Also in this issue
A publication of Canadian Baptist Ministries
Winter 2014
Planted: New Communities of Faith in Canada
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What If Your Church Acted Like A Church Plant?
12
North Africa Rising
18 The View: Persecution and Prayer
cut to the chaise mosaic is published three times a year by Canadian Baptist Ministries. Copies are distributed free of charge. Bulk quantities available by request. contact 7185 Millcreek Drive Mississauga, ON l5n 5r4 Tel: 905.821.3533 mosaic@cbmin.org www.cbmin.org Managing Editor Jennifer Lau Editor Laurena Zondo Associate Editor Giselle Randall Design Genesis XD www.genesisxd.com
Connect
www.cbmin.org @canadianbaptist facebook.com/cbmin.org
“ The Spirit of God is moving to plant communities of faith” india — it is hot and spicy! And I’m not just talking about the food. It’s also the weather, the diversity in people, cultures, and more. India is a vibrant, chaotic mosaic of hundreds of languages and thousands of gods, in the midst of which initial Christian witness took place just years after Jesus’ ascension, and where Canadian Baptists have been involved since 1874. I am writing this column the day after returning from strategic imagining with CBM’s new India Team. They face a challenging situation. There continues to be overwhelming poverty — India has more poor and undernourished people than all of Africa. There is growing restriction on religious freedom, as fundamentalist groups claim that to be truly Indian one has to be Hindu. Despite hundreds of years of Gospel witness, official records show only two to three percent of the population as Christian — although this may be under-represented because government benefits are
denied some who self-report as Christian. And yet, there is a new vibrancy and enthusiasm in the Christian community. Churches are planting new churches. People are growing disenchanted with superficial spirituality and religious ritual and are seeking the true God. In the midst of community development projects, people are coming to faith because they see God’s love in the actions of those who are helping them. Whether in India or Canada or anywhere else in the world, the Spirit of God is moving to plant communities of faith that embody the love of God in word and deed. There are few experiences more exciting — I speak as someone who was involved in church planting some years ago. It won’t always be easy — in fact, it rarely is. But it will always be worth it. I pray that this issue of mosaic will inspire you to see how the planting of new churches is a key part of sharing God’s love. Grace and peace, Rev. Sam Chaise Executive Director
As partners in the Canadian Baptist family we exist to serve the local church in its grassroots mission. Together we impact our communities and beyond through the love of Christ.
Connect with Sam and what’s happening in CBM’s global network of ministry. Follow Sam on Twitter @samchaise_cbm.
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Winter 2014
In mosaic’s last issue, I shared with you how we at CBM have been re-visioning to reaffirm our calling to work alongside local churches in bringing hope and healing to a broken world through word and deed. We think our new logo and tag line perfectly expresses our refreshed and re-energized vision. As you can see, it is layered with meaning and we are excited to begin unpacking all that it represents.
~Sam
learn 4 Planted: New Communities of Faith in Canada 10 What If Your Church Acted Like A Church Plant? just think 11 the global church growing or shifting? 12 North Africa Rising 14 Mizque, Money & Mission
Our Mission Embracing a broken world through word and deed.
16 J’aime la Francophonie the view 18 Persecution and Prayer
Our Partners Individuals, local churches, and Canadian Baptist denominations, along with our international partners.
see 19 Parting Shot touch 20 Grassroots Heroes
Our Work Our areas of international engagement divide into eight sectors: 1 Children & Youth at Risk 2 Evangelism & Church Planting 3 Food & Community Development 4 Training Leaders 5 Peace, Justice & Reconciliation 6 AIDS & Health Care 7 Strengthening Partners 8 Crisis Response
Our Roots As Canadian Baptists we have a unique place in God’s world, a uniqueness reflected in our geographic diversity.
mosaic is a community forum of local and global voices united by a shared mission. mosaic will serve as a catalyst to stimulate and encourage passionate discipleship among Canadian Baptists and their partners.
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PLANTED
:
NEW COMMUNITIES OF FAITH IN CANADA Special thanks to our contributors for sharing their stories Sam Chaise, Narry Santos, John Huh, Renée Embree, John Knight, Rob Nylen, Joe Page, and Christian and Denise Lafleur
learn
Church planting — everyone is for it — but what exacly do we mean by the term? Likely most of us immediately think of a worship service, because despite all we’ve been taught about what the church is, it’s hard for us to conceive of a church without immediately picturing a worship service. A church is a set of relationships – with God, one another, and the world. A worship service is really just the staff meeting of the church: it is where the community gathers to meet its founder, remember His mission, re-connect with His presence, and re-commit to serving Him in the nooks and crannies of daily living. Church happens seven days a week, not one. When we speak of “church planting,” we are not speaking of planting worship services, but of catalyzing into existence missional communities of Jesus-followers who share God’s love through word and deed with a broken world. In North America we are living in an era of significant innovation in how to do church. We are asking the fundamental question what is the church, and asking mission questions of how do we contextualize the Gospel to this era? These are important questions to ask, because we now live in a mission context, not a churched culture. Much of the learning we have acquired in international cross-cultural mission work now needs to be applied in Canada. Perhaps the deeper question is, “How do we plant the Gospel and let it germinate into a community of Jesus-followers?” Here are some stories of church plants from Canada. I hope it will ignite your imagination! ~SC
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The Story Of
Greenhills Christian Fellowship In Toronto, ONTARIO Seven years ago, we were sent to Canada by our mother church (Greenhills Christian Fellowship) in the Philippines to plant our first international church. God gave us a vision of starting seven satellites in seven years in four provinces (Ontario, BC, Alberta, and Manitoba). We praise the all mighty God for raising six satellites in our first four years — in Toronto, Peel, Vancouver, Calgary, York, and Winnipeg. One of the blessings we have enjoyed over the years is the partnership with Canadian Baptists (through Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec and Canadian Baptists of Western Canada). This partnership has come in the form of support in prayer, training, resources, and church plant grants. We have also enjoyed our close relationship with CBM in exploring possible church planting efforts outside of Canada. It surely is a great joy for us to belong to a family of like-minded churches with the passion to start sustainable and reproducing churches. We look forward to having more opportunities to work together with the Canadian Baptist family. Another encouraging development has been the opening of ministry opportunities in Scarborough, ON, in a high-need area that houses more than 5,000 people in five buildings. More than two-thirds of these residents (81 percent) are considered visible minorities, many of them South
God gave us a vision of starting seven satellites in seven years
International student ministry started by Greenhills Christian Fellowship at Centennial College
Asians, and unemployment is high (14.8 percent) — over twice the average rate for the rest of Toronto (6.7 percent), according to the 2006 census. In an effort to serve this housing complex, Greenhills Christian Fellowship Toronto hosted a Canada Day party, a summer barbecue picnic, and a Christmas party in the community. These efforts resulted in a weekly prayer and Bible study in the housing party room, and a monthly worship service. We have also started an international student ministry at Centennial College where we helped students on move-in day, sponsored a Thanksgiving dinner for 150 international students, hosted a luncheon during Ontario’s Family Day, and offered an immigration seminar for graduating students. As a result of our growing relationship with the college, we are now allowed to use the student lounge for free to conduct “Chips and Chow,” a gathering for international students to practice English through conversation and board games, and enjoy snacks brought by our church. We rejoice that students from Botswana, China, and India have become followers of Jesus through this outreach! May we never lose sight of our mission to know Christ and to make Him known wherever God brings us! ~NS
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We are a small church, averaging 60 people on any given Sunday. From our inception we have approached the challenges of church planting with imagination and prayer, always asking, “What is God doing within our midst and how can we participate?” Here are some of the ways God has convicted us as we have sought Him. First, God asked us the question, “Do you trust me?” Faced with the global economic crisis in 2009, when fiscal restraint was the smart thing to do, some very specific ministry opportunities were placed at our feet requiring a dramatic increase in our budget. Rather than tightening our financial belts, the leaders in the church responded in faith and decided to increase the church budget in response to what God was doing. That year our giving increased beyond expectation, and has continued to increase over the years. God is trustworthy.
The Story of
Goodtree Christian Fellowship in Calgary, Alberta Each church is on a unique journey that God desires to be a part of. No one book or community has all the answers for how each church should function. When we look at New Testament churches many factors varied from church to church. Yet, when operating from a place of health, what was common was their focus on God’s mission. It is easy for us to focus upon our own needs and desires and to seek a safe place to grow. Yet this is not the focus of the great command and commission of God: love God, love your neighbour, and as you go, make disciples. In the six years since our church was planted we have strived, with varying degrees of success, to put aside the desire for safety and security, and have attempted to open our eyes and ears to God’s call and respond with “Yes, Lord.” This has challenged us individually and corporately, but it has taken us on a journey that could only be written by God. As we share our experience, may God’s story in our lives be an encouragement to others to “seek first the Kingdom.”
What is God doing within our midst and how can we participatE?
Second, He instilled in us a vision for investing in people. As such we have committed 15 percent of the church budget and a large portion of time to mentoring leaders. So far, two seminary students have been financially supported, and pastors from other churches have been invited to pastoral team meetings for mentorship. The returns may not be reflected in our own context or congregation but we believe the work is for the Kingdom, not necessarily for our local congregation. Third, when we went through a conflict situation God asked us the question, “Can you work together as a team, submitting to one another?” We have become committed to working as a team through collaboration and cooperation. Decisions are made together through much prayer and discussion. God has been faithful in carrying us through difficult times as we have persevered through our own shortcomings.
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God has been faithful in carrying us through difficult times as we have persevered through our own shortcomings
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Finally, God revealed His heart to us for the poor, the marginalized and the lost. Each year we encourage members to be involved in short-term mission work internationally. This year alone, six teams comprised of 45 people responded and went to various places around the world and more than 30 percent of our budget was committed to international missions. Short-term mission work has become a part of the DNA of our church as we partner with permanent ministries in other countries. In addition, we continue to support local outreach. It has helped the members of our church to understand the Great Commission and the responsibilities we have as disciples. His compassion is becoming our compassion. Our willingness to engage with the work God places before us has enabled us to be involved in tasks well beyond our size. Just as Joshua challenged the Israelites on the bank of the Jordan, we believe that if we consecrate ourselves, our tomorrows will be filled with great and amazing things that the Lord is doing (Joshua 3:5). ~JH Short-term mission is part of the DNA of Goodtree Christian Fellowship, a small church plant of Calgary Korean Baptist Church. In 2013, six teams served in various countries such as Mexico, Ecuador and South Africa.
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The Story of
RiverCross Church IN Saint John, New Brunswick What happens when a growing inner-city church runs out of space, but has a strong community outreach work in their neighbourhood? Should they stay or should they go? We decided to do both! RiverCross Church (formerly Main Street Baptist Church) has a vision of being a blessing to our city. As a river flows and brings life, so we believe our congregation should have a life-giving impact in our community. We strongly felt that we needed to allow for our congregation to continue growing while at the same time expanding our community outreach work so we could be better positioned to serve our immediate community. As John Knight, our community outreach pastor, says, “Our going facilitates our staying.”
So what about the old site? We repurposed our historic sanctuary into a mission hub for the surrounding community. This created space for a clothing bank, including resourcing a “dress for success” option where young moms with job interviews can have access to new business attire; space for a nurse’s office so we could serve many of the residents of our community who do not have access to a family doctor; and space for the local food bank so we can work together with other churches and organizations.
Main Street Baptist Church (now known as RiverCross) has been an integral part of the North End of Saint John since 1842. It was a church plant from Germain Street Baptist Church in hopes of reaching out to a new part of the city.
This decision meant constructing a 20,000 square foot ministry site near the original church. The new site has a worship centre that seats 500, offers additional parking, accessibility features and space for growing ministries, including the increasing numbers of children and youth and international students who make up our congregation. Now we can teach in relevant ways, make use of technology and have a better environment for children’s small groups as well as provide a welcoming space for groups like GriefShare and others who need a place to connect and grow.
Through this journey we have discovered that people want to attend a church that is actively serving its community. We’ve seen that even unchurched people intuitively feel that a church should be involved in serving others. As our church has grown, it has given us more people and resources to pour back into the neighbourhoods we feel God calling us to serve. We’re grateful and excited to see what happens next as we seek together to be a blessing in our city! ~RE, JK, RN, JP A trip to Deer Island is a favourite
Our going facilitates our staying
annual event offered by RiverCross Church to low-income community members in Saint John, NB.
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The Story of
' Eglise' EvangElique ' Source d'Amour et d' Espoir in Drummondville, Quebec We started in 2008 with five people who moved here to help start this church. We wanted to be in a needy (and unchurched) area and demographics showed that there were also a number of young families moving in. Today there are 80 adults and 35-40 children who are regularly part of our church gatherings. Most of the families are very young, so we have many children who have gotten involved in the life of the church and in our worship. We also have a monthly meal together after the Sunday service to bring people into closer contact with each other. A major focus of our work is family ministry. One of the things we notice is that these young families have real struggles — with their marriages, child-rearing, and finances. We do a lot of solution-based counselling and support group work, dealing with grief after the death of a loved one, financial management, and conflict resolution. We have also helped couples through marriage and family counselling.
We are up against two obstacles in Quebec culture. The first is that people have all kinds of false gods (idols); second, many people have a false notion of God based on a rigid religious upbringing or a terrible church experience. People believe in the existence of a creator, but they don’t have an idea of a personal God who reaches out to them. And there was a time, even here in Drummondville, when there was a great deal of abuse from the clergy. People reject that and don’t want anything to do with church. They don’t know about the love and grace of God. We need to give people a new understanding of who God is and how he wants to reach out to them. One Sunday, we had an altar call after the sermon, asking people to come forward if they wanted deliverance from some form of addiction or dependency. It was amazing to see how this touched so many specific needs. People need to know that God can heal and deliver them. Many are fragile and have come from a background of legalism or abuse — sexual, verbal, physical, emotional. We need to reach out to all broken people on the level of their deepest needs. We need to show love and acceptance. And slowly but surely, we journey with them into an appreciation of the love of God. ~C&DL
But church planting in Quebec is difficult. People are driven by work and leisure. They work hard and then they want to spend their weekends playing hard! It’s not easy to attract people to become regular attendees at a typical church service if this isn’t part of their culture and values. We need to develop an entirely new “dynamique d’église” (way of being the church).
Connecting
Église Évangélique Source d’Amour et d’Espoir is one of three churches receiving support as part of Challenge 25, a joint initiative between CBM and the French Baptist Union to stimulate church planting in Quebec. Help plant a church. Give online today at www.cbmin.org.
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ARE YOU HERE?
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Invest in articulating the vision
When was the last time you took time out to clearly explain why your church exists? Church plants go to great pains to explain their key differentiation as a new work. Who needs to hear the vision today?
Assess your leaders
A healthy trend in the church planting movement is an emphasis on formalized assessments of new church planters. What if you added some outside voices to the decision-making process for any new hires you may be doing?
What If Your Church Acted Like A Church Pl ant?
Ask everyone to help
There is a large percentage of the church community that doesn’t serve on a team . . . they don’t serve because you don’t need them. (Really, you don’t . . . if you “needed them”, stuff wouldn’t happen without them.) What if you created a need so large that it required an “all hands on deck” response from your people?
Six ways any church can regain focus and drive
Raise finances
Church plants wait for the mail to arrive during the week because they need every dollar that comes in to push the mission forward. They get really good at asking for financial help. What if it was only finances that were holding you back from the mission? What if you made a concerted effort to raise some extra finances this spring?
At some point your church was planted . . . whether that was 30 months ago or 30 years . . . some group of people got together with a shared vision and started the church you are now a part of. But somewhere along the line your church may have settled into a routine and stopped acting like a start up. Here are six ways that your church can potentially regain some of that early focus and drive . . . by starting to act like a church plant!
Adapted excerpt of an online post by Rich Birch, Operations Pastor at Liquid Church, a fastgrowing church in New Jersey, USA. Visit unseminary.com for the original version and more helpful tips and resources.
Thank some people
Church planters are grateful people. They are just so thankful that anyone showed up, signed up, or helped in any way. When was the last time you took some time to thank some people? Have you written any thank you cards this month?
Faith based risk
Have you done anything lately that could really blow up in your face and potentially not work? Church plants take risks all the time. Have we become too safe in our leadership? What risk could you take this spring that would keep you up at night and praying about it? Church planters are my heroes. They are on the front line of the kingdom of God. I think that we all could stand to act a bit more like them!
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just think
the Global CHURCH GROWING or shifting?
Global Christian Population* by Region
In 2010
Christians make up nearly the same portion of the world’s population today as they did a century ago. 1910 35% 2010 32%
North & South America Asia Pacific
Europe
Sub-Saharan Africa
Middle East North Africa
In 1910
0.6%
36.8%
13.1% 25.9% 23.6%
0.7%
27.1%
4.5% 66.3% 1.4%
* Pew Research notes that “The definition of Christian in this report is very broad. The intent is sociological rather than theological: We are attempting to count groups and individuals who self-identify as Christian. This includes people who hold beliefs that may be viewed as unorthodox or heretical by other Christians. It also includes Christians who seldom pray or go to church.” Source: Global Christianity – A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Christian Population by Pew Research Centre, December 2011.
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By Terry Smith, CBM’s Director of International Partnerships FOR NE ARLY 10 YE AR S (1991 -1999),
Street mural in Morocco, a country in North Africa.
the country of Algeria was plunged into a horrific civil war. The brutality was unimaginable. Entire families, sometimes whole villages, were massacred. Pregnant women had their wombs slashed open. Men had their limbs chopped off. Children were beaten then dragged behind vehicles. A dark cloud of death hung over the entire country. An estimated 60,000 to 200,000 people were killed. Ironically, very few people in the Western world were aware of what was happening. Word finally surfaced in 1996, after a group of Cistercian monks living in northern Algeria were massacred. These monks had been offered protection by local political leaders, but they refused, claiming that they should not have security while the villagers around them lived in terror and fear. When given the chance to secretly leave the country, the monks chose to remain and live among the people they were called to serve. On Christmas Eve, they were kidnapped and later found, beheaded, in a common grave. During those years of horror, my wife and I were living across the Mediterranean Sea,
planting a church in downtown Paris (France). Some of our closest friends were Algerian and so we saw and felt their anguish and concern for friends and family back home. Many of the young people we encountered in our witness were from Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. A number of them became followers of Jesus and formed the backbone of our church planting work. I vividly recall querying them as to the state of the Christian church in North Africa. Their answers burned a deep hole in my heart and conscience. “There isn’t really a church, just a tiny handful of believers, maybe a couple hundred at most.” But as the civil war in Algeria came to an end, we began to hear about a powerful mystery taking place. Reports emerged of conversions, profound spiritual experiences, especially among the Berber people. Usually, we heard these astounding stories from our Algerian friends whose family members were becoming Christ-followers. Occasionally, news would leak out to Christian media of incidences of miraculous conversions, often because people had experienced a dream whereby Jesus appeared to them. We heard of entire towns in the Atlas Mountains where one family after another became believers, sometimes after watching the Jesus film in their native language. This was all taking place during a fierce period of religious opposition to Christianity where the threat of persecution — and even death — lingered everywhere.
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The impact of CBM’s partnership with ABTS is making a huge difference for God’s work in North Africa and the Middle East.
[right] Most of the growth of the church in Algeria has been among people of Berber ethnic descent living in the Atlas Mountains. In this part of the world known for Islamic extremism, an ancient sign of hospitality marks doorways — the symbol of the cross. Centuries later, there lingers in collective conscience a relic of a Christian past.
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This past summer, my wife and I travelled with CBM Global Field Staff Mireille and Elie Haddad to North Africa on a fact-finding assignment for CBM and the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary (ABTS in Beirut, Lebanon). We were able to witness the stunning growth of the church here — which has grown from an estimated 200 believers in 1991 to more than 100,000 Christians today! In one city, we attended a church service that had more than 650 believers. To our astonishment, all the seats in the sanctuary and annex (where they rebroadcast the service via video feed) were full — 45 minutes prior to the beginning of the service — because people were so excited to gather together in Jesus’ name. In another village we met a pastor who received a phone call from the local Imam who happened to be doing Hajj (the pilgrimage to Mecca), asking him to care for his children and wife should anything happen while he was away. “I can trust the Christians to care for my family,” explained the Muslim leader. We heard of a church that has started a shelter for battered women in their community, not only those who are beaten for becoming Christians but also for Muslim women in abusive relationships. Another church has an outreach to Chinese nationals who are working in the oil and natural gas sectors. It is a great witness of the global reach of the Gospel transcending cultural and linguistic boundaries.
In another town, where just seven years ago Christians were beaten and spat upon, there is now an annual municipal Christmas celebration with carols, stories and gifts of Bibles to the townspeople. In spite of this tremendous growth, there is still no official Christian seminary in the region. ABTS represents one of the foremost means whereby Arabic-speaking Christians from Muslim backgrounds can receive theological education. More than 85 percent of the leaders of the church in Morocco are ABTS graduates. The impact of CBM’s partnership with ABTS is making a huge difference for God’s work in North Africa and the Middle East. During our visit to Algeria, we asked Christian leaders about the future of the church in their country. They were optimistic and enthusiastic, sharing how the government has become increasingly tolerant of non-Islamic religious movements. But safety continues to be an ongoing concern and they asked us to pray that their children would not be deterred in their Christian journey by some neighbours who spit on them as they walk to school. Yet these leaders not only persevere, but rejoice in their circumstances. “We pray that the persecution won’t end, because we fear that when it ends, so too will end the revival,” poignantly noted one leader. Looking ahead, we at CBM strongly feel that this movement of God’s Spirit in North Africa will help shape a new day for the global Church. Great doors will open for Christian witness as new churches are planted, seminary students are trained, and followers of Jesus are emboldened in their witness. But we remain mindful that along with such blessings often come huge challenges — increased hostility by extremists, renewed oppression and persecution, and the threat of sectarianism and internal division within the church.
We stand in solidarity with our North African brothers and sisters. Are we willing to listen and learn from their experiences?
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MIZQUE,MONEY AND MISSION Our Gilmour Baptist Church family has had strong ties with CBM in Bolivia for a number of years. In 2010, we joined Park Street Baptist in a three-year STEP partnership. As we neared the end of our commitment, we sent a mission team to Mizque, a rural region in Bolivia, to assist with the Chagas project and run a Vacation Bible School. Our diverse group of eight members ranged in age from 18-60.
By David Mann, a CBM Short-Term Mission participant to Bolivia
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THE CHAGAS PROJECT FIGHTS AGAINST Chagas disease and its cause, the vinchuca bug, through edu-cation and prevention. The prevention phase involves removing thatched roofs and replacing them with tin, pouring concrete floors, and plastering the inside of the home. All of this work is done to prevent the vinchuca bug from entering the house at night, when the occupants are most vulnerable, and passing on a parasite that causes this organ-attacking disease, which can lead to death. We split into two groups, and each worked on a home. On my team, we mixed and plastered walls all morning. On returning after lunch, we discovered that all of the plaster we had put up had to be taken down because it did not adhere to the adobe bricks underneath. We were all frustrated. You could sense the tension all around, and the family’s smiles had turned to uneasy frowns. Once we chipped all the plaster off the walls, we had to remove excess dirt from the mud bricks. We hauled out wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow load of dirt. Throughout this hardship, we actually started drawing closer to the family. We felt for them, as they would be sleeping outside for an extended period of time and were now uncertain about the durability of their home. But the children reached out to us, bringing joy and trust in us to carry out the task. On our fourth and final day, the home was ready to be re-plastered. Everyone rallied around — family and team members.
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That Sunday evening found us sitting around the table for supper at Ronald and Ida’s (members and leaders of Mizque Baptist Church). Joining us was Ramiro, the pastor. He shared how he was first invited to church by two of his close friends; there, he says, he encountered the Holy Spirit, the power of God working in his heart. Ever since, he has been an ambassador of God. During the week, he works as a lawyer in Cochabamba. Every weekend he buses four hours each way to Mizque to pastor at the church, leading four services: Saturday evening, Sunday prayer at sunrise, Sunday morning, and Sunday evening. Before our mission trip, I felt little need to tithe my money to church ministries, especially now that I am a post-secondary student and worried about finances. Even though the Bible talks about tithing ten percent of one’s income, I thought I was excused as long as I was a student. But CBM staff like Ivan Gutierrez and Duane Guthrie, and church development workers like Alex Rojas (coordinator of the Chagas Project), showed me what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. These men could work at better paying jobs, but they make the financial sacrifice to be where God calls them. Working alongside these men I witnessed how Godglorifying the ministry is. They bless so many in their work as God’s hands and feet. They have changed the way I look at my money. Now, all I want to do is contribute to God’s work. I am no longer worried about my needs. I feel so relieved and at peace with God. I urge any congregation to consider a STEP partnership with CBM. It’s definitely a commitment you won’t regret!
David Mann and Connie Lorne, two of the short-term mission team sent from Gilmour Baptist Church and Park Street Batpist Church to work on house repairs in Mizque, a rural region in Bolivia, to prevent Chagas, a deadly disease carried by a bug that lives in poorer homes made of adobe.
Connecting STEP (Serving,Training,
Energizing Partnerships) is a CBM program that enables Canadian churches to connect and have deeper engagement with their brothers and sisters in the developing world. To learn more visit www.cbmin.org.
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J’ la
m You spent 35 years planting churches in France. What are the similarities and differences between France and Quebec in terms of openness to the gospel?
DR
rancophonie
An Interview with David Rowley, General Secretary of the French Baptist Union By Giselle Randall
THE RIFT BETWEEN RELIGIOUS BELIEF AND SOCIETY RUNS ON SIMILAR FAULT-LINES IN France and Quebec. The removal of any reference to past or present religious beliefs is a shared project. With only one percent of the populations of France and Quebec identifying as evangelical Christian, both are often overlooked as being an “unreached” people group. We need to continue to have a vested interest in both France and Quebec and not bump them off the radar screen of evangelical awareness and responsibility. France did not experience anything similar to Quebec’s Quiet Revolution — which describes a time during the 1960s when the provincial government took over social services, previously in the hands of the Roman Catholic Church — when Quebeckers walked away from religious institutions almost overnight. This profoundly shaped the way Quebeckers think about religious beliefs or faith. The younger generation has little understanding of the liberating Gospel of Jesus.
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m What are the challenges to church planting in Quebec?
m Where do you see opportunities? Where do you see God at work?
DR THE ’60S AND ’70S WITNESSED STRONG GROWTH AMONG EVANGELICALS IN FRANCE and Quebec, but following this surge, most denominations experienced stagnation, and then, decline. This raises questions as to the church’s capacity to rebound in a society that knows little about the Gospel. In addition, there’s a real disconnect between the church and its environment. Somewhere along the way, the church became inwardly focused and lost its sense of mission, and its ability to be the voice of God’s compassion in a hurting and confused society. Regaining lost ground requires hard thinking and work. One question I often ask is,
Ride the wave of God’s compassion
IF YOUR CHURCH WERE TO LEAVE ITS PRESENT LOCATION, WOULD PEOPLE IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD REALLY NOTICE? We need to get the church leadership back into learning mode, to recapture God’s heart and compassion for Quebeckers. This requires spending significant time communicating the Gospel, connecting with people outside the church, and explaining to city officials and public leaders who we are and what we believe in. We need to be persuaded that God is at work in Quebec, and follow Him into His mission.
DR TODAY, THERE ARE SOLID GAINS AMONG MINORITY GROUPS. FOR EXAMPLE, THERE ARE 200 Haitian and 100 Hispanic churches out of a total of nearly 1000 evangelical and Protestant churches in Quebec. And watching Christian Lafleur and Michel Martel break new ground in Drummondville and Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu is exciting. It will take time to build trust, seek out and create opportunities to bring the Gospel into proximity with what people are experiencing, making the Gospel meaningful to them. I’ve been impressed by the sense of dedication and commitment of young Quebeckers to pressing the Gospel into society. If we can step back, allow them to “ride the wave” of God’s compassion, and come alongside them, I believe Quebec will once again see a surge in church planting. The Union is presently working on an innovative project: start a centre dedicated to church planting in Montreal. This would be a learning community, where leaders could come together, interact with a number of experts, share resources, and reflect on what it means to “be” the church in the context of Quebec. An internship program would enable those attending to launch a new church plant. We need to be intentional in our commitment to church planting. We are blessed to have CBM as a significant partner in this endeavour.
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But when the persecution came, we had great love and great unity as a church. Church members would send us messages or come to the prison and encourage us. Some begged the guards to be thrown in prison as well, just so they could stay with us. When our fellow prisoners saw the way other believers treated us, most of them came to faith in Jesus Christ. Other memorable times in prison were… Another time I was put in prison with 41 people. The day I arrived and began speaking with them, all the people came to faith. For the next week, I taught them the basics of following Jesus Christ…The day we were released from prison, we went to the river and I baptized all 41 of them. Today many of them are preachers and pastors in Ethiopia. If they didn’t put me in prison, who would have told them the Gospel or discipled them? I find that every time the persecution comes, God has a purpose in it.
THE VIEW
Persecution and Prayer:
How I felt while being persecuted was… I never experienced fear in the moment that persecution arose. At that time, the Holy Spirit was on me and I knew just what to say and what to do. But after the event passes, that’s when I start to become afraid. Sometimes when I am sitting here in Canada I wonder, “How did I pass through that? If it comes again, what will I do?” It’s easy to forget the way God was with you in the past.
Excerpts of an interview with Mezgebu Tucho, pastor of the Oromo Christian Church in Toronto
By Jacob Buurma, Communications Consultant for Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec
While planting churches in Muslim regions of Ethiopia, Tucho has been jailed six times, beaten unconscious, and even kidnapped. After planting more than 50 churches in his homeland, he came to Canada as a refugee in 2009. The first time I was imprisoned was… As soon as I finished high school, I was put in prison for one year because of persecution during Ethiopia’s communist regime. They found us at an underground prayer meeting at night, even though we had been trying to pray as quietly as possible.
Mezgebu Tucho
Jesus strengthened me through these experiences by… Persecution helped me focus on a single objective. Once we understand our purpose — the purpose to which God called us — then no matter what comes, you will be alive in that purpose.
Churches here in Canada can become more faithful to Jesus by… I have only one thing in my mind: praying. If we pray, change will come. Here in North America we don’t depend as much on God because we have everything. I’ve noticed that many of us pray for a ‘grocery list’ of wants: a new job, or other earthly things. But, like David wrote in Psalm 27, we need to seek the glory of God. So my great message for our churches is to change our praying from a grocery list to the glory of God. At that time we’ll understand that God is full of beauty; everything else is vanity.
see
parting shot
WHAT
WHAT A visit to lebanese churches providing aid to syrian refugees thanks to cbm’s emergency relief programming through Canadian WHAT Foodgrains Bank. WHERE Lebanon Church members wanted to help refugees fleeing for safety into their country. they prayed, asking god for resources, when they got a call: cbm was looking for church partners to work in syrian relief. The need was huge, and the relief effort quickly grew from 100 to 400, then 600 families. Church members worked long hours as volunteers, visiting with families to assess need. They started to receive requests for more visits, “Even if you can’t help us, we want to be with you and learn about Jesus,” shared many of the refugees, desperate for any kind of friendly contact. In addition to food baskets provided by CBM, the church gave baby supplies, blankets, mattresses and fuel through other donors, and started a medical clinic and a school for refugee children. They are now building a bigger facility to expand their outreach and meet the great need in their midst with God’s endless love and compassion.
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grassroots heroes
FOR THE CHILDREN OF EDMISON HEIGHTS BAPTIST CHURCH IN PETERBOROUGH, ON, LEARNING ABOUT FOOD SECURITY WAS ON THE MENU AS THEY PARTICIPATED IN CBM’S KIDS CARE—WHAT’S FOR DINNER? Kids Care is a fun teaching resource to help children become global disciples. Look for our new 2014 packet, Shalom: Creating a Healthy World, where kids can explore some of the major global health issues and how we can work together to build a healthier world. Email communications@cbmin.org to order your free copy today!
As they studied the Bible and learned about the causes and impact of hunger in Canada and around the world, children were encouraged to lend a helping hand by purchasing a link, for 25 cents each, to make a colourful paper chain. Money raised went to support a CBM food security program in the developing world. “The whole church got involved, and the chain kept growing and growing,” says children’s leader Lynn DeForge. “The kids realized, look what we can do together — and if all Canadian Baptist churches got involved, look what God could accomplish!” They also started a garden on church property as a way to help children learn where food comes from. “The kids were excited to help plant,” says Lynn. “On Sundays we would pick vegetables from the garden and share them with the congregation, as well as eat some for a snack during Sunday School.”
Mark the Date
May 11, 2014 is Solidarity Sunday
At the end of the curriculum, they hosted a What’s for Dinner? celebration for the church. “What we came away with is that food is a gift from God for everyone.”
This Mother’s Day, May 11, 2014, join Canadian Baptists as we stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters around the world. NEW this year your support of Solidarity Sunday can be made in honour of a special woman in your life. You will receive a unique gift item to show how together we are bringing hope and healing to families in need.
Canadian Baptist Ministries 7185 Millcreek Drive Mississauga, Ontario L5N 5R4
Mark the date and watch for Solidarity Sunday materials coming to your church in March. For more information, email us at communications@cbmin.org.