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Canadian Church Planting Congress  ·  November 15-17, 2001  ·  Montreal, Que.
Igniting our passion for the lost


Mid-November was an important time in Montreal, as the city hosted not only the second Canadian Church Planting Congress but also a meeting of the Canadian MB Conference Board of Evangelism and a gathering of the provincial and Canadian MB Conference ministers.


Montreal was an appropriate site for the Congress, not only because the city has all the amenities necessary to charm visitors but also because the province of 7.4 million people has only a small evangelical Christian component. What more likely place to inspire every good church planter!

The spacious Salvation Army Citadel opened its doors to 518 participants from 31 denominations, 19 mission agencies and six educational institutions. The organizers, Glenn A. Gibson of Outreach Canada and Major David McCann of the Salvation Army, succeeded in setting up a bilingual Congress (two-thirds of attenders were English-speaking, one-third French-speaking) with a common goal – the planting of churches.

Two events before the Congress attracted about 40 people each. A group travelled to Quebec City to pray on the Plains of Abraham for the spread of the gospel throughout the country. Later, another group took a guided tour of the city of Montreal led by Glenn Smith of Christian Direction (see sidebar).

The Congress contained many highlights. For some, it was a plenary session; for others, a workshop or a statistical analysis of church planting by Murray Moerman. The 55 Mennonite Brethren participants would no doubt list their “denominational break-out session” as one of the best moments of the Congress.

Quebec MB Conference director of development Patrice Nagant, Canadian Conference executive director David Wiebe and Canadian Conference director of evangelism Ewald Unruh receive ideas from MB participants during a denominational “break-out” session.

Progress

Since the first Canadian Church Planting Congress in November 1997, Canadian churches have made constructive changes to promote the multiplication of churches. More than half of Canadian evangelical denominations have set specific church planting goals. However, a survey taken in 2000 suggests that the goal set in 1997 to plant 10,000 new “reproducing” churches by 2015 was overly optimistic.

The statistics released at the Congress came from two sources. Christian Direction compiled statistics for Quebec, and Outreach Canada compiled statistics for the rest of Canada. Christian Direction counted all Protestant churches, both evangelical and mainline (Anglican, Lutheran, Presbyterian and United), while Outreach Canada counted only evangelical churches. In the years 1997–2000, the number of evangelical churches in Canada grew at an average rate of 1.1% a year. In Quebec, the number of churches increased 2.6% a year, the highest rate in the country. However, Quebec still has the lowest ratio of churches per population in the country. When Outreach Canada presented a list of Canadian cities with the fewest churches per population, the top five cities were in Quebec (see chart).

The goal set in 1997 was to have one evangelical church for every 2000 Canadians by the year 2015. This goal will perhaps need to be adjusted downward in the light of a number of factors which have made outreach more difficult, including the rapid growth of postmodernism, the poor health of churches (half of new church plants soon close down), the decline in “religious memory” among the general population, and the growth of ethnic minority groups in Canada.

Following the 1997 Church Planting Congress, the Canadian MB Conference established its Key Cities Initiative church planting strategy. Following the 2001 Congress, the Canadian Conference may accept Montreal as its third Key City project.

A group of Mennonite Brethren united in prayer.

Plenary sessions

Six plenary sessions at the 2001 Congress featured four speakers, who all stressed, not strategies for church planting, but the deep changes which must take place in the heart of the believers who will give themselves to church planting.

It’s all about God. The Congress opened with a message by Jacqueline Dugas, director of the Centre for Prayer Mobilization (Every Home for Christ). She stressed the spiritual nature of the church’s mission and the importance of praying to the Master of the mission, who is greater than all the challenges and obstacles which accompany the task.

To give one’s life for the church. On Friday, the speaker was Henry T. Blackaby, a member of the Southern Baptist Convention, author of the book Experiencing God (which has been translated into 49 languages) and a long-time pastor in the US and Canada. He underlined the importance of remaining in the Word of God, which he called “the only manual for church planting strategy”. He had recently returned from Seoul, South Korea, where he witnessed a revival among a group of 500 pastors, which he described as one of the most moving experiences of his life. “What God is doing elsewhere in the world, He can do here. But who can stand when He appears?” he said, referring to the refining fire of Malachi 3.

In the evening, Blackaby invited the church (the body of Christ) to lay down its life in order to save the world. A call to submit to God stirred a strong response among the participants.

Are we in the river or on the bank? Kevin Mannoia, a bishop in the Free Methodist Church and dean of Haggard School of Theology in California, spoke of the great principles which lead to effective church multiplication. These principles will compel the church planter to “change his DNA” or internalize the system of multiplication until it becomes second nature.

In a second message, Mannoia compared the kingdom of God to a river. He invited believers to leave the riverbanks of the kingdom of the world and venture out into the middle of the river until their feet no longer touch the bottom. “God wants the church in the water, where we no longer have control. The river, wide, deep and life-bearing, wants to carry us away on its current.” It was a call particularly to those who were on the point of letting go, making important decisions and leaving the shallows in order to go deeper.

How is your passion? In the sixth plenary session, with an audience of about 200, the Congress concluded with a message by Claude Houde, founding pastor of l’Eglise Nouvelle Vie (New Life Church) in Longueuil, Que., one of the largest congregations in the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. Houde used verses in Isaiah 4 to transmit to his audience a passion which would “open the skies”. He preached with vigour a message fired with his personal testimony in which he said he was a blind man and God was the guide. He concluded with a passionate call in the revivalist tradition, and the congregation responded with a passionate response.

A broad choice of 40 workshops

Participants could choose to attend four out of an impressive range of 40 workshops, 24 in English and 16 in French. Topics included planting a daughter church, recruitment, publicity, vision, overcoming obstacles, finances, prayer, partnering, postmodernism, ethnic communities, urbanization, poverty, tools, etc.

Two workshops were led by Mennonite Brethren. Ewald Unruh, executive director of evangelism for the Canadian MB Conference, led one on “Funding a Church Planting Movement”. Among other things, he offered creative ideas for small denominations which have few resources but need a lot of money to begin church planting. Éric Wingender, president of École de théologie évangélique de Montréal, analyzed the evangelical movement in Quebec in its social and cultural context and offered a long-term strategy for bridging the gap between the church and the community.

Teamwork for a common vision

Mennonite Brethren were one of the best represented denominations at the Congress with 55 members present, about 30 of them from outside Quebec. Twice during the Congress, the Mennonite Brethren got together to talk with one another. Since the 1997 Congress, the Canadian MB Conference has made outreach, then church health its top priorities. A short report from each of the provinces provided a current picture from which participants could consider where to go from here. The MB representatives from each province then met separately to identify ways to expand their Conference and to determine the number of churches they hope to plant by 2010. British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the Maritimes already have plans for expansion in place. Saskatchewan, among others, has had more success in having existing churches plant daughter churches than in planting new churches from scratch; the former method seems to be more effective in an urban setting. The Alberta MB Conference wants to expand the scope of Mission Calgary (the first Canadian Conference Key City) to become Mission Alberta. The Ontario MB Conference is focusing its efforts on Toronto, the second Canadian Conference Key City, where several new churches have already been launched in spite of a number of difficulties. The Quebec Conference, in the midst of the transition from being a mission field to being responsible for its own growth, wants to see its members take more responsibility for its projects and finances.

These general goals were also translated into numbers. At the 1997 Congress, Mennonite Brethren envisioned the planting of 179 churches by 2010. By 2001, 31 new churches have been planted. With this in mind, the projections were lowered slightly to a goal of 174 churches by 2010. However, to this total should be added projections from Saskatchewan, Quebec and the Maritimes, which have not yet established numerical goals.

A brain-storming session was devoted to elaborating a vision and identifying obstacles. This set the stage for a meeting after the Congress of a group including the Canadian Conference executive director, the national and provincial church extension directors and the provincial conference ministers. This group wrote an official declaration as a response to the Congress. This will be published after it is accepted by the Canadian Conference Executive Board in January and will serve as a national action plan.

Interactions between attenders from Quebec and attenders from the rest of Canada were marked by warmth and humour. “I have loved being in Montreal. I go home with a different vision of Montreal,” said one delegate from Ontario, expressing a sentiment shared by many others. The announcement by the Canadian MB Conference Board of Evangelism that it will officially recommend Montreal as the third Key City to the Canadian Conference convention in July was welcomed by many. Before leaving, the delegates from the rest of Canada surrounded the Quebec delegation to pray that the grace of God would be on them. The Quebec delegates in turn surrounded the delegates from the rest of Canada and prayed for them. It was an intense moment of prayer, symbolizing a partnership around a common vision.

 – Annie Brosseau; translated from Le Lien by Jim Coggins

Change In Religious Affiliation

(as a percentage of the Canadian population) Affiliation  1981  1991  Change  2000  Change Roman Catholic 47.3 45.7 -1.6% 40.5 -5.2% Eastern Orthodox 1.5 1.4 -0.1% 1.3 -0.1% Protestant 41.2 36.2 -5.0% 30.0 -6.2%   United Church   Anglican   Presbyterian   Lutheran   Evangelical 15.6 10.1 3.4 2.9 8.0 11.5 8.1 2.4 2.4 10.8 -4.1% -2.0% -1.0% -0.5% +2.8% 8.4 6.9 1.7 2.0 10.7 -3.1% -1.2% -0.7% -0.4% -0.1% Jewish 1.2 1.2 0.0% 1.8 -0.4% Muslim 0.4 0.9 +0.5% 1.5 +0.6% Buddhist 0.2 0.6 +0.4% 0.7 +0.1% Hindu 0.3 0.6 +0.3% 0.7 +0.1% Sikh 0.3 0.5 +0.2% 0.7 +0.2% No affiliation 7.4 12.5 +5.1% 18.5 +6.0%  – Source: Statistics Canada, Outreach Canada

 
 

Average Sunday Attendance

1989 2000 Avg. Annual Growth Rate Evangelical 942,480 1,275,615 +2.8% Catholic   3,316,320   3,001,293 -0.9% Mainline 1,190,154 961,178 -1.9% This means that 4.1% of the Canadian population worship in evangelical churches every Sunday (up from 3.5% in 1989). Outreach Canada estimates that 428,756 people in Roman Catholic and Orthodox denominations and 137,311 in mainline Protestant denominations are also “evangelical” in theological orientation. This means that 1,841,682 Canadians are evangelicals, about 6% of the Canadian population. Evangelicals are growing slightly faster than the population growth rate of 1.1% a year.  – Source: Outreach Canada

 
 

Total Number of Congregations and Growth Rates

1989 1995 2000 Avg. Annual Growth Rate 1989-95 Avg. Annual Growth Rate 1995-2000 Evangelical   7,854   8,848   9,449 2.1% 1.3% Mainline 9,226 8,802 8,506 -0.8% -0.7% Roman Catholic 6,173 5,706 5,589 -1.3% -0.4%  – Source: Outreach Canada

 
 

Strongest Known Church Planting Rates 1998–2000

Smaller denominations:     Association of Vineyard Churches 7.4% Fellowship of Christian Assemblies 5.1% Victory Churches International 3.6% Medium-sized denominations:     Canadian Conference of Southern Baptists 10.4% Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches 5.4% Church of God (Cleveland) 5.3% Larger denominations:     Christian and Missionary Alliance 2.6% Christian (Plymouth) Brethren 0.6% Pentecostal Assemblies 0.2%  – Source: Outreach Canada

 

Population per church in Canada’s largest cities

City Pop. per church Chicoutimi-Jonquière (Que.) 26,500 Québec (Que.) 23,000 Sherbrooke (Que.) 11,000 Trois-Rivières (Que.) 11,000 Montréal (Que.) 9,800 Ottawa-Hull, Ont. 7,400 St. John’s, Nfld. 7,400 Toronto, Ont. 6,500 Sudbury, Ont. 6,300 Oshawa, Ont. 6,000 Windsor, Ont. 4,400 Victoria, B.C. 4,300 Thunder Bay, Ont. 3,800 Hamilton, Ont. 3,700 Calgary, Alta. 3,700 Edmonton, Alta. 3,500 Vancouver, B.C. 3,500 Halifax, N.S. 3,450 London, Ont. 3,300 Regina, Sask. 3,200 Winnipeg, Man. 3,200 Kitchener, Ont. 3,100  – Source: Outreach Canada

 
 

Praying on site with insight

On November 15, immediately preceding the Canadian Church Planting Congress, there was a bus tour of the city of Montreal – a bus tour with a difference. The bus was a comfortable coach with the characteristically unimpeded view of all the sights, full of travellers enjoying their first experience of this world-class city. The tour visited all the places Montreal is famous for, giving opportunity for participants to step out and walk around several places of interest. So, what was so unique about this tour? It was the commentary. Glenn Smith, director of Christian Direction, has lived and ministered in the city of Montreal for over 20 years. As our “tour guide”, he opened up his heart and allowed us to see what he sees in his city More than mere information, he shared fascinating insights that motivated us to care about and pray for the people of Montreal. Whether out loud with our newly acquainted seat partner or quietly lifting our hearts to the Lord, whether in English or in French, prayer was the main item on the agenda for that afternoon. I am grateful for the chance to feel God’s heartbeat for Montreal together with my brothers and sisters from across Canada.  – Sharon Johnson

 

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Last modified October 13, 2006.

© 2006 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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