Religion – General

Is There Good News beyond Toilet Paper and Hand Sanitizer?

by Ross Lockhart. November 30, 2020

“I’m sorry, sir,” the drugstore cashier in New Jersey said politely, “we’re all out of hand sanitizer and the toilet paper is going really fast too.” It was the first week of March and I was on a break from my research and writing in the Princeton Theology Seminary Library. When I had left Vancouver a few days earlier, there was growing concern in the media regarding the virus spreading around the world, but life appeared normal. By the time I got back to Vancouver a few days later, everything was shutting down and we were living fully into the Covid-19 reality that has defined the rest of 2020.

Church-focused adaptive leadership solutions

In the blink of an eye, church leadership has shifted congregations from a known form of leadership to a dizzying array of adaptive leadership solutions. Who could have ever guessed at the beginning of 2020 that so many churches would become little television studios and that we would be experiencing Bible studies, pastoral care and even Communion online? While churches and their leaders have been working hard to care for church members, isolated and anxious during this pandemic, we must also ask how this has impacted our ministries of evangelism – of helping people take steps towards faith in Jesus. Many pastoral leaders are delighted that their online worship attendance has increased compared to what they might see in the pews.

Could this be an evangelistic outreach opportunity? Is it a chance for people to move beyond what Don Everts and others call the first threshold of evangelism, “trust”? Or is it simply a “recycling of the saints,” as believers hop from one online church service to another? And then there is the research from Barna Group suggesting that up to 1/3 of regular worshippers have given up on connecting with their congregation online during the pandemic. Australian missiologist Mike Frost pushes this further by wondering if the online buffet of worship services might set back the gains of the missional church movement and return us to an attractional model of church, whereby people are encouraged to be consumers of religion looking for the best “worship production.”

Evangelism and a community of affable agnostics

But do you notice how all of these questions are still church-focused, and not directed towards the world around us that Jesus died to save? While some in the church have assumed that a global pandemic would bring people flooding back to church for answers and assurance, for those of us who live in highly secularized places like Vancouver there’s no such thing as “returning” to church. So, what might evangelism look like to a community of affable agnostics in a pandemic who, while fearful and anxious, have never turned to God before in their lives?

Of course, a pre-Covid church too often assumed that our secular neighbour was really just an anonymous Christian, to borrow Karl Rahner’s language. In other words, the church assumed that in a time of crisis, people would naturally turn towards God like Daniel did in the lion’s den or Meshach, Shadrack and Abednego did in the fiery furnace. But stop and think: in those cases, their faith in God got them into trouble. Instead, this is a good time to check our assumptions from a pre-Covid church about what our secular friends think they really need.

With Boomers and Gen Xers, the line was what? “When they have children of their own, they’ll come back to church.” For Millennials we said, “They’re spiritual but not religious.” In other words, don’t worry, their vague spiritual references are really just an underdeveloped Christianity. As Jen Twenge’s book iGen demonstrates through solid research, the next cohort – Generation Z – is now often neither spiritual nor religious. We are fully secularized as a society, living into what Charles Taylor would call secularity 3.

Jesus at work in our relationships close to home

But what if God was giving our churches the opportunity to learn more about our actual neighbours, secular or otherwise, in this time of disruption? What if, like Jay Pathak and Dave Ruyon’s book The Art of Neighboring, we were to pay (pray?) attention more closely to sharing life and attending to the presence of Jesus at work in our relationships close to home, including those that we see more often now since so many are working from home? What if, instead of an evangelism program, we challenged our church members to see themselves as evangelists, or perhaps first and foremost what Alan Roxburgh calls “detectives of divinity”, wherever God places them?

Could we make room in our online worship not just to comfort the faithful but to have “God sightings” that allow us to share where we have seen the Triune God at work? Could we have prayer requests for specific neighbours and friends whom we long to see in a relationship with Jesus? Could the Word preached and the bread broken focus on equipping us as missionary disciples, saved to be sent into a world that is fearful, anxious and ready for redemption? What if this time of isolation was understood as a time reminiscent of Luke 10, where we have been sent on a mission to the places we call home in order to testify to the saving work of the Triune God in our midst?

Will Jesus rejoice when we return together in the church building after all of this is done, like the disciples regrouping at the end of Luke 10, or will we look back and discover, as the servant did in Matthew 25, that the talent we were given has been buried just when it was needed most by the world?

Preaching on Evangelism: Three Key New Testament Passages

by Philip Der. November 3, 2020

When I was a newly ordained preacher, my hope was that once I preached on evangelism, my congregants would go out and share the good news with others, and that church membership would grow steadily from that point on. After many years of ministry, that hope has been disappointed time and again. As preachers, we might want to blame this state of affairs on parishioners, reasoning that they are slow to accept and listen, or that they are too unenthusiastic to act. Yet we all know that laying blame on others without exploring the root cause of the issue is futile. So how can we, as preachers, best encourage our people to share their faith with the many people whose lives intersect with their own?

After doing much listening, I came to discover the following three reasons for my congregants’ lack of passion for evangelism, and three passages of Scripture that, when preached well, could help address these challenges.

Not that excited about their belief or their community of faith.

“John 15:1 -17, “I am the Vine, you are the branches”, is a great place to start to counteract a lack of passion for the faith. It’s pointless to preach on evangelism if our church community lacks a deep connection with Jesus and with one another. If a newcomer walks into a church and finds it to be cold and unfriendly, it is very unlikely this person will return. Hence we must first work on building a loving community before asking our members to reach out to others.

Jesus asked us to abide in him as he abides in us (John 15:4). If we depart from him, we can do nothing (John 15:5). Jesus’ commandment was ”Love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12). We must encourage church members to love one another by caring, listening, supporting, and praying for each other. With permission, we can give real-life examples in our sermons to congratulate some of their good works. I have found that when positive energy is instilled in the community from the pulpit, members feel acknowledged and recognize that their pastors appreciate their ministries. It is then more likely that they will do more and also feel great about their church.

Everyone needs encouragement and appreciation, and the Church is a good place for us to practice love. Building up a Christlike and loving community within our church is a key first step in encouraging evangelism. People in the world long to belong to this kind of community, and Christians who feel positive about their church are naturally inclined to invite people to ‘come and see’ for themselves.

No idea how to start off a conversation about their faith or what to say.

John 4:7-26, 26-42, “The Woman by the Well”. Jesus often spoke to strangers. He started a conversation with a stranger by asking for something, for a drink of water. He did not tell her that she needed to confess her sins and repent. Instead, Jesus asked her for something that he did not have.

If in trying to share our faith we try to sell something, or if our talk makes people feel bad about themselves, our dialogue will go nowhere. Asking for help is a way to empower others to trust us. It is often a good way to start a conversation. When the woman was curious about a Jew speaking to her, Jesus then invited her to ask him for living water. This time she was really interested in getting the living water, which would quench her thirst forever.

From verses 9-15, we notice how Jesus’ conversation was creating interest and finding common ground. Likewise, in our conversations with others we should create curiosity and find shared ground. Ultimately, we hope our conversation will lead to Jesus, the Messiah (John 4:26). The Samaritan woman, stigmatized by having been with so many different husbands, was changed from being isolated and ashamed to courageously telling others about Jesus and about her past (John 4:39). It was meeting Jesus that brought about this dramatic change. The rest of the encounter was the work of the Holy Spirit.

Hence, our preaching on this passage should remind our people that conversations should always ultimately point people to Jesus. When others meet Jesus, the Holy Spirit leads them into relationship with God.

Don’t know enough about the Bible to tell others about Jesus.

The irony here is that no one in the Bible knows the whole of Scripture. What made people become evangelists was not how much they knew, but rather how much they trusted the Holy Spirit. Hence, a third key text for preaching on evangelism is Acts 8:26-40, “Philip and the Ethiopian Official”.

Philip already had a successful ministry in Samaria (Acts 8:5-8) where crowds listened to his preaching, he cast out many evil spirits, and healed the sick. Nevertheless, the angel of the Lord sent him to minister to one man, an Ethiopian eunuch, on a road in the wilderness. A lot of the time we do not understand God’s will and direction to us as Christians. The key, however, is to trust in and submit to the Lord. We are God’s servants and we are Jesus’ witnesses. We should be ready to follow his lead, even if it is to talk to just one person in the wilderness. When the Spirit calls, we should be ready to follow, even when we are in the prime of our ministry.

Philip realized that he was part of Jesus’ sent community. Ministry is not about our success, but it is about the Missio Dei, the mission of God. When the Spirit sent Philip to the wilderness, he went. When the Spirit urged him to go over to the Ethiopian’s chariot, he did. He was no doubt surprised that an Ethiopian official was reading a passage about the suffering Messiah from the book of Isaiah (Isaiah 53). We have no idea why this Ethiopian was reading the book of Isaiah or why he became interested in the Saviour. We only know that the Holy Spirit worked beyond anything we could have imagined. This remains true today.

James Hunter would describe Philip’s action as “Faithful Presence.”^[1] It means that our presence with others represents God’s presence among us. We only need to be faithful to the Spirit. The Holy Spirit will show us what to do and what to say. As God is faithful to us, we are to be faithful to others too. Evangelism is not simply about telling others to believe in Jesus; it is about God’s Spirit working in us.

Take heart, preachers!

God has given us the privilege of growing the people of God in the faith so that they can faithfully share what they’ve come to know with the people all around them. May your preaching of these three texts, and many others, encourage the faithful witness of Christians in all our churches and right across our land.

^[1] James Davison Hunter, To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World (New York: Oxford UP, 2010), 244.

Doing Evangelism in ‘the New Normal’: Stories from around the World

by Jonathan Tysick. October 1, 2020

According to two recent studies, Canadians are more anxious, depressed and lonely in light of “the new normal” that the COVID-19 pandemic has thrust upon us since March 2020.[1] In one study, nearly 25% of respondents said that they were drinking more alcohol in response to these mental health struggles.[2] In more encouraging news, data from 95 countries has shown that Google searches related to prayer are at an all-time high, as much as 50% greater than before the COVID-19 pandemic. [3] Furthermore, Bible apps are being downloaded at unprecedented rates and people seem more spiritually hungry than at any time in recent memory.[4]

Learning from others

How can we as the Canadian church meet anxious, spiritually hungry people and share the good news of Jesus with them while being vigilant regarding COVID-19 health protocols? As North American church leaders, we can often tend to feel isolated, forgetting that our South American, African, European, Asian and Australasian brothers and sisters in Christ are facing similar challenges related to sharing the Gospel during the pandemic. How have individuals, churches and ministries in these settings been sharing the Gospel in their unique contexts, and what can we learn from them?

In Togo

In the small West African country of Togo, the government put measures in place preventing gatherings of 100 people or more, closing borders and calling recent travellers to self-isolate. While respecting these restrictions, some missionaries in Togo have been able to share the good news through their “End Bible Poverty Now” ministry. Cameroonian missionary Moise Ndjomou (serving with the organisation Youth With a Mission or YWAM) and his co-workers have distributed over one thousand memory sticks containing audio Bibles to nominal Christians and non-believers. Many of these people are coming to faith in Christ or seeking greater discipleship as a result of hearing Scripture in their mother tongue for the first time. Despite the difficulties of conditions due to the pandemic, Ndjomou is determined to continue in this ministry, saying that “everyone has the right to listen to the word of God in their mother language.” Is there any way that we as Canadians can share Scripture with people who have never had the opportunity to engage with it?

In Singapore

In the Southeast Asian city-state of Singapore, strict COVID-19 related restrictions were put in place, resulting in the majority of the population being homebound (except for essential errands and medical appointments) between April 7^th and June 20^th.[5] In light of this, Pentecostal pastor Daniel Joseph (a Singaporean now living in Canada) of Outreach Revival Ministries constructed an evangelism course with the goal of equipping Singaporean young people to share the good news of Christ over social media. The fifteen participants then put their recent training into practice by hosting several evangelistic events over Zoom that were centred on basic apologetic questions about the Christian faith. Joseph is pleased with how these young people are now excited to share the Gospel and how seeds of hope are being planted online: “My firm conviction is that every challenge is an opportunity for the Gospel to spread.” How can we as the Canadian church equip people to share the Gospel online? How can we use technology to share the good news of Christ with people?

In Portugal

Saulo Porto, a Brazilian missionary in Portugal (also with YWAM), is using Instagram and art to undertake this task. Although not usually very active on social media, Porto was encouraged by friends to become more engaged in light of the pandemic. Since May 12^th he has been painting a watercolour picture every day and posting it to Instagram alongside reassuring words that encourage people to seek an active relationship with God. Porto says, “My goal is to give hope and disciple people in a very simple way.” Since this time he has seen the number of his Instagram followers nearly double (to around 3500) and his beautiful art has been published on various Christian and non-Christian websites and is sparking conversations around the world. You can check out his work @sauloportomme on Instagram.

In South Africa

South Africa has had one of the strictest COVID-19 lockdowns in the world, with residents being confined to their homes (except for grocery shopping and medical appointments) from March 26^th—May 1^st.[6] Regardless of this, Phinius and Katlyn Sebatsane, a South-African/American missionary couple serving with YWAM in Cape Town, have continued their ministry to the homeless. They share the Gospel and provide trauma counselling, job training, and opportunities for discipleship to destitute people in the beach suburb of Muizenberg. Because of the government-imposed ban on the sale of alcohol and tobacco products, many people the Sebatsanes serve have experienced forced abstinence from alcohol and drugs and have a renewed desire for sobriety and rehabilitation. Describing their ministry, Phinius Sebatsane says, “These people are not our projects, but our family…we seek to give them a hand up, not a handout.” Who are the most vulnerable in our own Canadian communities and how can the Church meet their holistic needs during these difficult times?

In the UK

Despite COVID-19 restrictions in the United Kingdom, Ackroydon Community Church (Church of England) in South West London is attempting their best to do just that. Community outreach pastor James Holloway says, “Right now we have the opportunity to show those in need the love that Christ has lavished upon us – it’s time we start loving our neighbours in practical ways.” The church has been doing this by visiting government housing in their area, knocking on every apartment and ensuring that people in need are connected to charities that provide food and children’s educational activities. This has also led to non-Christians joining online evangelistic programs such as Alpha and greater discipleship for those who are already believers.

In the face of these dark times confronting our world, may we be encouraged that our Father is drawing many people to himself from every nation. And may Canadian believers, pastors, and churches across our land be similarly encouraged to follow the lead of the Spirit of Christ who continues to be at work and present in his international and diverse body.

[1] https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/anxiety-and-depression-have-spiked-among-canadians-survey-1.4919741 and https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/camh-mental-health-canadians-1.5614447 .

[2] https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/camh-mental-health-canadians-1.5614447

[3] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/climate-and-people/pandemic-prompts-surge-interest-prayer-google-data-show/

[4] https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/religion/2020/04/how-coronavirus-leading-religious-revival

[5] https://www.gov.sg/article/circuit-breaker-extension-and-tighter-measures-what-you-need-to-know

[6] https://coronavirus.westerncape.gov.za/frequently-asked-questions/about-lockdown/frequently-asked-questions-about-lockdown-alert-level-5

Engage Your Friends’ Spiritual Questions: Run Alpha in the Workplace

by Liam MacKichan. September 2, 2020

Questions can be scary – particularly when they are asked of us and we feel as if we do not have an adequate answer. What is the last question someone asked you about God? More specifically, what is the last question someone asked you about God that you could not answer?

Questions can also be powerful – particularly in conversation, as a means of revealing our intentions, misconceptions, and desires. What is a significant question you find yourself asking God in the season you find yourself in today?

Questions about life, faith and God.

Questions also revealed an opportunity to run Alpha in my workplace. I found that many of my coworkers had questions about life, faith and God. While nearly everyone I work with was open to discussing these questions (or debating them, in a few cases), I found myself frustrated at the lack of opportunity to have these conversations. Many people work late and some commute in from far away, catching trains out of the city immediately after work. Most days, there was little time before or after working hours to meet with my coworkers.

Coming home from work one day, I went to God in prayer and asked what he was already doing in my workplace and how I could participate in his work. Over the course of the next few weeks, I received growing clarity about what God was doing. He was leading me to engage with my colleagues’ spiritual questions. I thought of The Alpha Course.

I was initially disappointed when I learned from our Human Resources representative that I would not be able to hold meetings for Alpha in the boardroom at work. Yet, shortly afterward, I was drawn into several fruitful conversations about faith at the staff Christmas party. Eventually, God made a space for me to host Alpha at St. Andrews Church, located next to my office. The group met weekly and consisted of, on average, six or seven people who work in and around the downtown area. We worked through the twelve sessions of Alpha, replacing the Alpha Weekend with an Alpha Lunch.

They actually came back.

What I learned throughout this experience is that questions can be left unanswered. In fact, having all the answers all of the time can be suspicious. How can we expect people to be open and vulnerable with us if we are not open and vulnerable about our own questions and doubts? Despite the many questions I did not answer (or could not answer), I found people coming back.

What came as no surprise, but is worth emphasizing here, is the absolute centrality of relationship when it comes to evangelism. Relationship with those we are reaching out to, yes, but even more importantly, our relationship with Jesus and his body, the Church. We will not be effective participants in God’s work in the world around us if we are not daily resting in our relationship with Jesus and persistently pursuing maturity in Christ through prayer, community and studying God’s Word. Notably, the further and more dependently I leaned into prayer, the more I saw God moving in people at our Alpha gatherings.

Two individuals stayed after the Holy Spirit session and expressed desires to be filled by the Holy Spirit. One individual, a good friend, had been slowly growing in his faith throughout Alpha. The other individual, a newer friend, was long familiar with the concept of Jesus but had no faith of his own.

While only time will tell how they move forward with this commitment, God certainly used this workplace Alpha course to begin stirring up faith in the people who attended. After Alpha, God brought together a group of about ten people working in the downtown area who expressed interest in meeting once a month to pray for our various workplaces. God is not done drawing people to himself and he invites us to partner with him in this work!

How well do you know the people around you?

How well do you know the people around you? Right now, select either your workplace or your neighbourhood before you continue reading. Think of the two or three coworkers or neighbours that are in closest proximity to you. Do you know their names? The name of their significant other or their children? Do you know a bit of their story or their interests? Are you regularly praying for them?

For those of you who were able to do this easily, praise God. You are loving your immediate neighbours well. Now try to do this for five or six of your closest neighbours or coworkers. For those who could not do this easily, praise God. He is working in the lives of these people and it is not too late to begin partnering with him.

In either case, in the next week put aside twenty minutes and make a map outlining what you do know about your coworkers or neighbours. Begin spending a few moments each day praying about each of these people, that God would reveal opportunities for you to begin getting to know them, loving them and bearing witness to the hope you have in Christ. Then, put this map somewhere you will see it each day. Update this map, add details, include more people. For those of us humans who are inclined to forgetfulness, this is a powerful way of reminding us to pray for those around us. It also has the encouraging effect of tracking what God has been doing in the lives of the people around us.

Speak up.

A tension in evangelism that I still wrestle with is how to balance between the extremes of living out our faith without words, so that others see genuine faith in action, versus only using words to express our faith. There is a saying I have heard several times while growing up in the church that says, “Preach the Gospel at all times. Use words if necessary.” While I readily acknowledge the importance of having our lives align with the words we say and the centrality of loving our neighbours well, it is naïve to think that words are not necessary in preaching the Gospel. We know God through his words revealed to us through the Bible. God spoke the universe into creation. We as members of the church exist to know and enjoy God and to participate in his redeeming work in the world. This will require words. I would prefer the familiar statement be revised to read, “Preach the Gospel at all times. Use words too, they’re necessary.” In fact, using words was crucial in getting to know my coworkers and answering their questions.

Ask.

So, what is God doing in your workplace? In your school? In your neighborhood? How can you participate in that? Ask. Seriously. Take a few minutes now and ask God what he is already doing in the people around you. Ask him how you can participate in his redeeming work in your spheres of influence. Then, ask again tomorrow, and the next day. Patiently and persistently pursue God in prayer. Ask him to make clear to you what he wants to do in and through you for the sake of the people around you. Get together with some others and ask, search Scripture for wisdom, and pray. Then take the bold step of asking your non-Christian coworkers to explore their spiritual questions and the answers offered by Christianity. I am not expecting that your next step will or even should be running Alpha (this may be inappropriate or ineffective in many contexts), but I do expect that God will use you to make the mystery of Christ known among the people you do life with. I felt God was asking me to trust him in this way, by running Alpha. When you sense something, faithfully try it, and watch for how God uses it. Take seriously God’s promise in John 14:14, “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”

How an Old Cathedral Has Been Reaching New Canadians

by James Liu. July 22, 2020

The Cathedral Mandarin Ministry is a witness to God’s marvelous work in the mission field at our doorstep: secular urban Canadian society. But who knew he’d use an Anglican cathedral in the heart of downtown Toronto to reach these people?

I’d like to briefly introduce the history of the Cathedral Mandarin Ministry, which started in 2013. At its inception, there were no Mandarin parishioners at the Anglican cathedral of St. James. We tried many ways to invite Mandarin people to attend the Sunday services and other church events at the Cathedral. Thus, we started the evangelical mission to the Mandarin people.

Problems and solutions

Mandarin speakers felt that the most difficult part of the regular English Sunday services was not the language, but rather the liturgy. They were not sure when to stand, sit or kneel, how to sing the hymns, or how to respond. It was too hard and too confusing for them to follow. We saw this as a great opportunity to gradually teach them the Christian faith through the liturgy, which proved to be a key tool and conduit of our faith.

We wrote a series of lessons on liturgical responses in Anglican worship, from the entrance rite to the recession. More importantly, we taught why we were doing what we were doing, which is the content of our faith. These lessons evolved into a course, Basic Catechism. Each of the 25 lessons focuses on a different part of the liturgy. This course began to draw a lot of interest, connecting people to our Sunday Service, and helping them to better understand the theological significance of the liturgy.

A developing Mandarin ministry

Initially, we went to the nearby Tim Hortons to study after the English service and in 2014 welcomed our first baptism. Our Chinese Fellowship started with around five people in the second floor kitchen in the Cathedral Centre learning the Basic Catechism. In 2015, 10 people received baptism and confirmation, after which we started a Sunday Faith group meeting after we had all attended the 11 a.m. English service together. On the First Sunday of Advent that same year we started our Chinese Service of Morning Prayer in the Lecture room of the Cathedral Centre and in the following 3 years had an average of 15 people receiving baptism and confirmation each year.

September 2017 saw the first Chinese Sunday service in the Cathedral nave, and on February 18, 2018 we began a weekly Chinese Eucharistic Service at 1:30 p.m.. At the 2019 Great Easter Vigil, we joyfully baptized and confirmed 19 people. Gradually we developed other Chinese ministries, such as a children’s Sunday school, a choir, and a new Cathedral Chinese website.

The Anglican liturgy – the expression of our faith

One aspect of our ministry needs to be highlighted: our huge investment of effort in studying the Chinese liturgy. Since China is generally an atheistic country, most people do not have a background in the Christian faith. Even among the minority Christian population, there is little to no denominational teaching or background since the official Chinese Church has no denominational affiliation. This means that there is very little liturgical reference material in Mandarin. To fill this gap, we diligently researched the much earlier Chinese Anglican Missal Book and Prayer Book, and more contemporary Chinese prayer books. We compared and studied Chinese Anglican prayer books from all over the world. Finally, we edited and translated the most faithful Chinese Morning Prayer and Eucharistic service liturgy most like the Canadian Anglican prayer book, which we now use in our ministry. At the same time, it has become the core module of our Chinese ministry. We have clearly seen that the liturgy is the treasure of our Anglican church. It is an expression of our faith which needs to be treasured, as it leads people into faith in Christ.

The cathedral Model

Any process of any mission needs to be meticulously analyzed and strategically planned. So it is with the Cathedral Mandarin Ministry. We started with research and study, and this resulted in a practical report. This report was not only based on some digital figures, but gave an overview of current Gospel-sharing and disciple-making methods, reflecting upon, analyzing and summarizing them. The actual practice derived from this report has then been continuously adjusted. The whole system is designed for our liturgical church context. We call this method of ministry The Cathedral Model.

Despite its name, the Cathedral Model is not a ministry that has to be situated in a cathedral, but is suitable for any local church. In a nutshell, it is a system based on the liturgy that is composed of three interconnected parts that advance from Gospel sharing, to Disciple making, to Life nurturing. The liturgy threads through the whole course to lead a person, even without any Christian faith background, to clearly know his or her faith identity. This Cathedral Model draws non-Christians to the church, and cultivates them to become mature Christians, committing themselves to their local church, engaging in serving the church, and growing their spiritual life with God.

Just as liturgy is the expression of worshiping God, its essence has surpasses the limitation of language and culture, manifesting the sacraments, which happen in eternity. Therefore, the Cathedral Model has a very clear vision and message: that we are one ‘Family’ that transcends language and ethnic backgrounds, and extends across the centuries. “The Mandarin ministry is not a parallel church within a church; we are part of this local church, St. James Cathedral.

Many Anglican scholars agree that Anglican theology and the Anglican faith are expressed in the Anglican liturgy. It is not something that becomes out of date, nor is it a new method. Rather, the liturgy is an inheritance of our ancient faith. Through it, our Church can find new vitality, and become the conscience of our society and the light of the world; drawing more people to the table of the Lord, and growing in the Kingdom of Heaven.

An article about Rev. James Liu’s ministry during the pandemic was published in the Anglican Journal in April, 2020.

My Cycling Group and Communicating the Faith

by Leigh Silcox. May 27, 2020

Being immersed in a strong Christian community, as I was during both seminary and doctoral work in theology, is simultaneously challenging, gut-wrenching, transformative, and joy-filled. It was the training, discipline, stripping, and rebuilding of both mind and character that happens when one commits to follow a particular vocational path as part of one’s life of faith. I was, and am, grateful for this experience. It truly is all one can really expect from a program that wants to rigorously train someone to proclaim the Gospel in a nation that does not know the triune God of our Scriptures. But as with any immersive program, it can also form a type of experiential bubble.

Other bubbles

Bubbles are not just found in Christian circles. Most companies have their bubbles. These bubbles occur simply because people within a given organization develop an ethos or way of life that is different from other organizations. There are distinct expectations about how one uses one’s time; how one behaves; how relationships work, their formality or informality; the ‘textbook way’ to do things and the way that organization does things. It includes language, often terms, phrases, words, descriptions, shortcuts, or subtext that one must know in order to participate and to ‘do well’.

The difficulty arises when people become so formed and shaped by the ethos of their organization that they become unable to empathize – to understand another’s perspective – with people outside their organization. This can be a particular problem for Christians and I would suggest that this is one of reasons that Christians either a) tend to alienate people outside the Church when they speak to them about the faith; or b) tend to be afraid to share their faith with those outside the Church and so compartmentalize ‘church stuff’, separating it from ‘life stuff’.

My sports bubbles

One of the best things I did during my seminary and doctoral training was to involve myself in communities where not only did I have an outlet from work and study, but I was also exposed to a diversity of belief frameworks. This pressed me to think constantly about how to communicate the faith to people who have no belief in the supernatural; who have been harmed by the Church, either by gossip, arrogance and envy, or by some form of abuse; those who are frankly indifferent to God, or who believe that while God might be great, his people are wicked, or potentially disprove God’s own words. These are all responses to the Christian faith that I have heard while being involved in university sports (rowing, rugby, cross-country skiing) and sports throughout the City of Toronto (track and cycling).

Whether they realize it or not, these teams and clubs actually form the foundation of community that carries with it the same potential for exclusivity (terms, phrases, fitness levels, equipment, financial capacity, talent capacity) that the Church does. However, this community also carries with it the capacity to gather others in – if it is willing to engage others with charity, love, peace, kindness, gentleness, self-control, discipline, focus, building others up, loving one’s neighbour, helping to nurture the other, and shunning bitterness, envy, prolonged anger, arrogance, and hatred – so they might learn how the particular sport is done. I have watched people go from novice cyclists (who would walk most of the obstacles on our local trails, were unsure of what to wear or what equipment to bring; how to get on and off the bike without falling over, used incorrect ways of speaking about training or equipment or totally failed in training for an event) to holding their own, setting both personal, and in some cases, community records. I have pointed out this analogy to team/clubmates who say that Christianity is exclusive and judgmental. This demonstrates that all humans have the propensity to indulge the sins that underlie exclusivity (acting out of fear, anger, bitterness, envy, arrogance, or evil inclinations) and it presses them to reconsider their own judgment of the Church.

Learning from my cycling group

My cycling group has taught me that every aspect of life belongs to God. Whether positive or negative witness to him, he takes all of it up. Having done this, he has set us free from the fear that God does not exist – is a figment of our collective anxiety – and the fear that we cannot accomplish our own salvation, or the salvation of others. And being set free from fear, we can actually step out of the ‘safety’ of the community in which we worship – the Church – into the world.

We can listen with the gifts of the Spirit that culminate in the concept of empathy (faith, hope and love). We can then find the common patterns of life, the common underpinning reasons – emotional, physical, experiential – that prevent people opening up to receive the grace of God that is there with them already, provident over all things. Thus, having travelled with God throughout our own experiences, we can share these in response to the particular issues of another person’s life.

In this way we communicate the faith not in propositions to be memorized or rules to be followed, but as a salve for suffering that is common to all, as an adventure of pursuing the universal origin, truth and order of all things; as a pursuit of love in hope and faith that casts out the fear that prevents us from receiving the fullness of who we are.

Church Redevelopment: What, Why, How?

by Jason McKinney. February 27, 2020

The following is not intended as a guide for churches that are already engaged in building redevelopment projects. It is meant instead as a tool to aid congregations who may be in the early stages of discernment and to help spark the imagination of churches who may not have considered redevelopment as a matter of mission and ministry. Redevelopment is a matter of mission and ministry!

What is Redevelopment?

There are many ways the built form of a church can be modified. Somewhere between renovation and conversion lies redevelopment. Renovation (like upgrading a worship space or creating an accessible entrance) usually does not involve a fundamental change of use or require significant investment from outside of the congregation or denomination. A conversion, on the other hand, implies a complete change of ownership and use. It is not uncommon for disestablished churches in urban centres to be converted into condos or pubs. Clearly, this is not the kind of religious conversion the church is meant to be about. Redevelopment, then, refers to a modification of the built form of the church which entails a partial change of use, while not ceasing to function as a place of worship, mission and ministry. Redevelopment will almost inevitably involve new partnerships with non-church operators, developers, and investors.

Why Redevelopment?

This will be a new paradigm for many within the church. But we are in a new era. The National Trust for Canada estimates that 9,000 church buildings will be converted over the next decade. This number is significant, but it shouldn’t be a surprise given the rapid decline in religious affiliation in Canada since the 1950s. Indeed, the fastest growing “religious” demographic in the country consists of those who identify as having “No Religion.” The so-called ‘nones’ made up 4% of the Canadian population in 1971 and jumped to nearly 25% in 2011. We might say that supply is outstripping demand when it comes to single-use church buildings. And there is little reason to assume this trend will change.

Lower attendance and decreased revenues in churches are compounded by increased expenses from deferred maintenance and aging infrastructures. These are sobering realities that should awaken us to a problem. But it is also an opportunity – an opportunity to reimagine ministry by reimaging what we do with our church buildings.

What if we thought of church buildings as key assets in a full and integrated vision of contextual ministry? What if we considered not just the financial, but also the ecological, social, and spiritual potential of our buildings?

How do churches redevelop?

By letting vision, not crisis, drive the process

Root the process in prayer and reflection on scripture. The church has an older, deeper, and more demanding call upon it than private landowners. Dig deep into the scriptures and the tradition to find these sources. Don’t just ask, but listen in your prayers to what the Spirit is calling you to.

Get to know your building. Understand the built form of your church and its role in your ministry and in your community. Is it helping you to accomplish your ministry goals (build on that!) is it hindering your ministry goals (problem solve from there!).

Consult. Ensure the process engages the full range of stakeholders from beginning to end. With such high-level and sometimes sensitive issues, experts and visionaries can often move quickly and leave important stakeholders behind.

By ruling out the non-starters

Engage the relevant stakeholders within the church: clergy, staff, lay leaders, opinion shapers. Become aware of the structures and policies that govern church properties. In particular, consult with your denominational leaders and relevant staff.

Learn about the redevelopment process. Connect with churches that have redeveloped their properties. Reach out to one of the many organizations engaging churches in this process. Just be “wise as serpents” (Matt 10:16) in the process. Do not commit to binding partnerships hastily!

Consult with the community. Local community partners may have a stake in your redevelopment project that you are not aware of. They may become your best ally in the process. But you also want to be aware of any potential NIMBYism. Further, if the church’s ministry is to the community, then the community is one of the best places to begin discerning a redevelopment project. You will also want to have your city counsellor on side as soon as possible.

By focusing on impact

Financial: Long-term sustainable ministry is the goal here. For that you need capital to begin the process and revenue to keep it going. Be prepared to talk numbers!

Spiritual: If church redevelopment is about diversifying the uses of church buildings while maintaining its use as a place of worship, mission and ministry, then any redevelopment will need to enable and enhance the capacity for Christian communities to worship, serve, and disciple.

Social: If your congregation is already having an impact in the neighbourhood, redevelopment can help to encourage that work. But this is also an opportunity to increase impact by adapting the built form to current needs and opportunities in the community.

Ecological: “The most environmentally sustainable building there is is the building we have,” an architect once told me. We can’t all build LEED certified churches. So think in terms of decreasing the carbon footprint of the buildings we have and increasing their resilience.

This is a unique and challenging moment for the church. In order not to be undone by the immensity of the challenge, we need to have a clear view of the situation and the courage to act. When it comes to the built form of the church it must be admitted: most of our buildings were constructed for a church that no longer exists. We need a new form of church: a new built-form for the church that does exist. The process, and its results, will look different for each congregation. But we need to begin re-thinking, re-imagining, and in many cases re-building.

The history and hope of LIFT Church

by Robin Wallar. December 11, 2019

LIFT Church was founded in 2006 by a small team at McMaster University. Simply put, our vision was to see students come to know Jesus. With the conviction that students on other campuses in Canada needed to hear the Gospel and be empowered to share it with others, the vision has since grown to include other campuses in Canada.

Currently, LIFT Church meets on four campuses in southern Ontario: McMaster University (2006), Brock University (2015), Mohawk College (2019) and the University of Guelph (2019). During the academic year approximately 600 students now gather for worship across these sites. Our best guess is that they are made up of roughly equal thirds: those with no prior church connection, those with some very nominal church connection, and already committed Christians. It makes for a fruitful mix, as we live out our mission to be sharing Jesus with those who do not know Him and equipping those who do, to do the same.

The university milieu

The universities and colleges of Canada are an enormously influential enterprise. More than 2 million students and tens of thousands of staff interact on our campuses every day. The nations of the world vie for attention at our universities, with 350,000 students from more than 150 nations currently enrolled. Our universities spend over 13 billion dollars on research in a single year and have generated over 1.5 million brand new jobs in the last 10 years – three times more than any other job creation vehicle.^[1]

However, the most significant output of our universities is not their scientific discoveries, artistic work, or even their direct cultural impact. Rather, the most significant influence of our universities is found in the individual lives of those that comprise them. University drastically reshapes the relationships, purpose, and ultimately the identities of those who are within.

The question asked – who am I?

The underlying objective of the university experience has become answering the question “Who am I?” However, this question is not asked in isolation. Students often ask it in the context of tense financial realities and amid the pressure to succeed at their studies. There is also now the added pressure to discover a social belonging, achieve athletic success, and determine a sexual identity in an increasingly ambiguous landscape. To top it all off, there are a thousand voices screaming for attention and shouting, “We have the answer.”

The effects of this environment are telling. A recent study of 25,000 students at Ontario Universities found that 67% abused alcohol, and 19% participated in drug abuse of some sort. Perhaps more alarmingly, 65% feel overwhelming anxiety, and 13% have seriously considered suicide.^[2]

Does the Church have an answer?

Christians often believe: (1) that the church cannot compete amidst the ever-mounting pressures and competing voices that university students face, and (2) that the content and culture of universities are one of the greatest threats to the faith of this generation. However, in our experience, we have found: (1) that universities create a most fertile ground for the Gospel, and (2) that the church cannot speak to a world in which we are not present. It is clear that students in this environment need Jesus, and at LIFT Church, we believe that it is our call to introduce them to Him.

From our perspective, the environment of the university or college is the perfect place to plant churches! As evidenced by the statistics cited earlier, students are naturally seeking for purpose, relationships and a mission for their life; in other words, they are looking to be whole. This is why LIFT Church exists: to see people made fully alive in the hope of Jesus by being the church on every campus. It is our prayer to see a discipleship movement that will result in churches being planted on ten major post-secondary campuses by 2026.

Disciple-making disciples

In the last thirteen years, we have seen thousands of people hear the Gospel preached weekly on university campuses, we have baptized hundreds of brand new followers of Jesus, and we have trained many hundreds to be disciple-making disciples.

It is out of the seeds of our discipleship emphasis that we arrive at our church planting strategy. Effective discipleship and effective evangelism should always go hand in hand. As we teach people to follow Jesus and be transformed in who they are, we equally call them to embrace the missional call on their lives to see others know Jesus as well. Mobilized-disciples that can effectively evangelize are the most basic and essential ingredients of church planting. Church planting is the natural and inevitable by-product of effective discipleship.

Simple Church – a church planting strategy

Discipleship at LIFT Church occurs through small missional communities called “Simple Churches.” Simple Churches are a vehicle to see the “priesthood of all believers” move from a theological construct into a lived reality; we work to take a student from no knowledge of Jesus to church-plant ready in just four years of university. If they have effectively been able to lead a Simple Church as a student in one location, then it is not a substantial stretch for them to do so in another location. In so doing, we mobilize the ordinary believer to become a church planter.

Every time we plant on a new campus, we start with Simple Churches. Our focus on Simple Church as a church planting strategy means that the basics of discipleship and evangelism are the foundation of the church. Through Simple Church we can provide a context to support many hundreds of people. However, the real benefit is that effective discipleship and evangelism, activated through the ordinary believer, means that we can also commission churches in new locations with low costs in both physical and human resources. While these churches start small, they can scale rapidly to have a substantial and multiplying Kingdom impact.

Through Simple Churches, we teach and empower all of our students to be disciple-making-disciples in their world. By encouraging students to form meaningful relationships with each other where they invest large amounts of time together and are by nature of the campus in close proximity to one another, genuine space for vulnerability is created. Time, proximity and vulnerability are the essential fuel for effective discipleship, and the university campus provides the context where they almost automatically exist. (See Acts 2:42-48.) The university context provides a natural context to plant churches that in turn plant churches by mobilizing ordinary believers to become disciple-making-disciples. It is really that simple.

Finally – a few figures

Here is a breakdown of the 600 that meet at the four campuses. There are 440 at McMaster, meeting for 13 years; 100 at Brock, meeting for 3 years; 50 at Mohawk, meeting for 6 months; and 15 at Guelph where they have only been going for 3 months and have not started meeting for worship services yet. Of that 600 we would say that 350 are consistently engaged, (roughly twice a month) and of the consistent attendees 70% are in a Simple Church and about 70% of those are serving in a leadership role, approximately 250 people.

^[1] Universities Canada, Facts and Stats, https://www.univcan.ca/universities/facts-and-stats/

^[2] College Health Association-National College Health Assessment II: Ontario Canada Reference Group Executive Summary Spring 2016. Hanover, MD

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