Jonathan Friesen and I recently attended a church planting congress in Ottawa hosted by an interdenominational fellowship called “Church Planting Canada”. This was the third of these bi-annual conferences that I have attended and I really have come to apprecIate them. They are very humble and focused on planting churches in our unique Canadian context.

It’s hard to condense four days of learning and conversations in a short blog, but both Jonathan and I agreed to highlighT at least a few of the things that stood out during our time. As I’ve commented a number of times, it’s really all of us who are planting a church (or churches) so it would have been good if the whole works of us could have been there, but, alas, thiS will have to do.

A few things that stood out:

AffirmatiOn
Again and again, both Jonathan and I were warmed with the notion that our churches are on the right track. It was exciting to hear people speaking of themes that God has also made clear to us. It seemed very clear that we are involved iN what is a world wide moving of God’s Spirit - re-aligning his church with his will and the purposes of his kingdom. Clearly we are moving in the right direcTion and with humility we need to continue to walk out what God has already higHlighted to us.

Alan Hirsch
A presentation by an Australian, Alan Hirsch, was maybe most represEntative of themes of the conference itself. He spoke on moving “From a Static Institution to a Dynamic Movement” and as he did so the sense of affirmation increased. He highlighted fOur keys:

Recovering the centrality of Jesus in his own movement - The idea being that Jesus is the founder and center of the chUrch which he established. The church then should be first about following him. Is this not the vision thaT God has given to us?

Recovering discipleship as our core task - Our goal in this whole endeavor has been to follow Jesus into becoming radical discipleS. From consumers to participants. The priesthood of all believers. Lowering the bar of what it means to do church and raising the bar of what it means to be the church. Slowly this is happening, we need to contInue to walk it out.

Recovering a missional impulse - the organizing reality of the church is that we are called to be light to the nations - and particularly the marginalized within. God has never called us to form insular communities - but families with a heart to bless the world.

Recovering the ethos of Apostolic movements - here Hirsch highlighted the leaDership framework that Paul mentioned in Ephesians 4 - That God gave to the church Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and TeachErs for the equipping of the church to prepare it for works of service. God laid a similar heart on us as we were beginning and slowly, as “prophet types” and “pastor types” etc. have been meeting this is coming to life.

Hirsch was just one point of resonance in the week, but it was clear from this Australian that what God was speaking to him about he has also been speaking to us about.
We are walking the right path. The call now is to patiently persevere and bring to life the values that God already spoke to us about.

The Nations
Dr. Sam Owusu is a native of Ghana, West Africa, who presently lives in New Westminster. He is the pastor of a church he planted called Calvary Worship Center. The church represents a remarkable 65 different nations!

When Sam began to speak my whole body began to quiver, then came tears - I had the sense he was communicating something very deep on the heart of the Father. He addressed the importance of the church taking seriously its call to be a people of all nations. The subject was framed on at least two levels. First, the kingdom of God is about the reconciliation of all things under Christ. This reconciliation is, at least in part, demonstrated through the bringing together of races. The wonder of this is depicted in John’s Revelation as we are given a picture of every nation on earth bowing together before Jesus. As Sam suggested, this picture should be played out now in the church.

Second, he called the church in Canada to recognize that the nations represented within this country are often marginalized and needy. Refugees and new immigrants are confused, impoverished and confronted with many significant barriers. Sam called the church to recognize that these needy people must be included in those we are called to reach and love.

Listening to Sam, I had the deep sense that this matter was one the Spirit would lead us to consider more in the months and years ahead. What if our churches became a reflection of the final Revelation scene? What if we came to more adequately reflect the cultural reality that exists around us? What if Koreans, Chinese, Natives, Brazilians, Anglo Canadians all worshipped together in the same family?

It would make the common meal more interesting.