Phase 1 – Community Integration.

Objectives – to integrate family into the city, identify and contextualize vision for new church, grow support network.

May 22, 2010 – Our family rolls into Medicine Hat, as sleet falls from the sky.  So much for the sunniest place in Canada.

June 2010 – Working on wrapping up training to start in Real Estate, transferring insurance, driver’s licenses, etc.

June 13-18 – Great Canadian Adventure.  Community Surveys and service projects with local organizations.

July 2010 – Travel to Ohio to participate in Fellowship’s National Conference.  Invaluable face time with leaders and supporters.  Added new prayer supporters.  Begin attending at the Link Church, a 4 year old church with similar values.

August 2010 – Finish Training, deal with major repair bill for van, launch Real Estate Career.  Also, meet my associate church planter, discover his calling.

September 2010 – Kids start school (first day ever – they had been homeschooled previously).  Start driving School bus for extra cash flow.  Join local ministerium to network with local pastors.

October 2010 – volunteer with Exchange Student Alpha program at the Link.

December 2010 – First listing ever!  Christmas trip to parents’ house.

Phase 2 – Pre-Launch

Objectives – form a launch team continue to gather support, cast vision, invite people into relationship.

January 2011 – transition out of school bussing and into real estate assistant role.  Associate church planter and family arrive in Medicine Hat.

January 8-11 – Participate in Northwest District Ministerium and Church Planter Assessment (added new prayer supporters)

January 31-Feb 2, 2011 – Southwest Pastor’s Retreat (added prayer supporters and a church to participate in Summer’s mission teams)

February, 2011 – Launch our first evangelistic Bible Study.  Invitations extended through various nontraditional means including craigslist and facebook.  Attenders come through craigslist ad.

February 28, 2011 – 1st Information Session.  Over 20 attend.  Form first core group, made up of us, the Blairs, and several new friends from the Info Session.

March 7-11 – Church Planter’s Boot Camp in Minneapolis with Bart.  Invaluable exercise.

March 25-30 – Northwest District Conference.  Added prayer supporters, visited potential financial supporters.

March 31 – 2nd Information Session.

May 2011 – 3 more core team members arrive from Surrey, BC

May 15 – Sunday Night Open meetings begin at Southview Church of God (Anderson)

May 16-18 – Northwest District Focus Retreat

May 31 – end employment as a realtor.  Begin temporary position at Census Canada.

July 12 – Cheryl begins work at the Hospital as a Nursing Educator.

July 16 – Couple from Evangelistic Bible Study accept Christ, renew their vows.

July 31-August 5 – Great Canadian Adventure (USA Mission Week)

August 14-18 – Trans-Canada Summit (First GBCanada National Conference, Canadian Mission Week)

August 28 – Begin another evangelistic bible study with 4 people.  First Sunday morning in the Galaxy Cinemas, Medicine Hat.

August 29 – Launch 2nd Community Group.

Phase 3 – Post-Launch

Objectives: to foster community, encourage commitment, and more towards true community creation (membership).

September 11, 2011 – CHURCH LAUNCH! 174 people in attendance.

September 2011 – numbers taper off from 174 to 115 to 76, by October average remains steady at 70 until the end of the year.

October 15 – Family Fun Day Connection Event. ~30 attend.

October 23 – 1st Lunch With Oliver (Initial Membership Lunch – leading to Bible Study and Membership Class)

October 30 – 1st Baptism Service – 5 Baptized!  3rd and 4th Evangelistic Bible Studies launched (in conjunction with Membership classes)

December 4 – 1st Baby Dedication.

December 24 – Christmas Eve Service at local restaurant.  Dec 25 Sunday morning service cancelled.

January 15, 2012 – Annual General Meeting/Vision 2012/3 more baptisms!

January 29 – launch of a new Evangelistic Bible Study, Discipleship class, and 2 new community groups!

That takes us pretty much up to the present.  We are excited to have 3 or 4 more in evangelistic Bible Studies and are about to celebrate our first crop of 17 members!  God has been so good to us.

January 27, 2008 – (Gospel of John) The Woman at the Well

October 19, 2008 – (Daniel) Faith that Saved a King

April 9, 2009 – (Topical) What is a “Calling”?

August 23, 2009 – (Exodus) The Ten Commandments

November 8, 2009 – (Gospel of Mark) Who is this Jesus?

March 14, 2010 – (Gospel of Mark) The Mystery of the Fig Tree

Before Cheryl and I embarked on this journey towards church planting, we were just a nice couple with three kids attending a church of 1200-1500 people.  A typical churchgoing family in many ways – looking to be spiritually fed, moderately involved, comfortable where we were on the path of the typical Canadian family.   We could look to the future and see our children growing up in the church, attending youth group, going to Bible College maybe, taking the odd vacation to Disneyland, doing our 20th wedding anniversary on Kauai’i where we were married.  Dreaming of a boat and a cabin, maybe near Jasper or Banff was not out of reach.  We led a small group and Cheryl served on the worship team with joy.

Two things changed all that.   The first was after returning from a trip to a Mexican all-inclusive, we both felt burdened by the poverty we saw there, in a place where we were supposed to be just relaxing.  We decided the next time we were able to go on a trip like this, we would try to combine it with a mission trip of some type.  That opportunity came in the winter of 2005.  Pastor Kevin Cavanaugh had just returned from a vision trip to Rwanda and was planning to send 12 people on what was hoped to be the first of many trips to Rwanda to aid in the many needs that are present in this rebuilding nation.  It was at this time that we felt ready to go on a trip and were looking around for an opportunity.  The Missions Pastor, Paul Kostamo, suggested we apply to go on the 3 week trip they had planned for June 2006.  We did, and were amazed that we were one of only two couples selected.  We threw ourselves into preparations for this trip.

June came and went, and we returned at the beginning of July, trying to digest all that had happened.  After a couple of weeks we began to sense that God wanted more from us than just attending church.  At the same time, another factor entered into the picture: a couple of church planters named Philip and Beth Bryant.

They had journeyed all the way from Ontario on a dream of seeing churches start all across Canada.  They were part of a team that had been commissioned in 1997 to start a church planting movement.  They had begun two works in the Toronto area, but felt led to move to the West Coast and initiate a church here.  But first, they had to get settled, and Pastor Kevin had invited them to sojourn here, at Cedar Grove for a year.  When we first connected with them, we didn’t even know what church planting was.  We were comfortable here – Cedar Grove was home.  God didn’t want us to leave a place where we were seeing God work through us and others, did he?

God’s ways are not our ways, lucky for us!  His ways are better, always.  By November, God brought us to a place of open hearts, and we had dinner with the Bryants to find out more about their vision for a new church.  That night we joined the nascent core of Community of Hope.  That night we began a journey that would take us beyond comfort zones (we didn’t just get out of ours, we lost ours!  Is it possible to even get comfortable when there is always another challenge ahead?)  At first we thought we would be just helping out, then it became clear that God wanted to grow us as leaders… then we reached a place where risk entered in.  What if WE were to be the next church planters?  We already had a dream to move to Alberta where I grew up.  What if WE were to plant that church?

Now, we come to this annual general meeting.  It is funny because we still recall the AGM we attended in 2006, when we sat down at a table, and I glanced around, to look at the familiar people, and noticed Philip, looking at us and grinning and waving, and we didn’t even know him!  I turned to Cheryl and said, “Oh no.  You’ll never guess who’s staring at us again!”  She glanced and he was still there. Philip doesn’t remember that moment, but it was then that I determined to find out what the heck a church plant was, and why it seemed that the Holy Spirit was causing us to notice this church planting couple over and over again.

Now, we come back, to thank Cedar Grove for the love and support and opportunity to grow and thrive they gave us.  They provided the fertile garden we began to blossom in and prepared us for replanting in the wilds, where we could bear fruit for God.  We come back to also invite others to continue this journey with us, by praying with us, loving us and supporting us in any way they feel led.

Thank you, Cedar Grove!