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For more information, contact Jay.Pinney@efca.org.

While I was sitting in one of the meetings at one of the forty congregations of Icthus, one of the people in the congregation had what they called a word from the Lord. This word was that God was going to begin to work raising up two cities globally that would be gateway cities for a renewing of His bride in the west. Those cities were London, England and Vancouver, Canada.

Over this past generation, there have been many churches who have been either active in the multi-site model or in city-wide movements. One such church that God has raised up and used to influence others has been Redeemer in New York. This church, which has resourced so many, sent a leader (Mark Reynolds) to Vancouver recently to inspire church leaders of Vancouver towards a greater unity and vision towards city transformation. There were a number of key ingredients to what Mark said that we all need to hear.

1. All ministry begins with prayer. Fruit in our ministry does not come because we are intelligent, or have come up with new strategies, but rather because we are empowered by the Spirit of God. We are empowered as we learn to prioritize our energy and events towards a disciplined life in prayer. Spurgeon once wrote that we need “unction” in our preaching which only comes through pastors being empowered by the Spirit of God through prayer. Transformation in our lives, in our friends and in our neighbours will only occur when we have committed to acting on our statement that prayer is first.

2. We must become far more intentional in relationships and in our neighbourhoods. In the past the church was structured around parishes, but for a number of reasons, we have gotten away from a deeper level of intentionality. Churches and leaders need to be working together to map out the city and take ownership of certain regions as we see them as mission fields. Together, we can be instruments for the Kingdom of God and see city transformation, but we will need to be intentional together.

3. We need to move from a desire for church growth to a commitment to city growth. This statement carries with it huge implications for the way we see ministry. We need to move from a kingdom of the world picture of success and growing bigger churches, to a Kingdom of God perspective where we value city growth. This perspective points out where the Kingdom of God breaks into the every day life of those who live in proximity. As we work together to see city transformation, we can’t help but watch God drawing people to Himself and our churches growing as people are saved.

I praise God for Mark’s visit to Vancouver and the inspiration he gave us to keep going as God reaches our city.

For years, church planting movements have focused on the issue of planting more and more churches. Many have stated that church planting is the best strategy for evangelism. Therefore, the more churches the better, right? We have worked hard together as denominations and organizations in Canada to create a movement toward more church plants. There has been progress and we need to celebrate this.

However, I have landed on the other side of the debate. Don’t misunderstand, I want to see many churches planted, but I am more concerned about the kind of church that is planted. I am not talking about the model or the structure, but rather about the nature of the church that is planted.

Here’s what I mean. The key components of churches that I hope to see planted in Canada are that they:

• Start with Theology – Far too often we worry about what works instead of what is correct. We have focused on forms and models of church growth instead of being centered on our understanding of who God is. We would do well to reorient our efforts around a pursuit of the nature and holiness of God and then asking what He is doing in our midst and how we might be invited to participate, rather than just worrying about how to grow our churches.

• Produce Missionaries – What are we inadvertently doing that is producing consumers instead of missionaries? Is there a difference between being a missionary and a disciple? In church planting, we need to be about helping each so-called Christ follower accept the invitation not only to “Follow Me” from Christ, but to hear the imperative to “Go.”

• Are Collaborative – Too often we see other churches or organizations as competition. We need to be planting churches that are about the Kingdom of God, work together with other churches in their neighbourhood and look for evidence of God at work in social groups in their neighbourhood. We play the role of servants.

• Are Neighbourhood-Focused – We need to be planting churches that are concerned for the spiritual health of their neighbours and neighbourhoods. If the gospel is about the redemption of all things through Jesus, then we must be concerned about social issues right in the area where we live.

• Have New Metrics – The old measuring stick of “butts, bucks and bricks,” needs to change. Many have begun to move toward new ways of measuring faithfulness to God in church planting. Let’s stop asking each other the question at all our conferences about how many people we have attending.

More to come…

Cam

1. A number of denominations have made church planting a priority and some have made it part of the centerpiece of their strategy for growth.
2. There is more training available than ever before, with various schools adding church planting courses or concentrations to their curriculum in addition to Church Planting Canada’s yearly summit for church planters. There are also planters and leaders being trained through Acts 29 and the Redeemer network.
3. There is a better understanding of how to plant resilient churches. The new churches are being planted with a clear commitment to minister to the community in which they are planted, they are missional churches. The church planters in question know the church must be outward focused in order to overcome the prejudices present in Quebec against the church. These churches are for the most part taking disciplemaking very seriously as well.

Don’t stop praying that this would be just the beginning! Quebec is still Canada’s great HAVE NOT province spiritually. But there is new spiritual life in our joie de vivre here in Quebec and we are celebrating it, but the number of communities without a single evangelical church around the province is staggering. Our desire is to see more and more churches plant daughter churches, but attention is being turned to the health of the church in Quebec. Sick mothers do not normally give birth to healthy daughters and the church in Quebec is seeing a drop in the number of conversions and baptisms across the board, with a few notable exceptions. So the push is on to focus on church health so the trend of planting new daughter churches from healthy mothers can continue.

An event designed to help Quebec Christians to effectively share their faith is the Forum des Évangélistes, scheduled for its second year, this time in Montreal in March of 2011. The theme will be apologetics and Muslim outreach. The event features evangelists from Quebec and from French speaking Europe and was well attended in Quebec City in March of 2010. Plans are being made for some 300 in attendance at the next Forum. So if you pray for Quebec, pray for healthy mothers who want to have lots of daughters, for Quebec Christians who are passionate about serving their communities and serious about sharing Christ, and for new church planters to rise to the surface so they can be recognized for their unique gifts, trained, and then begin their critical work.

Soyez encouragé! Be encouraged!

Que Dieu vous bénisse!
May God bless you!

Jay Pinney