Third church launched in Rendez-Vous Montreal

The third church of Rendez-Vous Montreal is now underway. Called The Westside Gathering, it will launch public services on September 28.

Rendez-Vous Montreal is the church planting initiative of Quebec Mennonite Brethren churches and the Canadian MB Board of Evangelism. Montreal was accepted at last year’s MB convention as the third city, after Calgary and Toronto, in the Key Cities Initiative.

David and Franca Manafo have been appointed to develop the new English-language church on the West Island, an area of Montreal with a population of 250,000 and fewer than 20 churches.

David was born in Toronto but has lived in Montreal over 20 years. He earned a Bachelor of Theology degree at Eastern Pentecostal Bible College and is working on his Master’s degree in Theology at Concordia University, Montreal. He served as assistant and then interim pastor at Rockfield Pentecostal Christian Church seven years. The past two-and-a-half years he has been involved with The Gathering Café, an outreach and spiritual awareness event for young adults that seeks to help unchurched people make spiritual steps toward understanding the gospel. He is married to Franca, and they have a son, Andrew, 2.

“My wife and I have been praying about planting a church for several years now,” David says, “waiting for God’s timing.” Rendez-Vous resonates with their vision, he says, to reach out in Montreal, probably the most unchurched city in North America. “Our burning desire,” he says, “is to connect people to Christ and to each other.”