Read the transcript:
Hi, everyone. September has rolled in once again, bringing with it the hustle and bustle of life. My socials, or perhaps your socials, have shown us that kids are back in school as parents and caregivers proudly take their yearly back to school pictures. Ministries are gearing up and our schedules are filling up. There is energy. There is excitement. I just love the fall. So amidst the business of the season, I do want to keep this short and highlight a few key important updates with you.
Firstly, this fall marks the launch of our annual mission's focus, the Jaffray Offering. It's a unique opportunity to collaborate with and shine a spotlight on missions in regions where the name of Christ is yet to be known. Specifically, we're partnering with local organizations in South Asia, - where the need for the gospel is immense. 94% of the population there has never encountered Jesus, never read a Bible, never had the opportunity to meet another follower of Christ. To support this work, we've done something a little bit different this year and that we've put together a devotional series available for you to sign up to, to download. And it's perfect for your church's small group. You can simply visit The Alliance Canada website to receive this weekly devotional series. You'll see the link in the information. Please consider sharing this with your small groups, with your life groups, community groups. I can't help but think of the exponential impact of us all praying together this October for our brothers and sisters in South Asia and those who do not yet know Jesus.
Secondly, Envision Greenhouse is also launching a fall cohort, and though it's somewhat short notice, there are still openings for registration at envisioncanada.org. This year's theme revolves around spiritual awakening and provides your next-gen leaders in your church an opportunity to grow and receive mentoring from our Alliance family across the country. Even now, I wonder, is there someone you feel the Spirit is asking you to tap on the shoulder and recommend that they consider participating? Maybe even right now, the most important thing is for you in this moment to stop and send a text message to that person.
Thirdly, as I love to do. Let me share with you another inspiring story from a New Venture in Renfrew, Ontario. It's a tale of a couple discerning God's call, unsure of what it would entail, but taking a leap of faith. And they began by extending hospitality and opening their table to others. Let's watch this together.
Susan and I were serving in Thailand, and were returning back to Canada to have our first child and in our quiet times of praying, we felt the Lord say Renfrew, and we didn't know where Renfrew was. So we Googled where Renfrew was. And that's sort of where that conversation began. So Renfrew is, I want to say, about 45 minutes north of Ottawa, at least north of Kanata, my end of Ottawa and nice little town of 7000 and and growing. I’m J Williamson and I'm from Stittsville at Proximity Church. We started as a New Venture back in 2018. I think in 2004 I came to Renfrew, moved there with our young family, pastored there for five years, saw some great fruit, loved it, and then just felt the call to move into Kanata and church plant. And so Renfrew is a great it's a small town, but a lot of great connections and really had a heart to see something continue in Renfrew even after we had left. So we didn't really know what this would look like, taking this step of faith of moving to Renfrew. What we did know is that the Lord wanted us to gather people around our dinner table and show hospitality and unashamedly say, we're Christians, would you walk with us? In this journey of walking with Jesus? We really sense the Lord's timing on the move and we were living in Hamilton and reflecting when, when should we do this? And we sense January. And we were like so puzzled because who, if they have a choice, would move in the winter in Ontario. So we got here, we moved in January 24th and six weeks later, the first lockdown for COVID started. In retrospect, it was really, we could see the Lord's hand on it. We couldn't have planned it better, but in the moment it was a little bit unnerving. We were in the process of asking the Lord who we were to partner with, what denomination to come alongside, who would, you know, sow in to us and see value in what we felt the Lord was doing in our midst. And a friend said to me, You should check out the CMA. There might be something there. So I connected with the CMA and immediately felt that there was a good connection. And it was through Malcolm at the CMA who said, Hey, there's somebody down in Stittsville who I believe pastored in Renfrew and you need to connect with, with J. And so we did, and it was a immediate friendship right off the bat. I think our first meeting was at Tim Hortons and right away we seemed to hit it off and his heart and some of the things that I'd been praying about were really starting to line up. We knew that the table would be the means by which the Lord would build a family here in Renfrew. And so that means communion being a very central piece, but also the meal where we gather around as a family gathering in our home was taking a long time because of COVID and people were maybe a little more reserved to go into somebody's home. So we thought, well, is there a space in town? And I was perusing the Renfrew website and saw that they had rentals available for some of their locations. And there was one location that stood out to us, and it was the welcome centre. And we thought, well, what? Wouldn't it be neat to rent it? Let's do a test run, let's rent it and see what it's like, and we'll just have some prayer and welcome Jesus , the Holy Spirit to come to Renfrew. Although we know that there's many, many Christians who have been in this area who have been praying for the Lord to move powerfully, we just wanted to do it kind of on our watch as well. By word of mouth, essentially, We just started speaking to people about this new expression. I actually did a Facebook post. It was an invite. If you do not have a spiritual home, we welcome you to come join us. And there's a lot of nerves leading up to it that first the first meeting, because we thought, who's going to show up here? We don't know what this is just going to be our family. And we both kind of said to ourselves, okay, we are being faithful to what we believe the Lord is asking us to do. And if it's just our family, then we can say we've been faithful, will engage and create a place of worship and thankfully people showed up. One lady came and she said she walked into the room, for the first time. She felt the love of God. She'd never felt it before. She said she felt the love of God. And then she, her cousin, the next day was talking to her about the experience and she said, When's the next one? When are we going back? I feel like there's so many people longing. They just know in their hearts that there's something more and they seek out all the other things of this world first and realize that it's still not meeting that longing in their heart. And so it's like they just need that introduction to Jesus. And I just I want to see people saved, like really want to see our town transformed because it's possible. When I think about being a pastor, I think about the guys that I play hockey with in the community realize that gifting goes beyond the church walls and we don't have a building. So of course it does. But to the guys I play hockey with, to our neighbours right now more than ever, there's an openness to different expressions in the body of Christ. God is up to something when it comes to new expressions. And this new venture, just in a very short time, has become a pretty good friend and somebody I can trust. He has a ton of wisdom and experience that he brings to the relationship, and I am glad that I'm not doing this alone. I love that we get to meet at least once a month to be able to sit for coffee and to have that relationship to continue to work through this. And the plan, our hope at least, is that this would multiply through the valley, that there will be these places where people are gathering around dinner tables and making the fame of Jesus known to their neighbours. And we get to invite people into that too, so that to have somebody else with that same vision, I mean, it's incredible.
Isn't it so stereotypically Canadian that their first church planning meeting took place at a Tim Hortons? What I truly admire is their belief that God would build a family in Renfrew. They understood that a table, the act of communion and sharing a meal would be pivotal in creating a spiritual home and family for people. Did you catch what Brent said? God is up to something. And it's not just in the outskirts of Ottawa. God is at work all across Canada. And my hope is that new visitors will leave each of our churches saying for the first time I felt the love of God. When can we come back? God is indeed up to something. He's up to something remarkable in your context. Crafting spiritual homes for families. As you gather round tables in the coming weeks, my prayer is that you'll sense the presence of Jesus and that his fame will be made known to your neighbours. Friends, please know that I'm lifting you up in prayer. You are deeply cherished. I'm profoundly grateful to be labouring alongside each one of you.