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Baptists Across Our Nation Together
An Introduction – by Cailey Morgan

Have you ever wondered why we, as CBWC, refer to Canada twice in our name? There’s actually a great reason why the Baptist Union of Western Canada became the Canadian Baptists of Western Canada.
The answer is that we’re better together.
BUWC was willing to submit to the occasional jab about our new name “being developed at The Department of Redundancy Department,” because it meant making a statement about unity among Canadian Baptists nationwide. According to Rev. Dr. Callum Jones, we secured the “Canadian Baptists of…” name in 2007, becoming the first denomination to formally make the change. In 2008 the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec became the Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec. Soon after, the Convention of Atlantic Baptist Churches became the Canadian Baptists of Atlantic Canada.
If you were to travel across the country and visit the CBOQ, CBAC or L’Union d’Églises Baptistes Francophones du Canada, some things would seem very familiar: leadership development, mercy initiatives such as refugee sponsorship, and the gathering of members at assemblies, retreats and ministerials. You’d hear church planting conversations, see youth being encouraged in their faith, and witness thoughtful, prayerful people wrestling with the big questions of our culture.
But beyond recognizing a similar Baptist vision, history, and identity, CBWC and our sister organizations are intentional about developing partnerships that bring us from working in parallel to, in fact, working together.
Together, we number over 900 Baptist churches. Small and large, urban and rural, these churches are better served by their denominations resource teams because of the partnerships extending from coast to coast. Here are a few of the ways we work together:

AiM is the main initiative done nationally as Canadian Baptists (and we think it’s pretty exciting that it’s a justice issue both at home and globally). While Active in Mission initially started as a CBM-specific initiative during the pandemic, it has transformed into a joint initiative by all 5 Canadian Baptist partners. Together over the last 2 years, we have focused on food security. Hunger is not only a global crisis but is a fast-growing concern in Canada as well, with rising cost of living limiting access to adequate, nutritious food. It has been evident that Canadian Baptists care about this issue. We are excited to continue partnering together to encourage people to get active and raise awareness and funds for food programming in Canada and around the world.
CBM (Canadian Baptist Ministries) engages with CBWC in a variety of other ways which you may already be aware of:
- Dennis Shierman is the CBM Rep for Western Canada, and he engages with churches to help them partner with CBM’s work.
- Many from the Church Engagement at CBM team attend CBWC and the Banff Pastors Conference.
- Josh Smith, CBM’s Coordinator for Youth Engagement, attends SERVE each summer (and many of their staff have enjoyed attending these in the past as well).
- Many CBWC churches have STEP partnerships with CBM, and many travel with their SENT program to meet international partners and serve alongside them. Following are the inspiring CBWC partnerships planned with SENT for 2025:
– KURIOS to Guatemala (In fact, they are there even as this issue is being published.)
– Lethbridge to Cuba
– Gateway Victoria to Philippines
– Ponoka to Bolivia
– White Rock to Kenya (enthusiastically accompanied by Carlee Turner from FBC Kelowna)
– Westview Calgary to Rwanda
A Few Words From our Baptist National Convenor

Harry and his wife of 50 years, Gail, make Kentville, Nova Scotia their home. Together they have two children, Rebecca (Jonathan) and Adrian (Nicole) and four grandchildren Elijah, Grace, Ethan, and Winston.
I’m Harry Gardner, your National Convenor. The invitation to serve as Canadian Baptist National Convenor among a people I have loved for decades is a great privilege!
To belong to Christ is to belong to His Body, the Church. And, Canadian Baptists have realized for many years that when our churches and organizations across this country partner together, the capacity for making disciples of Jesus grows!
In the fall of 2023, the executive leadership of the CBWC, CBOQ, French Baptist Union, CBAC, CBM and leaders from two of the Women’s organizations (ABW and CBQOQ), gathered at Crieff Conference Center in Ontario to identify priorities and strategies for our national ministry partnership. A renewed Crieff Commitment emerged that focused on five key spheres for missional collaboration. At various times in our history, Canadian Baptists have articulated our expressed desire ‘to learn from one another, support each other’s ministries, collaborate on meaningful initiatives, and have a unified voice on significant issues–always respecting our diverse backgrounds and perspectives.’
Five key areas were identified:
- Centralized Functions to continue such as Pension and Benefits, and appointment of representatives to serve on the Interfaith Committee for Military Chaplaincy, as well as the Interfaith Committee on Prison Chaplaincy.
- Leadership Development including the priority to cultivate young leaders and to provide encouragement and support to the Canadian Baptist Youth Partners Network.
- Resource Creation and Provision:. A spectrum of church life resources will be identified. An example of this is a disaster preparedness resource.
- Public Presence:. In collaboration with one another, a Canadian Baptist perspective on public policy will be developed from time to time and shared with our churches.
- Strategic Mission:. Partnering together to facilitate the growth and development of congregations with diverse backgrounds and languages is prioritized. A focus on urban church planting and renewal in major urban centres recognizes the realities of rapid globalization. Supporting the efforts of the French Baptist Union in reaching French Canada through missional initiatives has been highlighted. Opportunities will be sought to facilitate the recruitment and placement of international pastoral leaders for ministry in Canada.
It was determined that a National Convenor should be appointed to work closely with the executive leadership of CBWC, CBOQ, CBM, the French Union and the CBAC to facilitate these priorities and to develop future initiatives.
As the Convenor, I have the privilege of gathering affinity groups across the country. One group brought together by Zoom focused on pastoral leaders who are serving multi-cultural and multi-ethnic congregations. More than 20 leaders from Newfoundland-Labrador to Vancouver engaged in dialogue. I also met with regional representatives of the Canadian Baptist Youth Team, as well as Regional Staff who work directly to support pastors and churches.
In the past, I have served as a pastoral leader, the Executive Minister of the CBAC, the President of Acadia Divinity College, and a past Vice President of the Baptist World Alliance. Bringing people together for collaboration on joint mission initiatives, as well as supporting churches and pastoral leaders, has been a major focus in ministry for many years. I am grateful the privilege of serving in this way.

The CBWC has partnered with Right Now Media to provide a 100% free membership to RNM for the personal use of all CBWC Pastors and/or Paid Ministry Staff.
Right Now Media has an online library of over 400 Christian publishers, tens of thousands of Bible studies, conferences, training sessions, kid’s cartoons, and much more.
This is a gift for CBWC ministers to use personally and with your family. Please note that your user account cannot be shared or given away to your church, however, through the partnership with RNM, yearly membership for church use is available at a discount and can be a cost-effective way for your ministries, small groups, and families to access these resources.
Note: If your church is already subscribing to RightNow Media, you may be eligible for a lower monthly subscription fee. To enquire, contact Graham Smith at graham@rightnowmedia.org
If you are a current CBWC Pastor and/or paid ministry staff, click the link below to sign up for your free membership to Right Now Media https://app.rightnowmedia.org/en/join/cbwc
CBYouth Team
The CBYouth Team is made up of the NextGen Leaders from our Canadian Baptist Associations across the country: Peter Anderson (CBWC), Matt Wilkenson and Alvin Lao (CBOQ), Dan Pyke (CBAC), Rici Be (French Union), and Louise Hannem and Josh Smith (CBM). This team works together to facilitate national NextGen gatherings, initiatives, and partnerships that would not be possible alone.
The Church and A.I. Webinar Series
In 2025, Canadian Baptist partners across the country are coming together to host a series of webinars to help the church think about the emerging realm of artificial intelligence and its implications for the church. The first of these FREE webinars is on February 13th. For more information and to register, visit https://futuringhub.ca/discovery-series/
An Inspiring Story from a Sister Church in Atlantic Canada: ‘We Are the Church’
Just as we in the west witnessed wildfires ravage the town of Jasper, AB in 2024, Bridgetown Baptist in Nova Scotia celebrated their 223rd anniversary without their church building. Here is an introduction to their story, submitted by Gordon Dickinson from the CBAC.
‘For Bridgetown Baptist Church, its 223rd year of ministry has been one for the books–to say the least. When the congregation’s historic building was lost in a fire on April 26, the church rallied with the phrase “WE ARE THE CHURCH.” This phrase was a way to remind themselves that the building wasn’t everything, and that God’s ministry among them had not stopped. Since then, they have striven to move forward in new and wonderful ways.
The church was quickly offered long-term space at the Bridgetown Legion, which is conveniently located in town and large enough to accommodate the congregation. It is fully accessible, features a side room for the children’s programs, and a kitchen for church events. Yet, as their anniversary Sunday approached, they learned that the Legion would not be available on that day. So, the church once again got creative.’
To read more of the story, visit https://atlanticbaptist.ca/news/church-news/church-in-focus/bridgetown-be-the-church/
Introducing Brian Louw–BCY Regional Minister
With gratitude to God for guidance in the search committee discernment process, the CBWC Leadership is pleased to announce the hiring of the new BCY Regional Minister: REV. BRIAN LOUW.
Brian will begin his new role on February 15, 2025

Brian was born and raised in South Africa. After completing his schooling, he entered the corporate world as a consultant. It was during his time working in this environment that he married his wife, Cindy, and together they volunteered in their church as Sunday school teachers and youth leaders before Brian was called into ministry as youth pastor in the same church. Brian and Cindy’s two children, Kristen and Dylan, were born during this time of ministry.
In 2016, Brian was called to White Rock Baptist Church in beautiful British Columbia—a move of almost 17,000 kilometers—but one they made firmly believing and trusting that God was guiding their steps. In his time at WRBC, Brian has seen the church become a vibrant and diverse multicultural congregation that worships God first and foremost and serves the community in a variety of traditional and innovative ways. (Ask him about drive-thru communion during Covid!)
Brian completed his Bachelor of Ministry degree through the Cape Town Baptist Seminary, and most recently completed his Master of Divinity through Carey Theological College.
Brian has always had a heart for the local church and truly believes the local church is still God’s plan for proclaiming the gospel and serving the community. Brian’s focus is on church health and vitality. He believes that local churches are stronger when they partner together within an interdependent association of churches. Brian sees his role as BCY Regional Minister as one of coming alongside local churches and asking, “How can we serve you?” To that end, Brian intends on visiting and connecting with our BCY churches as often as he possibly can and hopes to see our churches fulfill God’s purposes for them.
Welcome to the team, Brian!
The Universe in 57 Words–Part One
By Carolyn Arends

(Over the next 8 months, we will be journeying through these reflections on the Lord’s Prayer, used with permission, by Carolyn Arends)
INTRODUCTION
I can recall rattling through the Lord’s Prayer—and singing “God Save the Queen”—as a Canadian kid in public school. (Those memories seem surreal in today’s post-Christian Canada.) Even though I was already developing a prayer life of my own, the Lord’s Prayer seemed archaic and starchy. I was oblivious to the power and beauty within the words I mumbled.
Now I know better.
When Jesus’ friends asked Him how they should pray, He gave them—and us—the brilliantly succinct guide we call the “Lord’s Prayer.” In a feat of cosmic engineering, Jesus managed to gather the entire waterfront of human need and the vast ocean of God’s plans for His universe in just 57 Greek words. We can pray those 57 words (or their English equivalents) for a lifetime and never exhaust them.
AN INTENTIONAL JOURNEY
However well acquainted you are with the Lord’s Prayer; I invite you to use this booklet to go on a seven-part journey into the heart of the Trinity. Each section consists of a reading, a reflective prayer exercise, and a suggested song. You may wish to take a section a day and live inside the prayer for a week. Or you may prefer to savour your exploration and take seven weeks . . . or seven months.
Whatever timing you choose, let’s take a moment to look at the prayer as a whole before we begin.
THREE GIFTS
Far from a hollow ritual, the prayer is freighted with remarkable gifts.
A Road Map
The Lord’s Prayer consists of an invocation and six brief petitions. To pray these petitions in the order Jesus gives them is to travel from the way we view the world to the way God sees it. In N. T. Wright’s insightful language, these petitions move us “from paranoia to prayer” and “from fuss to faith.”
The prayer is so expansive, so aligned with God’s heart for his world, that it establishes the terrain for all other prayers. If we find ourselves praying something counter to the Lord’s Prayer, we’re heading off the map. That’s not to say we should stifle even our most wrong-headed prayers. Whatever is in our hearts must be prayed out or left to fester. But as we pray things out in the company of Jesus, we will find that our longings gradually migrate into the territory of the Lord’s Prayer. To quote a tongue twister from P. T. Forsythe, “Petitions that are less than pure are only purified by petitions.” The petitions in the Lord’s Prayer are landmarks by which we can orient our prayers and our lives.
A Window
Even better than a road map, the Lord’s Prayer is a window into the very heart of God. In a world of injustice, poverty, bitterness, and evil, Jesus teaches us to pray for justice, bread, forgiveness, and deliverance. To pray this prayer is to discover what the Father, Son, and Spirit really care about.
An Invitation to Causality
In teaching us the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus offers us a thrilling invitation to participate in God’s ongoing plan to redeem and restore all things. Embedded in this prayer is the conviction that praying it somehow changes the course of history. The Lord’s Prayer gives us “the dignity of causality.”
Exactly how our prayers and God’s plans intermingle is incomprehensible, but Jesus assures us that our lives and prayers truly make a difference. New Testament scholar George Beasley-Murray writes,
“It would seem that God has willed that the prayers of His people should be part of the process by which the kingdom comes. The interaction between the sovereignty of God and the prayers of the saints is part of the ultimate mystery of existence. Faith is called on to take both seriously.”
POWERFUL COSMIC ACTION
To pray the Lord’s Prayer is to participate in the transformation of the world. But we should acknowledge at the outset that there are times when that transformation is barely perceptible to the naked eye. It might help us to think of the Crab Nebula—an exploding star in the constellation Taurus. If you peer at this supernova through a telescope, it looks like a colorful smudge. Photographs taken from earth of the Crab Nebula fifteen years ago will look identical to images taken today. But here’s the thing. Every day the Crab Nebula expands by 70 million miles. Powerful, explosive, cosmic action is taking place all the time, but it’s imperceptible from our perspective.
Jesus teaches us that something similar is going on when we pray. Sometimes, the answers to our prayers are swift and obvious. Other times, nothing much seems to be happening from our vantage point. Either way, powerful, explosive, cosmic action is taking place. The Trinity’s radiant, consuming, transforming love is blazing at the center of the universe. And Jesus is inviting us in.
To access the songs offered for each segment, visit renovare.org/universesongs.
To download the full resource: https://renovare.org/books/the-universe-in-57-words
Excerpts used with permission from a book entitled
the universe
in 57 words
SEVEN DAYS INSIDE THE LORD’S PRAYER
By Carolyn Arends
This resource has been influenced by more authors, preachers, teachers, and fellow pray-ers than I can credit or even remember. But I am particularly indebted to the following works: Fifty-Seven Words That Change the World, by Darrell Johnson; The Lord and His Prayer, by N. T. Wright; The Divine Conspiracy, by Dallas Willard; Prayer, by Richard Foster; and Eugene Peterson’s “Jesus and Prayer” lectures for SPIR 604 at Regent College.
Carey Grads 2024

Congratulations to Carey Theological College’s Class of 2024!
Training CBWC Pastors for Ministry in a Changing World
by Rev. Dr. Colin Godwin, President, Carey Theological College
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5). These words, read at Carey Theological College’s recent graduation ceremony, reflect the heart of our vision for ministry: to empower faithful Christian leaders for every generation, culture, and community.
This year, our graduation ceremony celebrated the achievements of 19 students. Among our graduates were four CBWC students–Ryan Emmons, Lee Boehm, Carlee Turner, and Brian Louw–who earned their Master of Arts in Spiritual Formation or Master of Divinity degrees while actively serving their local churches. Ryan has already begun applying his studies in areas like conflict resolution. Carlee and Brian have similarly shared how their courses deepened their faith and preaching, expanded their leadership capacities, and enriched their ministries.
Carey’s innovative approach to theological education ensures that students can remain rooted in their ministry contexts while studying. With fully online programs, accessible resources such as a digital theological library and generous grants and scholarships, Carey empowers pastors to grow academically and spiritually without leaving their communities.
As Carey looks to the future, we remain committed to partnering with the CBWC in raising up faithful shepherds and disciplers. This year’s graduates were commissioned with the words of John 15:16: “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.” As we continue this mission, we invite you to pray for our graduates as they step into ministry; serving as shepherds, teachers, and ambassadors of Christ in a rapidly changing world.
Learn more at https://www.carey-edu.ca/theological-college
Notices of Voluntary Disaffiliation
Notice of Voluntary Disaffiliation: Rose City Baptist Church
The CBWC wishes to express its gratitude to Rose City Baptist in Camrose, AB in honour of our shared history and ministry together. Rose City Baptist Church (formerly First Baptist Church Camrose) was founded in 1915. The CBWC was notified of their voluntary disaffiliation effective November 30, 2024.
We pray God’s blessing upon this congregation as they move forward in embracing a new beginning and alignment elsewhere.
Notice of Voluntary Disaffiliation: Creekside Community Church
The CBWC wishes to express its gratitude to Creekside Community Church in Pincher Creek, AB in honour of our shared history and ministry together. Creekside Community Church (formerly First Baptist Church Pincher Creek) was founded in 1948. The CBWC was notified of Creekside’s voluntary disaffiliation effective January 17, 2025.
We pray God’s blessing upon this congregation as they move forward in embracing a new beginning and alignment elsewhere.
Copyright © 2025 Canadian Baptists of Western Canada, All rights reserved.
Making Connections is the monthly newsletter of the CBWC.