searching for His guidance and inspiration. Because we belief in the power of prayer, we also offer our guests to pray for them.

Statement of Faith 
Non-denominational
The Shelter Youth Hostel Ministry is not part of a church and is also not connected with a particular denomination. We consider our self evangelical, meaning that we hold to the authority of Scripture, man’s need for personal salvation through Christ, and the commission given to us by Christ to make disciples of all nations.
The volunteers who join our team come from various church and cultural backgrounds. Therefore, we stress the basis of our unity in Christ and we give freedom for diversity of doctrinal beliefs when it comes to non-essentials.

Affirmations
The following affirmations are essential to us:
We believe that the Bible is God's inspired and authoritative Word, revealing that Jesus Christ is God's Son; that man is created in God's image; that He created us to have eternal life through Jesus Christ; that although men have sinned and come short of God's glory, God has made salvation possible through the death on the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ; that repentance, faith, love and obedience are fitting responses to God's initiative of grace towards us; that God desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth; and that the Holy Spirit's power is demonstrated in and through us for the accomplishing of Christ's commandment to make disciples of all nations.
We share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the guests in the hostels because we believe that people are forever lost without Jesus Christ. It is for the salvation of people that we evangelize,  but the overall motivation comes from the main goal of our lives: to glorify God in all we are, think, say and do!