Humans of the CBWC

Seeding into the tall stubble preserves moisture and provides nutrients

Our farm was established in the Carmangay area of southern Alberta in 1963 when I was just a baby. My father purchased land that had experienced significant erosion over the years due to European farming practices that didn’t transfer well to some of the sensitive wind-blown southern prairie soils. Preserving and turning this land into productive farming soil has been an important goal of our farm ever since. Dad’s early efforts were dominated with growing crops more suited to our area and trying to find better ways to control weeds without burying the protective surface plant material through tillage. 

In 1999, we began attending Faith Community Baptist Church in Claresholm, which was pastored by Dennis Stone at the time. As we learned more about our new-found faith, it was meaningful to see that the goal of creating productive land for our farm was part of our much bigger calling, as Christians to be good stewards of the resources given to us by God. One of a farm’s most important assets is its land, so over the years we have continued to try to learn about good farming and stewardship practices and adapt our methods accordingly. Today we grow a variety of diverse crops in rotation and build soil health by continuing to avoid tillage which disrupts its delicate ecosystem. New innovations in farm equipment also allow us to leave behind most of the plant material from the crop, which preserves moisture and nutrients. These practices have vastly increased the life and productivity of our soil. 

We love the farm lifestyle and are proud to be part of the agricultural community, so it was an honour to recently receive an award to recognize our farm’s stewardship and conservation efforts. The Orville Yanke Award was created in memory of a man I got to know in the 80’s and 90’s when I was a board member of the Southern Alberta Conservation Association, which he chaired. He had a lifelong passion for soil conservation, and our farm has benefitted from his mentorship and that of others like him. None of our three children will be taking over our farm, but our goal is still to leave behind fertile, productive land so that its value for growing healthy food will continue for many generations to come. 

Read the full story here, as published in the Lethbridge Herald this Spring.  

https://lethbridgeherald.com/news/lethbridge-news/2025/02/18/carmangay-farmer-recognized-for-soil-conservation-efforts/   

FBC Vancouver–’Heart for the City’ Project

One hundred and thirty-eight years ago, on March 16, 1887, a group of Baptists gathered to found the very first Baptist church in the fledgling city of Vancouver. Naturally, they called it First Baptist Church of Vancouver. It was scarcely a year younger than the city itself, which was formally incorporated on April 6, 1886. One hundred and fourteen years ago, First Baptist Church commemorated the opening of a beautiful Gothic Revival-style church building at the corner of Nelson Street and Burrard Street in the heart of downtown Vancouver. At that time, it was the city’s largest religious building, with a sanctuary that had capacity for 900.  

Fifteen years ago, First Baptist Church began dreaming about how to faithfully steward their place and resources in order to continue to participate in the work God was doing and would continue to do in Vancouver. That dreaming led to the implementation of a project called ‘Heart for the City’. 

The Heart for the City (HFTC) project combined several elements of FBC’s missional vision, including a development agreement that resulted in a restoration and seismic upgrade of the church’s heritage buildings, an expansion of the church’s community and ministry space, a new 7-storey condo building and a new 57-storey tower known as The Butterfly.  

The “heart” of this project was to ensure the safety and longevity of FBC’s historic building for generations to come and to meet some of the city of Vancouver’s expressed needs around housing and social services.  

Through a long process of listening to representatives from the city and the community, exploring different options with the church’s neighbours and prayerful discernment, the church entered an agreement with Westbank Corp to complete the project; Westbank contracted Bing Thom Architects (now Revery Architecture) to design the project. That process was wonderfully led by Dr. Darrell Johnson (Senior Minister at FBC at the time of the project’s inception) and many others. Most recently, Pastor Justin Kim (Lead Pastor of Staff and Strategic Development at FBC), along with congregation members Steve Milos and Fred Liebich, has spearheaded the church’s side of the HFTC project.  

Some key features of the HFTC project include: 

• 7-storey building with 61 units; 41 units are exclusively dedicated to affordable housing, helping to address the crisis around affordability in downtown Vancouver.
• Full-time, 37-space childcare facility for infants and toddlers; this will be run in partnership with Wind & Tide, a well-regarded Christian childcare provider with over 35 years of experience. This helps to address the city’s shortage of affordable childcare and is supported by a grant from the ChildcareBC New Spaces Fund. This fund is jointly supported by provincial investments and federal funding under the 2021-2022 to 2030-2031 Canada-British Columbia Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement.
• Expanded kitchen and purpose-built spaces for our Street Ministries program to better serve the city’s vulnerable populations.
• A counselling centre and programs to support mental health and wellness; this will be run in partnership with Burnaby Counselling Group.
• Multi-purpose spaces for ministry uses, including spaces for ESL classes, parenting workshops, day camps for children and youth, and programs for older adults and retirees.
• Refreshed and upgraded historic sanctuary with a capacity of 875, and a beautifully restored, two-storey hall for church events such as concerts, children’s productions, conferences, and other events. 
• An integration of “old” and “new” architectural designs that celebrate the historic heritage of the church and draw attention to its present vitality. One of the design themes that runs throughout the whole project is the shape of organ pipes. The sanctuary pipes themselves have been cleaned and restored; the organ pipe shape is reflected in the pillars of the galleria space that connects the heritage site with the new podium site, and the shape of The Butterfly towers also evokes organ pipes.

The congregation officially moved out of its building in April 2021, but the last Sunday worship service in that building was actually in March 2020 due to the global pandemic. In the past five years, FBC has worshipped and gathered in 30 different locations in downtown Vancouver and across the city.  

Despite the challenges associated with this extended period of displacement, God’s grace has been evident in the resilience of the congregation, the dedication of the pastoral team and leaders, and in a renewed sense of interconnection with the community and partner organizations. There is great excitement around the re-opening of the building and the celebrations to follow.  

FBC will begin holding Sunday services in its building in May, with a dedication and commissioning service set for May 25th at 2:30pm. All CBWC pastors and anyone interested, especially those in the BCY Region, are warmly invited to join the May 25th celebration.  

Throughout its history, First Baptist Church has sought to be a people who proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ and work for the flourishing of the whole city. We at FBC hope and pray that the conclusion of the Heart for the City project, and the beginning of the next season in the life of the church, continues that legacy of missional presence. God has been, and still is, good!  

We look forward to celebrating God’s provision and goodness throughout this season. We look forward to bearing witness to Jesus’ transforming power. We look forward to welcoming our community to come and join us as we serve Jesus in downtown Vancouver and beyond. 

Drew Melton, D.Min. 

Lead Pastor – Preaching and Vision 
The First Baptist Church of Vancouver 
drewm@firstbc.org 

Between January and August this year, we are journeying through these reflections on the Lord’s Prayer, used with permission, by Carolyn Arends.  

The Lord’s Prayer is the theme of our Assembly this May.  

If you missed the first 3 editions you can find them in the past issues of Making Connections here.

The universe in 57 words–Part FOUR

By Carolyn Arends 

PETITION TWO  

Thy kingdom come . . . on earth, as it is in heaven.  

If we’re going to pray “Thy kingdom come,” we’re going to need to understand what Jesus means by kingdom.  

HOW JESUS DESCRIBES HIS GOSPEL  

Jesus’ public ministry began with his proclamation, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matthew 4:17).  

Once again, we hear Jesus using prophetic language unmistakable to the Jewish ear, signaling that he is the fulfillment of long-awaited promises. But if the kingdom “has come near” in Matthew 4, why does Jesus teach us to pray for it to come in Matthew 6? It will help us to look closely at four key words in Matthew 4:17—repent, kingdom, heaven, and near. 

Repent 

For any of us who grew up in the hot, scary shadows of brimstone pulpits, the command to repent causes an involuntary shudder. But the Greek word is metanoeo, which is more invitation than threat. It means “to change your mind,” or “to reconsider.”  

Reconsider what? According to Jesus, everything you thought you knew about reality. Why? Because the kingdom of heaven is near.  

Kingdom  

A kingdom, Dallas Willard points out, is a region where a ruler has domain—the place where whatever he or she wants done, gets done. God’s kingdom, then, is “the range of his effective will”—the place where what God wants done comes to pass. 

Thus, God’s kingdom is the invisible but very real realm where God reigns, and it’s characterized by love, truth, justice, goodness, and wholeness. It’s a wonderful place to be. The apostle Paul testifies that “the kingdom of God is . . . righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17).  

Heaven  

While Jesus often speaks of the “kingdom of God,” in Matthew’s Gospel we find him emphasizing that this kingdom is also the “kingdom of heaven.”  

Most of us think of heaven as somewhere “out there,” the place where God watches from a distance and we will one day join him. But for the biblical writers, heaven is close. The “first heavens” is a term used to describe the earth’s atmosphere. So when Jesus describes the invisible realm that God inhabits, he lets us know it’s not only “out there,” but also as near as the atmosphere surrounding our bodies. God’s kingdom is so close that “in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).  

Near  

When Jesus says that the kingdom has come near, he is announcing the incredible news that God’s kingdom is now accessible in a new way. In Jesus’ first recorded words in Mark’s Gospel, he prefaces this announcement with the dramatic phrase “The time is fulfilled” (1:15). The implication is that with Christ’s earthly arrival, history has reached a crisis point. Everything has changed. The kingdom of heaven has begun to break into earthly existence like never before. As Trevor Hudson likes to say, ‘Jesus is now announcing the availability of another kind of life’.  

But here’s the rub. As real and available as God’s kingdom is, there are still, for now, competing kingdoms. In fact, part of what makes us human is the fact that each one of us has a personal kingdom— “a realm,” Willard says, “that is uniquely our own, where our choice determines what happens.” We always have the option to align our little kingdoms either with God’s kingdom or with the kingdoms of this world.  

That’s why, with this second petition of the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray for the kingdom to come more fully into our lives, our neighbourhoods, our churches, our governments, every corner of our world—until God’s reign is as complete in us as it is in heaven. We’re asking him to supplant the competing kingdoms that operate in our individual hearts and in our collective systems. And once again, we’re asking God to do what only he can do.  

There is, of course, a dissonance we sometimes feel between the peace and wholeness of God’s kingdom and the discord and death of this world. Chris Hall calls this an “Overlap of the Ages”— we live in this Present Evil Age even as we begin to participate in the Age to Come.  

What should we do when we experience this dissonance— when we find ourselves “groan[ing] inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:23)? According to Jesus, we should pray for the kingdom to come, trusting that God is incorporating our prayers and lives in his ongoing mission to restore and redeem all things. 

 Suggested song: “We Come” renovare.org/universesongs 

PETITION THREE 

 Thy will be done . . . on earth, as it is in heaven.  

The third petition that Jesus teaches us flows naturally out of the second. When we begin to see what it means for God’s kingdom to come, why wouldn’t we want the effective range of his will to extend further and further throughout the earth?  

Lisa Koons, a leader in the 24/7 prayer movement, was asked how Christians could possibly pray together during a divisive political season. “We pray sweeping prayers, prayers we can agree on, while leaving the outcome to God,” Lisa answered. Even if we have very different theories about what God’s will might look like in a given situation, our hearts can be united in our desire for his will to be done.  

So Jesus gives us a compact petition that can embrace every need, every longing, every complex issue, even our disparate ways of seeing the world: Thy will be done.  

HOW DO WE KNOW GOD’S WILL?  

Years ago, I toured as an opening act for Rich Mullins. There was something about Rich’s music that stirred up people’s deepest longings. I loved overhearing conversations at the autograph table; they often turned serious and urgent.  

More than once, a fan asked Rich how to discern the will of God. Rich would listen, and then offer an unexpected perspective.  

“I don’t think finding God’s plan for you has to be complicated,” he’d begin. “God’s will is that you love him with all your heart and soul and mind, and also that you love your neighbor as your self. Get busy with that, and then, if God wants you to do something unusual, he’ll take care of it. Say, for example, he wants you to go to Egypt.” Rich would pause for a moment before flashing his trademark grin. “If that’s the case, he’ll provide eleven jealous brothers and they’ll sell you into slavery.”  

When I find myself wrestling with life decisions, I think of Rich’s Egypt Principle. It makes me laugh, and then it asks me to get down to the serious business of determining which of my options allows me to best love God and other people. Such an approach reminds me, once again, that my life with God is personal but never private. It usually rules out certain possibilities, while affirming—even creating—several others.  

Sometimes, once I’ve narrowed down my alternatives in light of the Great Commandment to love God and other people, the determinative “jealous brothers” do show up. A scholarship comes through at one school and not another. A job offer is escalated or rescinded. Other times, however, I’m left standing at the junction of several seemingly reasonable pathways, miserable with uncertainty. If only Rich were around to dispatch further wisdom!  

It’s when I reach those loggerheads that I am once again grateful for the passive, imperative verbs Jesus teaches us. Ultimately, the third petition is much less “Tell me your will so I can do it” than it is “Please do your will in me.”  

What’s more, as helpful as this prayer is when I don’t know what to do, it’s even more essential when I do know what God is asking of me, but I’m unable to align my will with his. “Even when you can’t be willing to do what God is asking,” a friend often reminds me, “you can be willing to be willing.” The third petition invites me to move from a position of willfulness to willingness, giving God an opening to begin to complete his will in me in the way only he can.  

HOW DO WE LIVE GOD’S WILL?  

The Jesus who teaches us to pray the third petition is, of course, its perfect model. “My food,” he once told his disciples, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work” (John 4:34).  

It’s worth noting that Jesus’ way of doing his Father’s will often seemed to defy productivity models and baffle his disciples. He seldom took the fastest way anywhere, preferring circuitous routes that gave him more time on the road with his friends. He was eminently interruptible, particularly by children and outcasts. And he had a tendency to slip away at seemingly inopportune moments to pray.  

It’s a tragedy, Eugene Peterson used to say, when we end up doing “Jesus things” in a way that Jesus would never do them. More than once I’ve participated in an evangelistic event where the behind-the-scenes volunteers were treated like cogs in a machine. We’ve all seen debates over right doctrine turn ugly. And I wince when I remember the times I let my graduate studies in theology—a path on which I was clear Jesus was leading me— turn into an obsessive quest for grades at the expense of time with my family.  

So as we pray this third petition, it’s important to remember we are asking for God’s will to be done not only in what we do, but also in how we do it. We’re asking the Holy Spirit to teach us how to do Jesus things in the Jesus way.  

Suggested song: “Father, Thy Will Be Done” 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. 

Ministry Partner–Carey Theological College

Carey’s Administrative Board with President Colin Godwin at the Groundbreaking 

Carey’s Timothy Hall Nearing Completion  

Carey Theological College’s second Christian student residence building at the University of British Columbia is nearly ready to welcome students home.  

“We are nearing the completion of Carey’s 104-bed building project, Timothy Hall—a milestone made possible by the dedication of our entire community,” says Danielle Ma, Carey’s Administrative Assistant (Design, Marketing & Communications). “From generous donors who placed their trust in us, to staff who worked tirelessly, construction teams who persevered, and the countless prayers that supported us along the way, this achievement is the culmination of collective effort.”  

May 2024

Timothy Hall as of April 2025

The new building will accommodate 104 additional students and offer a range of suites from studios to three-bedroom apartments, along with thoughtfully designed shared amenity spaces. 

Find out more about Timothy Hall here: https://www.carey-edu.ca/ubc-student-residence#Timothy-Hall 

Heart Smart HR

Creating a Safe Environment for Those Who Serve and Work in Your Church 

It may seem unfathomable that, as Christ followers, churches could be unsafe places to work and volunteer—especially since Jesus’ command to “love one another as He has loved us” is central to our faith. Yet sadly, every-so-often, we will hear a story from a pastor or volunteer of mistreatment or bullying in their church setting.  

Churches, like other organizations, should have antiharassment/bullying policies in place to help protect both staff and volunteers from abusive behavior. Some reasons why these policies are important for churches are:

1) they cultivate a safe and respectful environment and ensure everyone feels valued as individuals created in God’s image; 2) they address informal power dynamics: and 3) they speak to legal requirements—churches, as employers, are required to provide a safe work environment, and antiharassment policies help accomplish this.  

Employers are required to update their workplace harassment policies and procedures to clearly set out: 

• how incidents or complaints of workplace harassment will be investigated and dealt with; 

• the measures and procedures for workers to report incidents of workplace harassment to a person other than the employer or manager/supervisor, if that individual is the alleged harasser; 

• how information obtained in the course of the investigation will not be disclosed, unless disclosure is necessary for the purposes of investigating or taking corrective steps with respect to the incident or complaint; and 

• how a worker who has allegedly experienced workplace harassment, as well as the alleged harasser will be informed of the results of the investigation and of any corrective action to be taken. 

These policies must be posted in a conspicuous place in the workplace and must be reviewed annually. 

While this may all seem obvious, churches are a melting pot of personalities, ethnicities and generational divides, and it is important that volunteers feel safe and supported. The Canadian Centre for Christian Charities (CCCC), in an article about motivating and caring for volunteers, shares some insights from Ruth Esau, former pastor at Centre Street Church Calgary and Founder and President of Inspired to Lead. Ruth encourages churches, when working with volunteers, to: 

1. Value people more than task: Each person has intrinsic value, regardless of abilities, for we have all been made in God’s image. Why do we so often treat volunteers as a means to an end? Valuing people for who they are more than for what they can do for us is a foundational, biblical principle.  

1. Develop a process that loves and equips people: If churches just hand volunteers a task and don’t take the time to equip them well, the volunteer may feel abandoned and ineffective. Leaders may find themselves checking up on their work because they feel they can’t trust them to do it themselves, when the real issue is poor training and leadership. Mistrust almost always leads to conflict.  

1. Ensure volunteers are serving in community: Serving in community helps volunteers think beyond themselves and experience the multiplied accomplishments that teamwork brings. Volunteers need to know they are part of a team and not serving alone.  

1. Put more into your volunteers than you take out: A great starting point for this is to regularly affirm them for who they are and not just appreciate them for what they do. When leadership culture in an organization becomes focused on serving volunteers and pouring into their lives, they (the volunteers) will be the ones who catch the vision and accomplish the mission.  

In addition to these practical methods of caring for, protecting, and inspiring your volunteers to the mission of your church, you might want to consider drafting a Community Covenant Policy. This type of policy clearly lays out guidelines expected for all staff and volunteers. It is a commitment with each other, before God, to live and work in a manner worthy of the calling received from Jesus Christ so that—working together in community—you may fulfill His purposes for your ministry. A sample Community Covenant Policy is provided for members by the CCCC on their website. 

When churches are committed to creating and maintaining a respectful and safe environment for all who serve, work, and worship, congregations come alive, people grow deeper in their faith, and Christian witness in the community is strengthened. 

“It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom.”  –– Galatians 5:13-14 NLT 

Assembly 2025 Workshops

Coming together at Assembly gives delegates, visitors, and pastors a unique opportunity to easily access resources by browsing the many ministry information tables onsite, as well as by attending a workshop. This year, two workshop sessions will be offered featuring a selection of four topics.

View Workshop Descriptions→

Workshop Registration will open online on April 18 for all registered delegates and visitors.
For general information on Assembly 2025, click HERE.

New Minister’s Orientation

Thank you for praying for our New Minister’s Orientation that took place March 10-12. We had a wonderful time getting to know one another over the three days, as we worshipped with, prayed for, and learned together what it means to be part of this family of Baptist churches. Thank you for making the trip to Calgary. What a fantastic class of participants! 

Is Discipleship Your Church’s Core Mission?

By CBWC Director of Church Planting Shannon Youell 

This year I am reading the New Testament with an eye towards answering this question: What does Jesus teach us about disciplemaking? Even more so, keeping the final command of Jesus to His followers at the forefront of this question—What does Jesus teach us about the core mission of His church, and what can we learn from how Jesus made disciplemakers who would carry on this core mission?

The Big Picture
Most of us who read the story of Jesus in the gospels can note that Jesus’ public ministry began with His “reveal” (baptism, announcing God’s kingdom is now present), followed immediately with His calling disciples to Himself, very much in the tradition of a Rabbi in His day. And the majority of what happens wherever Jesus finds Himself is with those disciples learning, observing, experiencing, interpreting, and engaging in whatever Jesus was teaching and doing.

Nearing the day of His arrest and death, Jesus spends a significant amount of time pouring into those disciples. and after His resurrection He spends all His time with them, right up to “graduation” when He commissions them to repeat what He has done: to make disciples, teaching them to obey all the teachings of God as taught to them by Jesus.

Translators and Bible editors have long labelled that passage “The Great Commission” of Jesus to the Church, meaning that it is of the utmost importance in vision and task; it is the core mission of the Church. Core implies that everything we do is to fulfill and flourish the value; the mission. According to Jesus’ example, that mission was to make disciples.

How Do We Execute and Measure Disciplemaking?
Of course Jesus’ disciples were not to make just any kind of disciples. They were to make disciples based on Jesus’ teaching and demonstration about how the presence of the kingdom of God produces His Shalom, and how, then, to live into it. Furthermore, they were to make disciples who would do likewise. This was the expansion plan of the kingdom of God permeating every person, place, and culture in the world.

None of this is news to us. The gathered church, as we know it, generally recognizes discipleship as “something we are to do” and disciples as “something we are to make.”

Our challenge is that most churches today struggle with how to both execute and measure disciplemaking. I’ve heard some pastors say that their pathway to disciplemaking is by osmosis; in other words, if the pastor teaches on it enough and encourages people to spend time together, then disciples will be made. Others have fantastic learning programs designed to draw people deeper into understanding God’s Word, solidifying belief, with behavioral modifying implications of living a life as Christ’s image-bearers here on earth.

These same pastors tell me they are discouraged that they haven’t seen real deep fruit and transformation happen in a way that extends the reach of God’s kingdom into the world in which His kingdom exists. Mainly, our discipleship efforts are focused on spiritual formation practices such as Bible studies, preaching, prayer, worship, service in the programs of the church—such as Alpha, men’s and women’s groups, youth and children’s ministries. Pretty much every church I’ve ever been in practices these in various ways. The church community is formed around them. I’d refer to that as the “gathered church” —practices we do when we are together, mostly in a particular location. Most of these practices and activities occur primarily on a weekend or weeknight service- type environment. When these practices are intentional, they have historically been quite good at forming church attenders around belief and some commonality of those beliefs, resulting in volunteers who serve the programs and activities of the gathered church. These practices are beautiful, comforting, encouraging, and an important part of what the Church does.

While there are certainly important and necessary aspects of disciplemaking incorporated, (information through teaching, experience through singing and praying together, fellowship and care of others within our community), having our primary focus on the gathered programming moves the core mission away from disciplemaking, towards creating and maintaining a worship service and activities. In other words, it expands the gathered practices of disciples but rarely makes it out the door into the community spaces we all live, work, and play in—the space where not-yet-believers are most often found.

While some will read this and say it’s semantics, I will argue that it usually only takes a subtle shift in priorities or direction to take the call of Jesus to the Church to a focus that inadvertently misses the core mission He calls her to, while still engaging in elements of what a gathered church does together. We have been quite successful in the past in moving people from outside the church to inside the church, but we’ve too often left them there.

When Jesus called those first groups of disciples, He walked, lived, ate, partied, and ministered with them outside the synagogue. These were the practices Jesus incorporated in disciple-making that occurred outside the more formal aspects of His teaching in synagogues, on mountains, and beside lakes.

These practices were often spontaneous as He and His disciples encountered the spaces and places inhabited not necessarily by good church-attenders, but by those who were outside the church for various reasons.

They took the belief they were growing in understanding to into how they lived, worked, and played in a way that demonstrated the love, compassion, and care of Jesus right into an organic way of relationships. While we’ve often referred to this aspect of embodying Jesus and disciplemaking as the latter of the terminology of gathered and scattered, we are finding that a better term for scattered is sent.

Scattered can be interpreted to mean random, unintentional, and un-cohesive, while sent has the implications of being purpose- driven with an intentionality to engage, as a whole, the world outside the more formal practices that occur in the church building itself. Sent is also the common term missiologists use for moving belief into embodiment; from knowledge into behaviors lived outside of our worship services and into everyday life, encounters, experiences, and relationships.

Refocusing the Mission
With the practices of both our gathered community and our sent communities, we must always be alert to mission-drift. We can just as easily become too outward focused on going out into the world as we can become too inward focused on formational practices and experiences in our weekly services and church activities.

Disciple-making that produces the fruit of making disciples who can do likewise requires, as Matt Lake describes in his book Crossing the Discipleship Chasm, a healthy tension between gathered and sent.

To put it in simpler terms: if the majority of our time, talent, money, energy and activities are primarily focused around our Sunday gatherings—or, if the majority of our time, talent, money, energy and activities are primarily focused on serving the outside community on matters of injustice and outreach—then we have drifted from the core mission of disciple-making that Jesus calls the Church to.

Healthy, reproduceable disciplemaking requires both/and. Healthy, reproduceable disciplemaking requires a healthy culture of disciplemaking that is not an optional course, activity, or mission of the Church, but is actually what the Church does to fulfill the job -description, the mission, that Jesus gave the Church.

As Matt Lake states, “Commitment to discipleship means a congregation-wide intentionality and alignment.” This type of disciplemaking journey is for communities of believers and unbelievers; of deep spiritual formational practices individually and corporately; of hearts of compassion and hospitality to all peoples; of both belief and behavior aligning with being Christ’s image bearers wherever we are. Healthy churches that thrive and continue to thrive, have cultures of healthy disciple-making as their core mission.

The rest is what God can and will do in that kind of environment.

We’ve been wrestling through these questions over the past months in our Making Disciplemakers Cohort. Follow along on our blog: cbwc.ca/church-planting or contact my Assistant Cailey Morgan at cmorgan@cbwc.ca to find out how to join the conversation. Lake, Matt. Crossing the Discipleship Chasm: How To Turn Crowds Into People Who Follow Jesus (Invite Press, 2024): 67.

Over the next 6 months we will be journeying through these reflections on the Lord’s Prayer, used with permission, by Carolyn Arends. If you missed the introduction, you can find it in the past two issues of Making Connections.  

The Lord’s Prayer will be the theme of our Assembly in May, and we invite you to use these monthly reflections in preparation. For more info and to register for Assembly, click here). 

The universe in 57 Words–Part THREE

PETITION ONE  

Hallowed be thy name . . . in earth, as it is in heaven.  

A man I met on a plane told me a story. He and his wife, a piano major at a local university, went piano shopping. The saleswoman led them straight to the entry-level models. “She had us pegged exactly right,” the man told me. “We were going to have to borrow the money to get the cheapest instrument there.”  

Everything changed, however, when the name of the prospective buyer’s mentor—a world-renowned master teaching at the university—came up in their conversation.

The saleswoman was panic-stricken. “Not these pianos!” she exclaimed, herding the couple away from the economy section and into a private showroom of gleaming Steinways. “I’m so sorry,” she kept repeating, horrified at the thought of the teacher finding out she’d shown one of his students an inferior instrument. Try as they might, they couldn’t persuade her to take them back to the pianos they could afford. Once the master’s name came up, only the best would do.  

When I think about the reverence that flustered saleswoman had for a teacher’s name, Jesus’ first petition begins to come to focus.  

REVERENCE . . . AND REVELATION  

What does it mean to “hallow” God’s name? Maybe you, like me, were raised to flinch whenever someone uses God’s name as a mindless exclamation or curse. Perhaps you’ve heard about the extreme care taken in some branches of Judaism: Pages containing Yahweh, the covenantal name of the Lord, are never thoughtlessly discarded, but rather buried or ritually burned. When we pray this first petition, we’re invited to cultivate reverence for God’s name— especially while living in a world prone to profane it.  

But as important as it is to use God’s name with care, if we live inside this first petition for long we’ll begin to see that Jesus is inviting us not only to cultivate reverence, but to pray for revelation.  

Names are a big deal in the Bible. From Abraham (“Father of Many”) to Jacob (“Heel-grasper”) to Peter (“Rock”), monikers don’t merely identify—they reveal. Moses understood this. So he asked God (whom he knew by the generic deity designation Elo him) for his personal name. “Yahweh,” God told him, offering Moses the kind of intimacy that only comes on a first-name basis— and revealing his covenant with his people in the process. 

 As we learned from the invocation, every name we have for God is a revelation of his character. So, when Jesus teaches us to pray for the hallowing of God’s name, he’s really teaching us to pray that God’s character will be revealed here on earth, just the way it is in heaven.  

Throughout Jesus’ earthly ministry, he is constantly encountering people who have distorted pictures of his Father. If we pay much attention at all to his teaching in the Gospel accounts, we’ll notice that more than anything he wants us to be able to see God for who God really is.  

Jesus seems convinced that the coming of God’s kingdom hinges on the hallowing of God’s name—the revealing of God’s character. He knows that we become like the God we worship, and if our God-picture is distorted, then the more religious we be 16 come, the worse off we will be. So the first, foundational thing Jesus teaches us to pray for is a clear revelation of God’s character. Tom Smith helpfully translates hallowed be thy name as “help us draw healing pictures of You.”  

ONLY GOD CAN DO IT  

None of the six petitions Jesus teaches us are things we can obtain on our own. In fact, the verbs in two of the first three petitions are imperative, but passive. This means that this first request is not so much “Let us hallow your name” as it is “Father, do what we can’t— make your name holy throughout the earth.”  

Only God can reveal himself to the world. But if we pray as he taught us, our reverence and care for his name will grow, right alongside our capacity to behold God’s goodness and beauty. Which gets me thinking about that piano saleswoman again. Because the more we see the glory of God’s love, the more we’ll begin to exchange our cheap instruments of self-interest and power for the costly cross of Christ—the only instrument worthy of our master’s name.  

Suggested song: “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name”  

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. 

Emmanuel Baptist’s Award-winning Documentary

Greetings from Pastor Joshua at Victoria Emmanuel Baptist Church. I’m excited to share about our documentary, Thanksgiving Emmanuel. The film is a testament to the transformative power of faith and how it has changed the lives of many immigrants in Victoria. This video project aims to celebrate these blessings and inspire the Emmanuel Mandarin Ministries as we move into the post-COVID chapter of our journey. Thanksgiving Emmanuel was selected for the 2024 Great Lakes Christian Film Festival (GLCFF) in New York, held from October 17 to 20. The film reflects on God’s grace in the Emmanuel Mandarin Ministry over the years. Supported by the Paulin Memorial Opportunity Fund, it was nominated and awarded “Most Creative” in the Best Documentary Feature category. To view the film, please see link below.  

Emmanuel held its first preaching service on August 8, 1890, under Rev C.W. Townsend, and is now celebrating 135 years of ministry in Victoria.  

 In 2006, Emmanuel embraced the vision of Pastor Joshua Wang and began a ministry to Mandarin Chinese speakers.  After an original partnership with a church from Vancouver, Emmanuel has adopted a multicultural identity.  The Mandarin worship service has seen steady growth over the years and this documentary was created to celebrate their 15th anniversary in 2024. The Mandarin and English congregations meet together for Sunday worship once a month.  

纪录片《感恩以马内利》见证了信仰的转化力量，以及它如何改变维多利亚以马内利教会中新移民的生命。这个电影旨在庆祝这些祝福，并在我们进入后疫情时代的以马内利国语事工新篇章时，激励大家继续前行。《感恩以马内利》入选了2024年10月17日至20日在纽约举办的大湖区基督教电影节（GLCFF）。这部影片回顾了神在以马内利国语事工中多年来的恩典。在保林纪念基金（Paulin Memorial Opportunity Fund）的支持下，该影片获得了“最佳纪录片长片”类别中“最具创意奖”的提名并最终获奖。 

 Here is the public bilingual YouTube link to the documentary. Thanksgiving Emmanuel documentary【感恩以马内利】记录片 – YouTube 

 In Him  
Joshua Wang 

 Partner Spotlight

The Power of Food Security

Food security is more than just having enough to eat. It’s the ability to have reliable access to affordable, nutritious food. Something that is a growing concern for an increasing number of people, both globally and here in Canada. 

 For many families, food security initiatives can mean the difference between struggle and stability. Two inspiring Kenyan women, Margery and Mary, show us how learning Conservation Agriculture methods from our partner ACC&S, has transformed their lives. 

Margery’s Story: From Scarcity to Abundance

Margery Gaturi, a 64-year-old farmer from Karwagi Village, knows the pain of failed harvests. She once leased two acres of land, only to harvest a single maize cob. Years of effort and investment yielded little in return. 

With training and support through her local church’s Conservation Agriculture program, Margery tested a small demo plot using sustainable farming techniques. The results? A staggering 54 kg of maize—compared to just 10 kg from her traditional methods. 

“I no longer have to till my land. It’s less labour-intensive and more productive,” she shares. 

Today, she farms her own land, grows diverse crops, and stores her harvest to sell at the best market prices. With her surplus, she even purchased a goat for additional income and nutrition. 

Mary’s Story: A Dairy Goat That Changed Everything

Mary Wambui, a 77-year-old from Riandu Village had always depended on her cow for milk, but despite her efforts, it produced very little. 

“I used to spend so much time and energy feeding that cow,” Mary recalls. This situation left Mary struggling to maintain a consistent supply of milk for her household. The cow required a lot of labour, yet the returns were minimal, making it increasingly difficult for her to manage. 

Through the ACC&S Embu Food Security Project, Mary was introduced to dairy goats, which require less feed but provide more milk and essential manure for farming. “Now, I drink milk from my goat every day. It’s much healthier for me, especially at my age,” Mary shares. 

With her goat thriving and multiplying, Mary no longer buys milk, saving money that she now invests in her Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA). This simple shift has improved her nutrition, reduced her workload, and increased her financial stability. 

Why Food Security Matters 

Margery and Mary’s stories highlight the transformative impact of food security projects. When communities have access to sustainable farming techniques and resources, they can move from struggle to stability. As partners, here’s how your generosity is transforming lives: 

• Boosting Harvests: Farmers are learning new techniques that produce more food with less labour and lower costs. 

• Improving Nutrition: Families now have diverse and nutritious food sources, leading to better health. 

• Breaking Dependency: By reducing reliance on costly farming inputs, families and individuals can grow food sustainably and increase their resilience. 

• Building Financial Stability: With higher yields and savings programs, participants can invest in their future and support their families. 

For more information, please visit: cbmin.org/food.

(Over the next 7 months we will be journeying through these reflections on the Lord’s Prayer, used with permission, by Carolyn Arends. If you missed the introduction, you can find it in the February issue of Making Connections.  

The Lord’s Prayer will be the theme of our Assembly in May, and we invite you to use these monthly reflections in preparation. For more info and to register for Assembly, click here) 

The Universe in 57 Words—Part Two

By Carolyn Arends

THE INVOCATION 

Our Father which art in heaven . . . 

The first thing Jesus teaches us is an invocation—pointing us toward the right address, in multiple senses of the word. 

Whom are we addressing? Our Father. 

Where is His address? In heaven. 

Dallas Willard argues that “addressing God is what distinguishes prayer from worrying out loud.” As soon as I speak or even think the opening words of the Lord’s Prayer, I’m pulled out of my internal echo chamber and into a two-way conversation. 

Jesus could have taught us to address THE GREAT I AM or THE LORD MOST HIGH. Instead, He invites us to use highly– relational, parental language. If God is Our Father, then we are His children. Fathers—good ones, anyway—are accessible to their kids, and delight in giving them good things.  

It’s worth pausing here to reflect on how our earthly dads color the canvas of our picture of God as Father. Especially for those with father wounds, the image is easily distorted. Thankfully, Jesus shows us the heavenly Father in His person and in His parables.  

Picture the father in the parable of the prodigal son. There is nothing a wayward child can do to “unfather” that father; it’s impossible to change his character or out-sin his love. This, Jesus tells us, is the kind of Father to whom we pray. 

Do you see the beautiful efficiency of the Lord’s Prayer so far? It takes Jesus only two words to reveal something seismic about the heart of God and His desire to act for our good. And with those same two words, He gives us our own identity in the equation. We’re not needy, anonymous blips in an indifferent universe. Rather, we are needy, beloved children of a God who takes Fatherly delight in caring for us. 

Addressing God as Our Father gives us the basis for all the petitions to follow, because it assures us that God has the desire to act on our behalf. But how do we know that God also has the power to act? This is where the second part of the address comes in. 

“The Lord has established His throne in the heavens,” writes the psalmist in Psalm 103:19, “and His kingdom rules over all.” By teaching us to pray to “Our Father in heaven,” Jesus is reminding us that the God we are addressing is on His throne and in charge of the universe. 

Yet even as God’s heavenly address reminds us of His sovereignty and transcendence, it also assures us of His proximity and immanence. The biblical writers pictured the heavens not as a remote location but as the dimension where God reigns—the invisible realm that extends far beyond the farthest galaxy but is also as near as the atmosphere surrounding our bodies. 

‘Our Father which art in heaven’. With this brief address, Jesus gives us “the configuration of the reality from within which we pray.”  

 THREE IMPLICATIONS OF THE INVOCATION 

We need to recapture a bit of the shock that Jesus’ first students would have experienced when they heard this address. They were likely startled on at least three fronts. 

Intimacy 

First, Jesus signals an astonishing level of access to God. We know Jesus addressed God as Abba—an Aramaic word that carries perhaps a touch more respect than the English term daddy, but no less tenderness. In teaching us to pray Our Father, Jesus is inviting us into that same sort of intimacy with the God of the universe. 

For Jesus’ first listeners—Jews who had been taught all sorts of prohibitions related to addressing God with the proper reverence—the invitation to address Him as “Father” or “Abba” must have been mind-boggling. Something about the way humans are able to relate to God has shifted dramatically, and it has everything to do with Jesus. 

Theologian Baxter Kruger tells a story that cracks open a bit of the miracle on offer. Baxter was in his office one Saturday afternoon when his young son and a playmate appeared, decked out in camouflage, evidently embroiled in a game of Army. “My son peers around the corner of the door and looks at me,” Kruger remembers, “and the next thing I know, he comes flying through the air and jumps on me. We start wrestling and horsing around and we end up on the floor. Then his buddy flies into us and all three of us are just like a wad of laughter.” 

In the middle of their play, Kruger felt the Lord prompting him to pay attention. He realized he’d never met his son’s friend before. “I re-wound the story and thought about what would have happened if this little boy would have walked into my den alone. . . . Would he fly through the air and engage me in play? . . . Of course not. That is the last thing that would have happened.” 

“Within himself,” Kruger continues, “that little boy had no freedom to have a relationship with me. We were strangers. . . . The miracle that happened was that my son’s knowledge of my acceptance and delight, and my son’s freedom for fellowship with me, rubbed off onto that other little boy. . . . He participated in my son’s life and communion with me.” 

When Jesus invites us to call His Father our Father, he is offering us intimate participation in the life of the Trinity. 

Community 

In the invocation, Jesus teaches that our connection to God is very personal, yet it is also not private. The address, after all, is not My Father, but Our Father. And all the personal pronouns that follow in the prayer are plural. 

From the first word of the prayer forward, Jesus invites us to begin to understand our story within the context of a much bigger story. To pray this prayer is to find our individual lives situated within the body of Christ, within humanity, and within all of creation. 

Vocation 

There is a third, rather cosmic dimension of the invocation that is easy to overlook unless we receive Jesus’ teaching in the context of Israel’s backstory. N. T. Wright points out that the first occurrence of the idea of God as “Father” comes during the dramatic scene, captured in Exodus 4, when Moses thunders to Pharaoh on the Lord’s behalf: “Thus says the Lord: Israel is my firstborn son. . . . Let my son go that he may worship me” (Exodus 4:22–23). 

From that iconic confrontation forward, to refer to God as “Father” is associated in the Jewish mind with the promise of liberation—freedom from slavery and oppression. By the time King David comes along, God is explaining that eventually there will be a new king, a Messiah, descended from David’s family—and the God-as-Father motif continues. “I will be a father to him,” He says of the promised Messiah, “and he shall be a son to me” (2 Samuel 7:14). 

When Jesus arrives on the scene, Israel has been waiting for this Davidic Messiah, the hope of Israel, for a very long time. They’ve suffered under the oppression of one regime after another, longing for the day when their Lord, Yahweh, will enact a new exodus and finally set His people free. When Jesus starts referring to God as His “Father,” it’s a signal, loud and clear, that He is claiming to be the long-awaited emancipator. 

And then, do you see what He does? It would be one thing if He taught His followers to pray to His Father. But instead, He teaches us to pray to our Father—which is to include ourselves in the mission. 

Right here, in the invocation, Jesus is inviting all who will pray this prayer to self-identify as participants in the Father’s great project of setting every captive free and overcoming evil with good in every corner of the universe. To pray to “our Father” is to find our life’s ultimate vocation. It is to sign up for the revolution. 

And our participation in this revolution means that we are invited to embody God’s kingdom everywhere we go—at home, at work, at church, shopping for groceries, posting on social media, interacting with our neighbors. We’re invited to live aware and expectant—growing in our capacity to detect all the subtle and overt ways the people around us experience oppression and learning to pray and act for their liberation. 

When I look back on my church upbringing, I’m grateful there was a strong emphasis on the possibility of a personal, intimate relationship with God. But I must confess that I somehow missed the communal, cosmic, revolutionary side of the beautiful coin Jesus offers us. 

“Spiritual depth and renewal come, as and when they come, as part of the larger package,” observes N. T. Wright. “But that package itself is about being delivered from evil; about God’s kingdom coming on earth as it is in heaven.” 

Whom are we addressing? Our Father 

Where is His address? In heaven. 

Where is OUR address? Intimately centered in the life of the Trinity, communally situated within the body of Christ and all of creation and thrillingly placed on the frontlines of the revolution. 

 Suggested song: “Who You Are”  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.

New Ministers Orientation: The Art of Reciprocal Relationship

By Louanne Haugan

This month, the Calgary Head Office will (once again) open its doors for three days to welcome the 2025 class of pastors new to the CBWC. We call this time together New Ministers Orientation (NMO), and it is a wonderful opportunity to meet the staff, make new friends, and learn not only what it means to be Baptist—but also what sets us apart as Canadian Baptists of Western Canada.  

One of the ‘serendipity exercises’ we engage in is going around the room to identify what church tradition we come from. It is always incredibly varied; most pastors are not born and raised in CBWC churches. These Christian men and women bring with them rich faith narratives and a willingness to learn and grow together as a larger body—all while ministering in the context of their individual home churches and communities. It is beautiful to hear their stories as we get to know each other better! 

Besides learning about the various ministries that Executive Staff are responsible for, some of the topics covered during NMO are Baptist History, Leading Through Change and Conflict, Spiritual Ethics and Boundaries, Ordination, Longevity in Ministry, Governance, and Clergy Resources.  

It was during one of the sessions last year that a participant commented, “I wish my Board were here to listen to this, too. Is there a way for you to get this information to them?” That comment was impetus to creating our Board Development Essentials Video Series!  

Over the next several months, we had various staff write and record 5-minute informational videos on topics such as writing a good employment contract to creating a Church Rental Policy. Our hope is that pastors will include these short videos as an educational piece during monthly Board meetings. We intend to add relevant content each year. The Board Development Essentials Video Series can be found on our website under Church Tools.  

We say that attending NMO is a bit like drinking from a firehose—lots of information over a brief period of time. But this information does not only flow in one direction. You can be assured that our staff are always listening for feedback on how to provide better resources for those serving as CBWC pastors and lay leaders.  

We have 20 pastors attending New Ministers Orientation this year from March 10-12th. Please pray for CBWC staff as they prepare to welcome and encourage our pastors making the journey to Calgary to attend. May long-lasting friendships be made, and ministries strengthened. 

Partner Spotlight—CBWC Foundation

Announcing the CBWC Kingdom Builders Fund

The CBWC is pleased to announce the launch of the Kingdom Builders Fund. It’s a way for CBWC churches and ministries to loan funds to the CBWC Foundation, earn market competitive interest and increase our ability to loan to churches and ministries who are building or refurbishing ministry spaces in the CBWC.  

• Currently you can receive 2.75% annual interest for funds that are accessible throughout the year with a ten-day redemption period.  

• For funds locked in for a year, the rate is currently 3.75%. Two years is 3.50%. 

• The fund can only accept funds from CBWC churches and ministries and not individuals at this time.  

To join the fund, please email Chris Reid  creid@cbwcfoundation.ca or call her at 403-930-7004. You can also read more information on our website.  

A Little History:  

Many of you will recall that in years past the CBWC had a very successful program that most simply knew as the ‘Deposit Fund’. 

With the Deposit Fund, CBWC Churches and individuals could deposit funds with the CBWC Foundation, earn a competitive return and the CBWC would then use the funds to loan to CBWC Churches and Ministries. The fund enabled a lot of good work in the CBWC over many years. A small portion also supported the ministry of the CBWC. It was a win-win-win situation! 

In 2018, changes at the Alberta Securities Commission tightened rules for non-profit investment funds and the Foundation Board was concerned that the Deposit Fund was potentially non-compliant with the new rules. We sent back all the money to both churches and individuals. 

After working closely with the Alberta Securities Commission for the past three years, we have received an Exemption that allows us to once again offer the program to our community in a modified form that fully meets all requirements. As well, BC, Saskatchewan and Manitoba have all joined the Exemption under their passport agreement. 

For the exemption, ASC asked that we call it a loan program rather than a deposit program to make it clear that the fund is not analogous to a bank saving account. Also, as with all investment vehicles, they require more documentation with the application to provide clarity for all involved. We will be limited with these funds to loans to CBWC churches and CBWC Ministries. Finally, we will report annually to the ASC our audited financial statements. 

We, at the Foundation, are grateful for the chance to once again partner with you in this way, and we look forward to what God will do with these funds that ultimately all belong to Him.  

Submitted by Bob Webber 

The CBWC Foundation is hiring! Learn more at cbwc.ca/careers.

A Story of Two Churches Becoming One

A story of 2 churches sharing a building who chose to become one congregation, by Hannah Hamm in consultation with Tyler Graftaas and Nahri Hong.  

Consider a Baptist church in the city of Calgary that’s been there for over a hundred years. Now consider a modern-day church, predominantly 2nd generation Asian, planted in the same building, only 17 years ago. Would these two very different congregations co-exist well? Time would tell that they would more than co-exist. In fact, they were destined to become one.  

In the Fall of 2024, I sat down with pastors Nahri Hong and Tyler Graftaas, in Banff, to hear the story.  

First, a little history. Crescent Heights Baptist Church began in 1907 as a Sunday School in the Crescent Heights real estate office of A.J. McArthur, with young pastor Archie Gordon. The church building followed in 1909.  Fast forward to the mid-1990s when a teenage 

Tyler Graftaas began attending. By 2016 that same young man would become part of the pastoral team.  

In 2007, a congregation planted by the Calgary Korean Baptist Church and blessed by the CBWC would move into the building. ‘GoodTree Christian Fellowship’ enters the stage. (It’s worth noting that two other congregations also meet at Crescent, a Chinese fellowship called Blessed Christian Church and a Filipino congregation called Greenhills Christian Fellowship. This place has a history of sharing and making space for the diverse Kingdom of Jesus).

In March, John Huh, founding pastor of GoodTree Christian Fellowship had concluded his pastoral ministry to go full-time with the Canadian Armed Forces as a Chaplain Major in Borden, ON. As such, GoodTree Christian Fellowship was in a pastoral search under the direction of Ken Nettleton, who was the interim senior pastor at the time alongside pastor Nahri, who was a part of the original GoodTree Christian Fellowship plant in 2007. Nahri  joined the pastoral staff team in 2019 after serving as a lay leader in various capacities over the years. Later that summer Tyler, who had served pastorally in both congregations over the years, began chatting with a couple of the leaders at GoodTree Christian Fellowship.  In one conversation someone said, ‘maybe you could be our pastor!’ In early 2023 the search committee interviewed Tyler simply to see if the two visions could align, but Tyler wasn’t planning to leave Crescent. GoodTree Christian Fellowship interviewed a few candidates, but none seemed the right fit. Everyone knew Tyler and that he was uniquely gifted with what they were looking for, but the fact that he came with a whole other congregation made things complicated.  

As 2023 continued the leadership at GoodTree Christian Fellowship began praying for discernment about the potential of merging with Crescent Heights considering that their vision for the church included diversity and discipleship. After much prayer and discussion, the team felt that the time was right to consider emerging from their comfort zone and moving toward a more multi-ethnic and multi-generational context that better reflected the diverse Kingdom of God.  

In the meantime, the leadership team at Crescent Heights had discerned that this could be a really good next step and were giving GoodTree Christian Fellowship the time to discern.  

In May of 2023 GoodTree CF held a town hall meeting about the potential merge. Many contentious issues arose and were worked through. Addressing previously undisclosed concerns and having leadership respond effectively was a very positive experience. Nonetheless, the concept of the merge was challenging for some of the congregation. 

Nahri describes this time of discernment well: 

“After our recent leadership retreat, we felt that God was calling us to diversity and the importance of discipleship. This was a difficult shift because the foundation of the church was built on our identity as a second-generation Asian context. We had to redefine; maybe God was calling us into a new season; and maybe this new direction was more Kingdom like?  

There was a strong emotional response. We had to push out of our familiar comfort zone. Yet everyone agreed that there was already a wonderful working relationship with Crescent, and we all loved pastor Tyler. We wondered if we were ready to let go of what we were.” 

(Tyler interjected that there was some fear of a ‘takeover’ by Crescent, which was curiously flipped on its head later, but that’s for a few paragraphs from now. Back to Nahri’s reflection.) 

“We were a small congregation; all genuinely friends. We wondered what it would be like with a whole other congregation in the mix. How would we do life together? I also don’t think we could remove the racial component of it. A lot of people feared being the minority. They had experienced hurt in this area and the church had been a place where their kids could feel safe. Pastor Ken had been doing some teaching on the question ‘What is the church?’ Is the church there to serve your needs? To make you feel comfortable? Frankly, GoodTree was a safe space where the people didn’t have to worry about things they dealt with in the outside world.” 

Ironically, it was Crescent Heights, the older and predominantly Caucasian congregation who’d been together for over a hundred years, who were up for the challenge comes with change.  

In June, members of leadership and staff of both churches gathered together. Both groups were more excited and convinced it was worth exploring the idea of merging the churches, and by early September of 2023, the leadership of GoodTree Christian Fellowship would gather and feel unanimous in moving forward together. 

Both churches held a vote at the end of November and the count ‘in favour’ was nearly unanimous! The two churches gathered together for worship throughout December, and in January 2024, both congregations held their final individual services to mark the transition. After this, except for some legalities, everything merged.  

Was it all smooth sailing right away? Not quite.  Several more ‘town hall’ meetings ensued during that first year, and this time, it was mostly Crescent congregants who were struggling. The term ‘takeover’ was in the air again, only this time from a different perspective. The original GoodTree folks had already done the hard work of discussing potential difficulties and addressing concerns and were fully on board.  

 One innocent but unfortunate circumstance that brought about concerns was that Crescent’s main worship leader went on a month’s long trip right at the time of the merge. As a result, the musical worship appeared to be predominantly in the GoodTree Christian Fellowship style and form – though musicians from both churches were involved. As time progressed, everyone has learned to love and appreciate ‘new’ music styles, although the conversation is not over. 

 Choosing a name for the newly merged congregation was another necessary adaptation. Here’s what Tyler had to say about that decision.  

 “The whole naming process was good but bore no fruit. No strong new name emerged (a few things no one wanted!) When it came down to it, I had always loved the GoodTree name. Something alive, bearing good fruit, straight out of Jesus’ description of what it means to follow him. GoodTree, in its very name, is representative of planting churches which is a huge part of our vision.  Officially the name is becoming GoodTree Church. We hope in the long term the working name for this location will be GoodTree @ Crescent Heights and that many more GoodTrees will be planted around the city.” 

Hear these encouraging final thoughts from Tyler and Nahri. 

‘God has been really confirming that His Hand was in this. Since the merge we have been experiencing, on both sides, the goodness and the fruit of following His path. Children being in the mix has brought life to the Crescent congregation. GoodTree folks have been commenting on how good it is to worship together in a more diverse way.’ 

‘God is blessing the process and it has been beautiful to watch. It’s all been very intentional, for everyone, to merge together. We’ve seen surprising growth in both the children’s ministry and through regular newcomers (and new believers) joining the church each Sunday. New discipleship life groups are gaining traction as the congregation is learning and practicing how to love one another in intentional ways. We are thankful.’ 

Tyler writes that ‘with the help of a lawyer, by November 2024 new Bylaws and an Amalgamation Document was drawn up. It was presented to the church with a final vote on the Amalgamation document at the end of that month to another unanimous vote in favour. Paperwork has been filed with the government and at the time of this newsletter coming out we are waiting on everything becoming official/legal.’ 

I hope you’ve been encouraged by this story of two churches who listened to the prompting of God, pushed through discomfort, and have found goodness and blessing together. May this be an example to us all as we seek to hear His voice, follow His lead, and bear good fruit. 

Active in Mission: What Next?

For the past two years, we as CBWC churches and Staff have been invited to join Canadian Baptists across the country in a simple, practical initiative to address the food security issues in our country and around the world. CBM quarterbacks Active in Mission, or AiM, where individuals, churches, and youth groups raise money by committing to an activity of their choice: running, paddleboarding, volleyball, and more! 

Once the money is raised, it is distributed partly to food security programs taking place within Canadian Baptist denominations, and partly to CBM’s projects around the world that address hunger through farming, food distribution, meal programs or income-generating projects. We are happy to announce that the CBWC grant recipients for the funds raised in 2024 have been selected: 

• Calgary Chinese Baptist Church‘s Steppingstones Food Club takes an innovative approach to addressing the material and social needs of low-income families by providing healthy, fresh food within the context of a supportive community. All members of the food club, alongside church members, are expected to actively participate in the sharing of food that is purchased in bulk from a local grocery store partner. Each member also receives the privilege that comes with knowing that they contributed to the program and to helping their own neighbours. 

• Calvary Baptist Church’s Jubilee Community Garden began over a decade ago as a tangible way for the church to bless the local community of Gibsons, BC. Rooted in the biblical concept of Jubilee, the garden reflects the values of community, abundance, and blessing. The grant will enable Calvary to transform a currently unused strip of land, covered in weeds and brambles, into a productive extension of the Jubilee Garden via soil enrichment, landscaping, irrigation and fencing. 

• Dauphin First Baptist’s Community Meal supplies 200 hot, nutritious meals every two weeks to families accessing the Food Bank, operating alongside, but independent of, the Good Bank. Coming out of COVID, the congregation decided that they needed to a) spend more time together and b) engage more deeply in the neighbourhood. When a neighbouring church who had started the Community Meal around 15 years ago needed to step down from the ministry, it seemed like a perfect chance for the folks at FBC to step up and meet their objectives at the same time!  

• Faith Community Baptist’s Grocery Gift Card Ministry addresses a direct need in Claresholm. Folks come to the church facility asking for help feeding their families, and the church is able to give them an IGA gift card for groceries. Sometimes, this interaction can lead to prayer or spiritual conversations. 

• First Baptist Church Saskatoon’s Food Pantry is a way that the church can reach out to their neighbours with a message of God’s love, while filling a real need. They stock a selection of non-perishable food items, frozen bread/buns, cheese, and lunch meat. Neighbours can come and select the items that they need for themselves and their family.  

• Trinity Baptist Church, Sherwood Park runs a community garden and is developing a community orchard. It is a neighborhood garden, where garden plots are rented to community members who don’t have their own gardening space. The garden has become an integral part of Trinity’s commitment to enhancing their welcome, giving back to the community and providing a space for service. One quarter of the garden is reserved for providing produce to the local food bank, women’s shelter and refugee families that the church sponsors. 

• Trinity Baptist Church, Winnipeg’s Food Bank runs biweekly, providing a chance to connect with 30 families, many of whom are Ukrainian immigrants. Some food is provided by Harvest Manitoba, but the Active in Mission Grant will help add bread and meat to the offering. 

How inspiring to know that these and many more food security initiatives are happening in our churches across the CBWC! If you didn’t get a chance to participate in fundraising for Active in Mission last year, worry not. AiM 2025 is just around the corner. The fundraising website will go live on May 1, so start brainstorming with your crew how you’ll get active in mission! 

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:

1. Dennis Shierman is the CBM Rep for Western Canada, and he engages with churches to help them partner with CBM’s work.
2. Many from the Church Engagement at CBM team attend CBWC and the Banff Pastors Conference.
3. 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).
4. 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: 

1. 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. 
2. Leadership Development including the priority to cultivate young leaders and to provide encouragement and support to the Canadian Baptist Youth Partners Network. 
3. Resource Creation and Provision:. A spectrum of church life resources will be identified. An example of this is a disaster preparedness resource. 
4. 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.   
5. 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

Looking Ahead Together to 2025

As we reflect on 2024, we, at the CBWC, are grateful for the ways we, as churches, ministries and partners, walk alongside one another—grateful for each person those groups represent. Looking ahead, we invite you to continue to connect both online and in person through these upcoming events: 

Kurios Gratitude Gala 

This online event is a celebration of all that God has done and is doing through KURIOS. Join us January 26 for:

• LIVE from Guatemala with this year’s participants
• Musical Performances
• Prize Draws
• Partnership Updates and Opportunities
• Kurios House Art Installation Reveal
• Alumni Testimonies
• And much more….

Learning from One Another, Online!
The Theology for the Ordinary Book Club continues to meet several times a year via Zoom, and the invite is always open for new participants! The next meeting is Wednesday, January 8 at 6pm PST, discussing Lucy Peppiatt’s The Disciple: On Becoming Truly Human. RSVP to heartland@cbwc.ca.

Making Disciplemakers, a 5-session practical Zoom cohort designed as a place to bring your stories, roadblocks, listening ear, and hard questions about how to make disciples who make disciples, kicks off January 14, hosted by the Church Planting Resource Team.

On January 28 at 5:30pm PST, we are pleased to invite Jodi Spargur (Red Clover/CBM) and David Nacho (FBC Vancouver) for Doctrine of Discovery: Exploring Its Hidden Roots. This free webinar will provide an hour of teaching on the Doctrine of Discovery, its historical arc, and what it has to do with us as Baptists. We will also hear from Indigenous voices speaking on the impact the Doctrine of Discovery still has on them today. Register here. 

Using Ai Basics and Why it Matters to the Church. Watch for more details soon on a webinar coming February 13th about using AI in ministry. 

And speaking of online resources, we’ve got a growing series of free 5-minute videos to play in your Board or Elders meeting to help with various important aspects of leadership and administration of a CBWC church. Download or stream Board Essentials here. 

Ministry Retreats
Heartland ministers and spouses, you have until next Monday, January 6, to register for this year’s retreat taking place January 20-22 in Russell, MB, with guest speaker Layton Friesen. Get the details here. Ministers in the Mountain Standard Region, your retreat is taking place February 3-5 at Gull Lake Centre with Dr. Cory Seibel—and you’ve got until January 10 to sign up.  

Ministers and Spouses across CBWC can save the date for Banff 2025 Retreat: November 10-13 at the Banff Springs Hotel.  

CBWC Assembly: In Person in 2025
Our association of churches enjoys face-to-face time with others every second year at our Assembly in Calgary, AB. On May 22-24, 2025, we’ll connect through meaningful worship, engaging keynote speakers and workshops, meals and free time, while also participating in the annual business meetings. Shaped around the Lord’s Prayer, our 2025 Assembly will feature keynote speaker Dr. Carmen Joy Imes, Associate Professor of Old Testament at Biola University’s Talbot School of Theology. 

Online Registration opens February 1, 2025. More information: cbwc.ca/assembly 

SERVE Whitehorse 2025 

Each summer, youth groups from all around CBWC descend on a community for a week. The goal is to demonstrate the love of Jesus through active service, in partnership with a local CBWC congregation. Past locations have included Yellowknife, Flin Flon, High River, Kamloops, and Prince Albert. SERVE is like the best parts of summer camp combined with the best parts of a short-term service trip. During the day the youth engage in service projects and in the evenings, they gather to share stories, worship, play wild games, and hear from a dynamic speaker.

This year, SERVE is taking place in Whitehorse, YT. Join us July 6-12 for this unforgettable event! Registration is now open: cbwc.ca/serve 

Visit our website for details on these events and more! We look forward to seeing you. 

A Time to Pause and Reflect with Tim Warkentin

By Hannah Hamm

A new year has begun, and with it perhaps mixed feelings. Traditionally, January is a good time to reflect on your patterns of living; how do you feel about your work/ministry/relationships? This is a time for “choosing what you did not choose,” to borrow a phrase from Skye Jethani. No matter where you find yourself, whether it is where you would have chosen to be or not, how can you choose to flourish there?

Are you willing to take a few moments and ask yourself: What gave me LIFE this past year? What did the opposite? What can I STOP doing in order to embrace true life this year?

At our Banff Pastors and Spouses retreat in November, Tim Warkentin gave a TIMtalk on something he calls a Sacred Pause. There is increased expectation in the world to achieve more with the time that we have, and even in the church we are always pushing ourselves to do ministry more efficiently and with greater results. Tim (and our other 2 main speakers) challenged us to pause and reflect, release what is holding us back, rest in the acceptance we ALREADY have from our Creator and then return to the work of the Kingdom with open hands.

The arrival of January 2025 affords us a window of time to do just this. The Advent and Christmas busyness is behind us. The lights, decorations and bling are put back in the church basement. Is there a brief moment here where “all is calm?”

About a month after Banff, Tim and I met to consider how to support you in this. Our desire is that you could welcome God into where you actually are. Let go of what’s distracting you. Rest comfortably in His Presence. Experience God’s full embrace.

Some of you likely know what works for you already—what brings you to this place we are describing. Let this be an encouragement to lean into those patterns that come to mind.

Others may appreciate this invitation into practices you didn’t have to research or prepare for someone else. Our prayer is that you will look at the following ideas with an open, prayerful heart and see what might jump off the page for you. Think of these as ways to tend your own garden, or at least to prepare the soil for the Spirit to bring life to you.

Please accept this invitation to consider your physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual health and perhaps embrace (or release) one thing for the year ahead.

Physical:

• Assess your physical health. What’s working and what isn’t? Go see a doctor, book that physical exam, don’t ignore that symptom…
• Ask yourself, what is one thing you may want to stop or start consuming?
• Move your body regularly (if needed, choose a reward that might actually motivate you).
• Think about something active your friends do that you could join. Or perhaps joining an activity will be a way to make a friend outside of your congregation.
• Intellectual:
• Spend a bit of time with someone outside of your demographic. Learn about what matters to them, stretch your mind.
• Get a recommendation for a blog or a podcast from someone “younger.”

Emotional:

• Write an appreciation note to someone.
• Think of the three strongest feelings you’ve had in the past 24 hours.
• Write a letter to your past self. What would you say to yourself when you were just starting ministry about how to care for your interior world?
• Read the opening chapter of Scazerro’s Emotionally Healthy Pastor.
• Consider viewing the Sanctuary Course.
• Consider using your extended health therapy benefits.

Spiritual:

• Ask Jesus how He sees you and wait for His answer.
• Experiment with a new prayer practice.
• Consider a daily Scripture podcast or reading plan. Maybe try a different translation than you’re used to?
• Book a retreat at a local retreat centre (anywhere from a few hours to a few days away).
• Write out your own Beloved Charter (as Carolyn Arends encouraged in Banff), exploring specific Scriptures and making them personal.
• Ask God to show you where His script might be more flexible than yours (as Skye Jethani showed using the story of Moses and Jericho in the wilderness).

We heard an unexpected theme emerge in Banff through Carolyn, Skye and the TiMtalks, about living and ministering out of a place of grace and belovedness. What would it look like to explore this further? The point of this article is not to motivate us to add another item to our to-do lists. The point is to engage living well, where we are. What does this mean for you? Is it time to release something on the to-do list in order to make space for something that brings life? Or time to explore a fresh practice which will help you sense the movement of God in your life? Regardless, this is about engaging in something that is helpful, that opens up room to encounter God in a fresh way and that takes all of us deeper into God’s love. May you find a new sense of God’s unique, full life laid out before you this year.

Contact Tim at tim@timwarkentin.com 604-562-4906

 Partner Spotlight: Hopehill

She’s more than a happy renter. She volunteers at our weekly teatime, and she talks to people about how happy she is to be with us. If someone is curious about Hopehill and wants to talk to a resident I send them to Marie. Why? Because we are more than just low-cost rent for low-income seniors. We are a community building trajectory. How can we help low-income seniors live well? Body, soul, and spirit. It’s what we do.  

We open our next 64 unit building in March 2025. We are looking for 4 young couples who want to live as “floor hosts” to interact with seniors, helping to build the Hopehill community, and in turn, be blessed for their service. If interested, please contact office@hopehill.ca. Move-in date would be March 2025.   

Here is our latest update on our building project for December 2024. View video update.

Rev. Jamey S. McDonald
Chief Executive Officer

CBWC Camp Spotlight

Our CBWC camps are a valuable extension of the local church. Not only do summer camps offer lifelong memories, but they serve as a place of interactive discipleship for our church members. Camp has always been a beautiful gateway to the church and to a life in Christ. Here is a little spotlight on what’s going on in our CBWC camps heading into 2025.

Katepwa Lake Camp, SK

Originally founded as Katepwa Baptist Kamp in 1949, KLC has become a place to belong. Some people call it home, others call it family, some call it their legacy. We celebrate with KLC that they have reached the milestone of 75 years of ministry!

Registration is now open for KLC Winter Camp, February 17-21, 2025.

Mill Creek Camp, AB

This Spring, Mill Creek is embarking on a large scale renovation of their electrical and water systems. Their fundraising campaign is called “Love the Lodge” and can be accessed at https://millcreekcamp.org. Also consider participating in their Travelling Book Sale!

Gull Lake Centre, AB

Gull Lake summer camps and leadership programs were full in 2024, and they also launched a second leadership training program high schoolers called Faith, Experience, and Discipleship, as well as a leadership program in Kenya. They’re rolling right into 2025 as well, with Winter Camps January 31-February 2 for Jr. and Sr. High students, and February 21-23 for grade 4-6 students.

Summer Camp registration for Gull Lake opens January 9. They increased prices by $100 for most camps, but they have a $50 early bird discount, and a $50 CBWC discount. So, if you attend a CBWC church you can attend camp for the same price as last year. Register here.

Keats Camps, BC

Keats Camps, which is entering its 99th year of ministry, recently welcomed Cheri Tubbs as Camp Director to oversee the summer and shoulder seasons. They also upgraded one of their staff accommodations and added a Wibit play structure to the waterfront.

Keats summer hiring is already in motion. Staff applications are open, and the first round of interviews will take place in the first few weeks of January. Camp registration and LEAD applications will open on Saturday, January 11. Register here.

The Quest at Christopher Lake, SK

The Quest was founded in 1945, giving it over 75 years of ministry and camping experience. Every year Quest has a variety of employment and volunteer opportunities in order to run facilities and summer programming. This is a great way to learn new skills, while having fun and making a difference in the lives of kids! Staff positions will be filled beginning in February. Summer camp registration opens January 2: questcl.ca/summer-camp

Camp Wapiti, AB

Camp Wapiti, south of Grand Prairie, is all about connecting with God in nature, operating since 1963. They strive to provide quality programs—encouraging growth, great community, and a lot of fun!

This past summer, Wapiti had over 300 campers attend camp. They have begun the process of gearing up for summer 2025. First on the list is to hire a director: fulltime, May-August with the possibility of staying parttime in the fall. Summer registration will open February 1: campwapiti.ca.

HeartSmart HR: New Year, New You!

By Louanne Haugan

I always find the beginning of a new calendar year an opportunity to get my literal and proverbial house in order—purging that which is unnecessary and getting back on track that which is life-giving and helpful. I am reminded of Paul’s words in Philippians where he wrote, “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” 

I am not sure if issuing charitable giving receipts and maintaining good record retention practices are the first things that pop into your mind when you think of noble or lovely, but striving to be excellent in all we do should be. 

Issuing Charitable Giving Receipts 

Providing timely donation receipts is crucial for good donor stewardship, as it shows appreciation for the gifts received from your donors. Most donors expect an immediate receipt without requesting one and failing to provide one can negatively impact your relationship. If there is a situation in which you do not provide a receipt, you should make sure your donors are fully informed.  

Your church must issue charitable giving receipts to donors so they can claim tax credits or deductions on their annual income tax returns. To facilitate the process, the CRA recommends issuing receipts by February 28 of the year following the donation. You can issue receipts periodically throughout the year or provide a cumulative receipt for all cash donations at year end. Each non-cash donation requires a separate receipt. A general practice is to issue a receipt for one-time gifts within 30 days (including any securities and other gifts-in-kind) and to issue a receipt for recurring/pre-authorized gifts once a year.

Receipts for cash gifts must have the following:

• a statement that it is an official receipt for income tax purposes
• the name and address of the charity as on file with the Canada Revenue Agency
• a unique serial number
• the registration number issued by the CRA
• the location where the receipt was issued (city, town, municipality)
• the date or year the gift was received
• the date the receipt was issued
• the full name, including middle initial, and address of the donor
• the amount of the gift
• the amount and description of any advantage received by the donor
• the eligible amount of the gift
• the signature of an individual authorized by the charity to acknowledge gifts
• the name and website address of the CRA

Record Retention 

January is a great time to go through your files/records to determine what can be destroyed and what must still be held by law. The following chart provided by the Canadian Centre for Christian Charities (CCCC) provides some common examples of records and suggested retention periods. They have made every attempt to give accurate information in this schedule. You may wish to check with your lawyer or other professional advisor for information specific to your situation. 

CRA Retention Periods for Financial Books, Governance, Operations, and HR Records

For more information on other subjects related to good governance and operations, please visit our Board Essentials page, or contact the following: Victor Ku (Finance), Jerry Wang (Operations), and Louanne Haugan (HR & Benefits).  

Happy New Year! 

Banff 2024—A Invitation to Rest

By H. Hamm

A trip to a historic castle in the Rocky Mountains. A collection of over 200 Kingdom servants, all seeking the goal of restoration together. If those old walls (and chandeliers) could speak, they would say the attendees are well on their way to the REST that was sought (and also that which wasn’t).

With lovely accommodations, nutritious and enticing meals, many available options for physical relaxation and views to deeply absorb, guests couldn’t help but receive some measure of restoration.

The gifts received went beyond what the eye could see and the body could feel.

Many hearts, hands, and minds went into filling up the proverbial “reservoir” so that guests could, in turn, return home with gifts to offer from the overflow.

Carolyn Arends and Spencer Capier gave the gift of music, both in performance and in shared worship. Their talent is undeniable and speaks of their many years making music together. Carolyn also gave the keynote address on Tuesday morning, encouraging guests to live as “Reservoir Christians” rather than “Channel Christians.” This was based on a quote from Bernard of Clairvaux which encourages us to let the ministries we receive fill us up before we begin channeling out to others. Many are quick to do the latter. May we sit with the idea of our belovedness until we believe it and then move from that place into ministry. Too often we serve FOR acceptance rather than FROM acceptance.

Each morning there was an opportunity to receive encouragement from within our own CBWC pastoral team. Tyler Graftaas (Calgary), Scott Simpson (Calgary), and Rebecca Thornber (Vancouver) shared beautifully and with insight from the 3 “lost & found” parables on the unexpected nature of God.

Another guest presenter was Skye Jethani, a pastor/theologian/comedian/podcaster/ family man from Chicago. Many listeners of his podcast, the Holy Post, were already accustomed to his wit and passion as a teacher. Over three sessions, he challenged everyone to make space for God to do the work, even if that means God going outside God’s own script. The invitation was to let go of the outcomes, to carefully consider why we do what we do in our lives and in our churches, and to simply answer the call to be the presence of Christ wherever we find ourselves—whether we specifically chose that situation or not.

Daily worship with Craig Bosnick and his team was like a taste of heaven. There’s nothing like singing with multitudes of church leaders; encompassing race, gender, age and perspective all together in one voice of praise to God.

Many took in other opportunities for enrichment including the Kairos Blanket exercise with Jodi Spargur and TiMTalk presentations from Bryana Russell and Tim Warkentin.

A collection of ordinary and extraordinary moments graced our visit and will remain in memory. The castle-sized fireplace brought ambiance to the hall, along with a bit of extra smoke that caused a stir one evening! A special dessert which must not be named, but rhymes with Leaver Snail, delighted our taste buds on a dark, cold evening. We bid a fond farewell to one of our regional ministers, Larry Schram, with a prayer and a Tilley hat fit for adventure. A collection of youth leaders took down Peter Anderson at glow-in-the-dark bowling, even as he gifted them with pizza.

Perhaps most significantly, the Holy Spirit met everyone present in agreeably sacred places like Stillpoint, and also around meals, in the pool, and on the hiking trail. May the ministry received be multiplied, both within the recipients at Banff and to those met along the way in the aftermath. Hope to see you there next year! Mark your calendars Nov 10-13, 2025.

A Tribute to Larry Schram

upon his retirement from the position of Regional Minister in the BC/Yukon region

Larry, God has gifted you in unique ways (including football in college, who knew!?) 

You are a wise discerner. You are someone who, after you listen to someone, can discern quite quickly what the real underlying issue is. You’re also amazingly good at giving the three action steps that are needed to address the issue.  

Larry, we rejoice, and thank God, for what you have been to us. We rejoice, and look forward to, what that next adventure might hold.  

CBWC Staff Christmas Traditions

My First Advent

By Grace Wulff

It was 1982, a year of change.

I was a young mom with two incredibly active toddlers. We were anticipating moving from our small townhouse to a bigger house in a neighbourhood where we would raise our kids.

My husband was not often around, a busy paramedic working long hours—and in the midst of this season, I received the call that my beloved Grandma had died. We were close. It was my first close encounter with death, and I was shaken. To add another level of complexity, my husband’s brother came to live with us. He was a missionary in South America coming home to prepare for his wedding and we wanted to make it special.

So, when I was overcome with nausea, I put it down to grief, and nerves, and exhaustion. But alas, to my surprise, I was pregnant with our third child.

While some women glow with pregnancy, I suffered with severe morning sickness that lasted months. Gone were my plans to prepare wonderful meals for my brother-in-law. It rather became a summer and fall of survival-mode.

Dad often said, “This too shall pass” … and so it did. I found myself in our new house, creating a home, while resting a great deal of the time. I wanted to be excited about the pregnancy, I truly did.

And then something happened to shift my thoughts; to change my focus. I don’t remember who gave me the book, but it was a simple activity book to prepare for Advent. Back then, Advent was foreign to me—something practiced by other churches, not mine.

But here was an invitation to enter into a sacred time of waiting; a time of change. As I began to think about it, I started to relate to Mary.

Heavy with child.

A world of unknowns.

Praying for her baby.

Advent became real to me. We, too, could embrace this time of waiting with anticipation and hope; each day focused on preparation for our new baby. This was wonderful to teach my children, and we began an advent adventure that has now repeated itself over forty years.

It was simple, really. Each day as we waited for Jesus’ birthday, we could choose an activity to help us prepare. The kids helped me make cards and cookies, gifts we gave away. One day we made homemade “snowballs” out of cotton and sent them to their uncle who was serving in the army overseas. Of course we had a “snowball” fight first, before we packaged them up with our love.

One day we turned on our outdoor Christmas lights, making it a celebration of light. I can’t remember every activity, but I remember the joy we shared that made the waiting so much easier. And it was joy that we could share with others.

On Christmas day, we served birthday cake for Jesus and sang. It was very meaningful, and we knew that soon we, too, would welcome a new baby into our home.

My third child arrived weeks later, in early February. This daughter, now a busy mom of four, celebrates Advent each year with her children, and I delight in finding resources for my grandchildren to think about in this season of anticipation and preparation.

Advent has become so commercialized, associated with cheap chocolate calendars or other treats, but I keep coming back to the simple truth of this invitation.

To wait with hope.

To focus on the coming of Jesus.

To quiet my heart in the midst of busyness and receive the gifts in the waiting.

Doctine of Discovery: Exploring Its Hidden Roots

We are pleased to invite Jodi Spargur (Red Clover/CBM), and David Nacho (FBC Vancouver) for an hour of teaching on the Doctrine of Discovery (DoD), its historical arc, and what the DoD has to do with us as Baptists. We will also hear from Indigenous voices speaking on the impact of the Doctrine of Discovery on them today.  

To register for this webinar, click HERE. A Zoom link will be sent to all registered emails 24 hours in advance of this event. 

 Partner Spotlight: Carey

Letter from our Dean of Student Residents
By Rafael Franco, Dean of Student Residents, Carey Theological College

I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has prayed for and supported Carey’s student residence program over the years. In my role as the Dean of Student Residents, I have the privilege to spend time with these young UBC undergraduates. I get to watch them pursue their dreams, build community, and form bonds that will last a lifetime. 

I think this is the fruit of the faithfulness of God’s people.  

 From the steadfast prayers of parents who have entrusted us with their children, to the generosity of partners who trust our mission,

God has blessed us through the Body of Christ; people who care immensely about the ministry we serve in.  

 Let me share what two of our students, Grace and Kristina, have said about their experience of living at Carey:  

  “I’ve developed a consistent prayer life this year… and it’s because of how I’ve grown in my relationship with God at Carey. I also feel like I’ve become more confident and sociable this year as I’ve been getting to know more people at Carey.”  

— Kristina, Carey Student Resident 

 “The most valuable thing about living at Carey has been making friends with loving people who are not afraid to call me out when I am wrong. The Carey community has truly helped me understand Proverbs 27:17, ‘As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.’”  

— Grace, Carey Student Resident 

 Their testimonies reflect Carey’s heart: a place where students are not only learning but also being shaped as leaders to serve out God’s calling for their lives.  

Carey staff touring the 2-bed unit of Timothy Hall

Looking to the future, I am excited about the growth resulting from our new building. We have a new student residence building slated for completion in late Spring 2025. The building will welcome an additional 104 beds to our current capacity of 44, bringing even more opportunities for students to grow and flourish in our community. 

The vision we have for this new student residence, Timothy Hall, is inspired by a passage beloved by our president, Rev. Dr. Colin Godwin:

“And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.”

 — 2 Timothy 2:2

We want Timothy Hall to be a place where students are ministered to and built up, ultimately leaving as Christian men and women, capable and mature in their faith, able to teach and disciple those around them. 

Drawing closer to Timothy Hall’s opening, I cannot wait to meet the students God will bring to our doors. Many of us who are passionate about student ministry at Carey are busy envisioning programming that will shape and point our community to Christ. We do not take lightly the grace that God has given us to be a beacon of light on UBC campus. Carey is filled with hopeful expectations of great things from God.

Timothy Hall will be completed late Spring 2025

Currently, applications to our student residence for the 2025/26 and 2026/27 academic year are open. If in your churches there are UBC students, current or prospective, in need of on-campus housing, please share the exciting news with them. Invite them to take a look at our webpage or fill out an application form. Carey is grateful for the partnership with CBWC, and over 15% of the students in our program are part of the CBWC denomination.  

 Thank you for listening to our story. I hope you are encouraged, as I am, in the work God is doing in our community. If you want to support our ministry in Timothy Hall, please take a look at this page to see what our needs and prayer items are as we take this next step forward. What we are achieving is only possible because of many faithful prayers and supporters in our mission.  

 In Christ, 

 Rafael Franco