It occurred to me yesterday that we have not formally announced the results of the tour that we got back from only 7 days ago.

To go back a couple of steps, let’s talk about Thursday night, March 26.

At this stage, we had just finished a visit to Spruce Grove and Stony Plain, and having talked to my sister and my mother in Edmonton by phone, discovered that our planned overnight at Dawn’s place was not going to happen.  It wasn’t a big deal – only 90 minutes south we knew we had a bed at Cheryl’s parent’s place in Red Deer.  We jumped on the highway south through Devon and that led us straight to… Leduc, and a White Spot for supper.  Kind of funny, when you realize that White Spot is a unique restaurant chain that is a household name in BC, but almost unknown in the rest of Canada.  The fact that we drove right to one of the very few that are not in BC… well it was comfortable.  I made one concession – I didn’t have their “Legendary Burger”.   When in Alberta, you have an Alberta steak.

We meant to stop for dinner, to digest in private the cities we had seen and ask God where our hearts were.  We only brought in two packets – Spruce Grove and Medicine Hat.  Looking back, these were the two we preferred from the start, but having reviewed all the options, we were more certain than ever it was between these two cities.

After sitting down, we both found our hands gravitating to the Medicine Hat material.  We tried to be fair and set up pros and cons for the two cities, but it was clear to us that barring an act of God, Medicine Hat was where we were being led.  There are many reasons, from the superficial to the miraculous.  I’ll start there. (more…)

A bunch of quick things, none of which are postworthy in their own right, but relate to our journey.

• Sunday we had a lady in the church let us know that they have relatives in Southern Alberta who have a Bed and Breakfast.  They have hosted church speakers and evangelists before, and she suggested we contact them for a place to stay as we investigate.
• Saturday night I stayed up far too late with an old friend, talking about life and our church planting dreams.  It is good to have people behind you.
• Speaking of good to have people behind you, I had an old forestry school friend join our prayer network this morning!  It feels like my heart for this calling grows two sizes every time someone unexpected joins our prayer network newsletter list. (By the way, if you haven’t signed up for it yet, it’s on the sidebar to the right.)
• One of my own private plans for the scouting trip was to seek God with a 5 day fast before we leave.  I mentioned that to a couple of close friends and they have courageously volunteered to join me in fasting and praying for God to reveal his plans to us on this trip.
• God’s got a number of challenges for me this week, and I am looking forward to meeting them all head on.  From leading an Awana Director’s meeting to meeting with some friends to deal with some issues, this week has some real experience in store for us both!

That wraps up our look at possible locations.  There are a couple of other slim possibilities, like Airdrie and St. Albert, but they won’t get as much attention, barring God changing our minds in no uncertain terms.

You might also ask, “Why not X or Y community?”  The reality is there are many more communities in Alberta where churches are needed.  Edmonton and Calgary metro areas are the most important, in everyone’s mind.  Paul didn’t go to the country to preach, he went to the cities.

There are several things to consider – one being our own expertise.  It takes a special kind of person to minister cross-culturally with a special gift set, and really neither Cheryl nor I are comfortable in urban culture.  We believe that God wants us to use our gifts in ways that just come out of us – who we are.  And we believe that part of our calling is to teach people that the place where they are at is the place where God calls them to fulfill the Great Commission.  We dream of equipping and discipling people to reach out to the place they are at – their neighbours, their co-workers, and make the gospel a part of the fabric of their lives so that they become the salt and light that God desires all of us to be.

So we have to ask ourselves, who are we?  Are we country folk?  Do we see ourselves as farmers, rural people?  In some ways I wish I was.   I know I am not though.  Do we see ourselves at home amongst the towers of steel and pavement?  Definitely not!  But there are lost people no matter where we look here in Canada – lost hockey moms, lost mechanics, lost truck drivers, lost schoolteachers.  We go to where they are, because they live all around us.  Because they need Jesus, and because we can’t ignore what God put in our hearts long ago.

I still remember long ago, just after I began to follow Christ at 16, I looked at the “missions bulletin board” at my little baptist church.  I admired those people who set aside their comfortable lives in North America to serve people and teach the Gospel.  But God was prompting me even then – “What about the lost right here at home?  They’re everywhere!”  Even when God was not first in my life, I found myself held back – wanting to “get to know my own backyard” before the rest of the world.  As a result, I have driven at one time or another, nearly every highway in BC and Alberta, and many many backroads as well.

I find this is also my passion when it comes to the Gospel – we, right here in Canada, need to hear the Gospel.  So many of us here have been deceived into thinking we know all there is to know about Jesus and about what it means to be Christian.  But we are blinded – perhaps by pride in our beautiful, peaceful lives and culture.  We all need to hear the radical story of God come down, painting a picture in his own blood of what it means to truly love, and saving the world along the way.

It is our hope and prayer that our church would be another extension of the vision of Grace Brethren Canada – to begin a movement of planting churches across Canada.  Even though we might not be called to places like downtown Edmonton or Calgary, or to places of need like Fort MacMurray or Grande Prairie, we hope to build a center that trains and equips people to go and plant in those places.  That Jesus would be preached in every corner of Alberta.  Not that the churches that are there aren’t trying… but that we need all hands on deck to accomplish this massive task that is bigger than any denomination, creed, movement or following.  We need more churches – more ecclesia, more local representations of the Body of Christ, everywhere so that everyone has a chance to accept his Lordship or reject it.

I had some very nice feedback by two men I respect after I preached yesterday.  It was constructive and I appreciated it a lot.

But the most important feedback I had was from my wife.  She said, “In my eyes, you became a pastor today.”

Nothing else matters.  If she believes in me and God is with me, I can do anything.

It occurred to me the first post I did on how we got here, I didn’t really get into much detail about how we leaped from a short term missions trip to Rwanda to where we are right now.  The real impetus came in the fall of 2006.

We heard there was a church planting couple hanging out with our church.  At the time we were attending Cedar Grove Baptist Church, a church of 1200-1400 people in North Surrey.  It’s easy to get lost in a big church like that, but I saw them around once or twice in the halls and at general meetings and such.  It seemed like every time I looked at the guy, Phil, he was looking at me and grinning.  I was thinking, “Who’s this guy grinning at me?” I finally decided that God, or something, wanted me to talk to him.

One sunny day in August, I caught up to him at the bike racks (seriously!)  I was just curious at that stage about what their plan was to plant a church.  I had no idea how one goes about planting a church at that stage.  He invited me out to their core team small group.  At that time, it consisted of themselves and two other couples.

I went home and asked Cheryl if she’d like to come.  She was fine with me going, but “I am NOT interested in planting a church!” (more…)