Hey everyone. You may have noticed this blog has not been updated in what seems like forever. As we have moved towards launch of course things have gotten a lot busier. We have also started up a blog for the church itself. It can be found at www.grasslandschurch.com/blog. That blog gets updated with some regularity.
Thank you for journeying with us through the process of planting a church on faith. God has proven incredibly faithful to us through our journey, and we really marvel at how He has shown himself not just able, not just willing, but actively doing much much more than we could ask or imagine. I hope your faith has been built up by journeying with us.
Oliver continues to blog sporadically on theological and personal tidbits at www.oliverinthehat.com so if you are into debate and discussion, that’s the place to go. Peace!
God has been at work! I just wanted to get this quick blog up to let you all know that God has been at work in Medicine Hat! If you have been getting our newsletters, you know we have been holding information sessions and they have gone well. More than well in fact, but we are moving onward and upward as God builds momentum and brings people excited to be a part of Grasslands Church together to build His Kingdom.
I wanted to let you all know that our core team is growing! Since the arrival of the Blairs, things have been happening. If I can look ahead by a few weeks, to the arrival of the Greenhows and Megan Kendall in May, we have currently 11 believers who want to see this church move forward! We also have 5 more adults currently in connection with the Blairs who may wind up joining us. Further there are a couple of other families who we have been in contact with who we are currently growing relationships with.
Join us in praising God for this work that is forming! Please pray for us as we will be switching formats to move to a Sunday night meeting at the Southview Church of God. They have graciously opened their doors to us to give us a chance to begin to hold non-public services. We hope to launch into this next phase of the church plant on May 15th.
Tags: church planting, community, core group, launch team, medicine hat, services
I am at the Southwest Focus Retreat for Pastors at the Oaks Conference Centre in Lake Hughes, CA. So far it’s been a really amazing couple of days with leaders, lay and clergy. I have been refreshed doing things I love like hiking and exploring. We have been challenged to think about how God makes us fully alive and restores us when we have lost energy.
We were discussing tonight what that looks like, what challenges it for us right now. Certain things that I am dealing with sprang quickly to mind. I got discouraged because I didn’t follow directions, and I checked in on business at home. I found out there are some issues waiting for me when I get back, and it just took the wind out of my sails.
I began to think about what it means to walk with God. I thought about how when you fail, it is you who fails. Failures weigh me down because I fail a lot. Failures to keep myself from sin, failures at work, failures in my home life. They are everywhere. And I can only blame myself.
Yet, when something goes right, as Christians we give God the glory. It is not us who succeed, lest pride overtake us. It is God, to His glory. So we give all the credit away, in humility, but take all the blame upon ourselves.
This is a recipe for disaster.
But the message of this retreat is the truth of who we are in Jesus. Because of His love for us, because of His sacrifice for us, because of His cleansing of us of our sins, we are wholly clean, and loved without end. We are loved by God, and there is nothing we can do about it.
It is this miracle, this unconditional relationship that changes everything and makes the first two concepts irrelevant. I can blame myself for all my failures, but to God, none of that matters. I can fail at everything – absolutely everything in life, but I can rest in the love of God for me that doesn’t care about those things that I am letting devastate me. I am perfect in the Father’s eyes because Jesus has made me white as snow.
This is a rich truth. I am grateful to God for getting me here at this time.
Tags: failure, love, relationship, salvation
I am pondering the late summer window. We are considering having a week at the end of August set aside for pre-launch outreach. The interesting thing about Medicine Hat (and Alberta) is public school starts the week before Labour Day, which I keep feeling is an opportunity. Parents are stressed (but relieved) to get the kids back into weekday routines, kids are disappointed to be back at school (but happy to renew friendships with kids they haven’t seen all summer). In times of change there is opportunity.
My question to you is this: what ideas can you think of that would be appropriate for such a period? I am thinking something that either saves time or takes the pressure off parents rushing for school supplies, or something that might be fun for the kids who are dealing with the shock of classes and homework again, or maybe something school-related that blesses a school. Ideas please!
Tags: outreach, parents, pre-launch, school
I’ve been wishing I could get back to the concept I started with a few weeks ago, but after two days of thought and energy engaging with Nathan Bryant and Bart Blair about the vision and mission of our church-to-come, now I find the thought developing further.
In my first post, I talked about how it seems that we might have been getting it backwards. In an effort to preserve perhaps the “holiness” of our churches, we have attempted to distance ourselves from people until they share our faith. We don’t really want them with us until we know they are “saved” and then magically, they become perfect like us (snort, and if you actually believe that, I have a deal on some oceanfront property in Saskatchewan for you). So it was fine to lead people to the Lord, but you didn’t really want to be around them until they were in the club. It seems that this is being turned on its head now, with the new idea being welcoming people into your community, and as they get to see your faith lived out between you and the rest of the church (see John 13:35). As they see, and begin to desire this love for themselves, they seek after the cause of this love (see 1 Peter 3:15). This leads them to Christ, but in the context of community.
Some have even gone so far as to say it need not be normative that a person can point to a “moment in time” that they became saved. In fact, many report this reality anyway – that they can’t recall a specific date where they came to believe, but they know they believe now – that they recognize their sin, they have repented of it before God and accepted Jesus’ death on the cross as having made them clean in the Father’s eyes – and brought them into the Family of God.
I think this view has a corollary – that we recognize that the process of discipleship – the process of becoming a fully committed follower of Jesus – is ongoing. Everyone is somewhere on this continuum. Some have surrendered more of their lives to Jesus’ lordship than others. Some have not surrendered at all. It is impossible for us as mere humans to know with certainty the state of anyone’s soul so we must keep our doors open as wide as possible that all may hear and take steps along their own personal continuum towards Jesus.
It occurs to me as a student of Church History that this reintroduces the problem that many people wrestled with in the past. More than one Christian group was formed in an effort to be pure and holy (1 Peter 1:15-16) – the spotless bride of Christ (Eph. 5:27) that we are called to be. What it appears I am advocating is a return to what was first advocated by Augustine – the idea of the church encompassing both the saved and the unsaved. The difference is that I am not suggesting that the unsaved can in any way participate in the ordinances – they are for those with faith in Christ. The challenge is, without omniscience, I can’t know for sure who is who so I am forced to rely on confession and admonition – advising people that these things (Baptism, the Lord’s Supper) are for believers so if you are not all there with respect to Jesus, His his sacrifice for you and His Lordship over you – then you need not participate.
Reaction?
Tags: Augustine, communal, discipleship, ordinances, process, salvation
And all through the church, people debated: Harvest Fest or Trick or Treat?
Jon Acuff asks us what we think of Hallowe’en, and proposes one of three responses. I have a fourth.
Hallowe’en looms like a black stain on the fall for many Christians. It is a dark night, full of the connotations of paganism, spiritism, black magic and occultic practices. In response, many churches have attempted to absent themselves from the holiday by creating “Harvest Festivals” or other activities where kids can approximate the Hallowe’en experience with “good” costumes, free candy, and fun games instead of the door-to-door “trick or treating” and scary decorations.
When our oldest was getting to the age where he might go trick-or-treating, we had to wrestle with this question a bit. We wrestled even more when the church we belonged to had one of these “harvest fests”. Now, as a family we have landed in a different place. We have decided to participate in Hallowe’en.
Whoa! There goes our prayer base! No, please, hear my heart on this. Hallowe’en is not the first pagan holiday that the Church has had to wrestle with. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Christmas, Easter, evangelism, Hallowe'en, holidays, missional, neighbourhood, Paganism, relationships
Pastor Mike Landry of The Link Church out here in Medicine Hat gave me a copy of “The Tangible Kingdom”. I finished it last week and have been meaning to hash out in writing a concept that was new to me.
What has become of salvation? The evangelical concept of salvation has been communicated so often to culture that it has become the butt of jokes: “have you started a personal relationship with Jesus Christ?” “Have you made him your personal Lord and saviour?” Keyword: personal.
Maybe this emphasis on making an individual decision is a by-product of the individualistic self-centred flavour that western society has indulged in for the past 100 years or so. Maybe it isn’t what Jesus had in mind.
I notice that in the writings of a lot of missional thinkers (Halter and Stetzer spring to mind first as they are two I have read most recently), they talk about a reversal of the standard process of evangelism. Instead of the person staying on the outside of the church family until they accept Christ, then they join “the family”, they come, they participate, they integrate, and as a result they come to faith.
It seems to me that this rings true but think about this: they are not coming to a personal faith, they are joining a communal faith. If it sound a little communisty to you, remember monasticism is a Christian tradition that is 1800 years old, and even in protestantism, the Hutterites have been around for 400 years.
Does Scripture back this up? I will look at a few verses next time, but please, if you think of some verses that shed light on the question for or against this view, please share in the comments.
Tags: ed stetzer, Hugh Halter, Hutterites, individualism, monasticism, salvation
One prayer request we have kept before our prayer network has been the calling of team members to join us here. We dreamed that not only would God send us partners in ministry and in life, but that they would have skills and gifts that would complement what we bring.
Ephesians 3:20 always reminds me that our God is able to do more than we could ask or imagine. Yet, I need this constantly reinforced. I need to be reminded, “Dream bigger!” The events of the last month have been a testimony to this truth.
I would like you to meet Bart and Elizabeth Blair. They have been integral parts of the team at Grace Community Church in Mississauga for 9 years. Bart came on as the worship leader at the first Grace Brethren Church in Canada 6 months after they launched. In many ways he has grown with them, but before he even came to them he came with a background in music and the arts. He has a degree in music from the University of Texas and spent several years in children’s theatre before he found his way to Canada. His incredible giftings and passion for leading well have been blessed as he has grown a stellar worship team at Grace.
Together with his wife Elizabeth, they have three children: Sarah-Lynn, Silas and Ephraim. Elizabeth works in the mortgage field, (which complements my real estate business well) and has a passion for touching people’s lives with the love of Jesus. She has been a part of many different outreach ministries at Grace.
The story of how God moved them to begin their journey to Medicine Hat is fascinating, but I can’t tell it nearly as well as they can. Check out Bart’s Blog for their account of God’s calling them.
From our side, we had a hint dropped to us that they were thinking about Medicine Hat at the beginning of August, but obviously they needed a lot of answers – from God and from others with wisdom and discernment to be sure this was God’s will. They also needed to see for themselves what Medicine Hat is like. From a distance, it seems like a tiny town in the remotest part of the prairies (especially relative to Toronto, one of the largest cities in the world!) They planned to visit us for 4 days towards the end of August. We had an amazing time of hearing their heart, where they felt God was taking them, and in turn sharing what caused us to be moved of God to Medicine Hat and why we are in love with this city.
Finally, a week after they left, we got word: they were coming! Wow! They are coming on faith – they both have good careers, their children have good friends, but now they are stepping out as a family for God. They come with no promise of income, no guarantees, but they come because God has called and they have said, “Here I am!” They still need to sell their home and transition out here. We expect them to arrive around Christmas time (what a Christmas gift!) Suddenly we have two people passionate for the Lord, desiring to see a new church birthed here in Medicine Hat, connected with our fellowship, gifted and experienced in ways that we couldn’t imagine!
We’ve been waiting with bated breath to tell you about this but to be fair to everyone in their lives, we needed to let them make the announcement in their way. But now we can celebrate with you all! Thank you for your prayer and keep praying! If God can do this, what is next to come?
Tags: bart blair, core team, elizabeth blair, faith, fellowship of grace brethren churches, grace, medicine hat, mississauga
The short answer is offline.
The slightly longer answer is a little more technical. We did an update to the software that keeps the blog and it didn’t finish the update correctly. Plus, in an effort to save money we decided to move the blog to a new server. Now, we are taking advantage of the “do-over” to change up the look and feel of the blog. This is something we wanted to do a long time ago, but we’re seizing the day now.
So, stay tuned for the island paradise picture top right to change. And also, expect my blog posts to get shorter. I just noticed after importing that I get a bit… long-winded at times.
And shortly I’ll have a more amazing announcement for y’all. The word has been trickling out, but I’ll explain how it all went down shortly.
Tags: announcement, blog, technology
God is Good! On Thursday I completed the last of my real estate exams. This has been a critical step for us in terms of settling into Medicine Hat and becoming self-supporting. Let me explain how this fits into what we are doing here.
When we began to dream about planting a church in Alberta, one of the questions we had to answer was, “how would we support ourselves in Alberta?” That question could have been answered in many ways. We are immensely grateful for everything that Grace Brethren Canada have done to help us get where we are. We can’t imagine where we would be without their investment into us through mentorship, leadership opportunities, chances to join in to the larger Grace Brethren family through participation in ministeriums, district and national conferences, and so many other little ways that have gotten us to where we are today. Still that being said, the reality is with more and more church plants across North America, regardless of organizational affiliation, full-time support is not possible. Grace Brethren Canada is still a small organization and can only support so many full-time staff.
So, when we considered how we would support ourselves, we realized that God had gifted us with several different options. One opportunity which remains as a backup plan is seeing Cheryl utilize her bachelor’s of Nursing degree and broad experience in mental health nursing to obtain employment in that field. However, this remains a backup as with 3 children under 3 in the home, they need a mother’s love right now the most. Myself, I have a background in several fields, but some skillsets require updating to be employable in the field (such as forestry and computer & network support). In looking at my last 9 years in particular, God has been building in me a skillset which emphasizes sales. Interestingly, the particular field in which I have honed these skills has been in working closely with real estate agents across the USA and Canada, helping them do their businesses better. It set me up for considering a new career in real estate.
Real Estate is a field that has a lot of short and long-term potential. Short term, it is a business that builds on itself, and if done with diligence can easily support our family. Long term it has two benefits: the first is scalability: as God builds His church, His people will require more time. Real Estate can be easily scaled to fit in with the time demands as the church can begin to support us. The second long-term advantage is that a successful real estate agent can employ others to help grow the business. Assistants can be brought on to help which are also scalable positions – which can then in turn possibly help to support church planting interns while they grow to plant the next wave of churches to come after. This supports not just a congregation here, but also the long-term goals of Grace Brethren Canada: to see churches planted all across this vast nation!
So, back to today. Having completed my exams, the next step is to onboard with a local real estate company. God has already blessed us with a solid relationship with the manager of the Century 21 office. The man is a Christian and an elder of his church. He has lived in Medicine Hat for over 40 years and has many connections, and the ability to help me grow my business as quickly as possible. I have already explained to him my vision of growing a business for God to see new churches started and he is fully supportive of our goals. This is an absolute Godsend as many real estate managers are only interested in how many sales you make, and care only how you can generate wealth for themselves. With a money-centered manager, it would be hard to proceed with our vision but with the man God has prepared for us, we are very excited to get going.
The reality is that starting a real estate business costs money. There is business software needed to manage all the tools we need such as communications, marketing, advertising, and prospects. There are marketing items like signs, publicity pieces, business cards, and more needed to be purchased through the company. There will need to be advertising purchased to raise my profile in the community. We are believing God for all these funds but we believe that God also wants to work through His Body. So here we are, laying these needs before you, and asking you to consider partnering with us to get our real estate business launched successfully. Here is a breakdown of the expenses that will be entailed:
| Items | Cost |
| Century 21 Onboarding Package (includes company website, profile, business cards, lawn signs, open house signs, access to c21online, and more) | $1400 |
| Professional Contact Management and Marketing System | $479 |
| Professional Website Presence | $419 |
| Initial Advertising | $1000 |
| Total: | $3298 |
For those of you in the USA, you might consider a move to real estate to be foolhardy given the hard economic conditions especially surrounding foreclosures, short sales and such of that nature. In fact, while Canada’s housing market did take a hit as the recession hit, it has in most areas recovered. Alberta was hit harder than some provinces, and the market is slower here but it is by no means as bad as it is in many areas of the USA. There is still a lot of reason for optimism in Alberta, not least of which is the largest driver of employment and wealth here is in Oil, and with oil sitting above $80 per barrel right now, this province is well positioned to flourish in the recovery.
Join us in initiating the next stage our our church planting effort. If you are in the USA you can participate through GBCanada USA and you will be receipted for a charitable donation. Please follow the link to help. If you are in Canada, you can participate through Canadahelps.org and you will likewise be receipted for a charitable donation for your income tax return. We need your help urgently at this point, as the outlay for these expenses will cut significantly into our savings which we are living on until the real estate business begins to produce income. Thanks again for your prayers and encouragement on our journey. We look forward to reporting on what God has in store for expanding His Kingdom in Medicine Hat!
Tags: medicine hat, real estate, support
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