St. George’s is a very special church. It has a history of sharing its rector with the broader church and this legacy lives on today. As many of you know, in addition to the responsibility of serving as your rector I also serve on the board of directors for our diocese, the Anglican Network in Canada. I am also the chairman of Anglican church planting in Canada, travelling across the country to facilitate and resource new church plants and working closely with our bishops to see Anglicanism re-planted in Canada. Finally, I serve our province, the Anglican Church in North America, as a director of the Anglican 1000 project. At his investiture, Archbishop Duncan prophetically called for 1000 new congregations over 5 years. With David Roseberry, rector of Christ Church Plano, leading the movement in the United States I lead the movement on behalf of the archbishop here in Canada. This responsibility sees me travelling regularly across North America. All told I typically fly somewhere 2-4 each month.
All this preamble is intended to get to the point where I can update you on the work you have released me to do for our diocese and our international province.
1) St. George’s:
Locally, St. George’s oversees 3 church plants; in Toronto, in Stoney Creek and in Norwich. I meet regularly with the leadership of each of these churches. We share our resources of staff and sometimes money to see God’s mission advance in these communities.
In Norwich we have planted the Church of the Messiah. Our Peter Parent is faithfully pasturing this group. The group began with two faithful women, named Sheilagh and Dotty meeting in my study in Burlington. Since then the Lord has daily added to their number. They are meeting on Sunday mornings in a rented space on the main street in Norwich and have two midweek bible study groups. Their greatest blessing, and challenge, has been the growing number of teenagers in their Sunday services and bible study groups. Thank you Jesus! Sheilagh writes regular updates for our monthly By George publication.
In Stoney Creek we are planting St. Paul Anglican Bible Church. We have learned a great deal through our efforts in Stoney Creek. God has pulled together a faithful leadership team including Jim, Jude, John and Zandra. Keith Stodart has been faithfully pastoring this group. Please pray for them as they seek to serve their local community in the love of Jesus. They have recently pulled back from Sunday services in an effort to move from attractional church planting to missional. The group meets weekly for prayer and bible study, planning and listening to the Master’s leading.
Our church plant in Toronto is approaching a critical juncture. A year ago, Claus came to my study in Burlington to share that the Lord was calling he and Heather to leave the church they had been a part of for 15 years to plant a church in Toronto. The Lord gave me this word from Acts 18 for Claus and the new project, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I [Jesus] am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.” The Toronto project is about to become the church plant called Christ the King. After meeting on Wednesday evenings for evening prayer, bible study and sometimes Holy Communion, they are ready to launch into Sunday evening services. After much prayer and searching the Lord has provided a place for them to meet. I will be spending more time with them as they make this important step. I intend, God willing, to lead the services or preach for the first while and spend a day each week downtown sowing faithfulness into this church plant. I am developing a weekly, lunchtime bible study on Bay Street. We are thrilled to see what the Lord will do.
Brothers and sisters, this is work that I do on your behalf. By extension you are allowing me to serve these budding groups and see the great commission lived out in southern Ontario. Please continue to pray for the leaders of these church plants. They are the true heroes of our movement.
2) ANiC:
The work I do for our diocese is, by definition, more policy than grassroots. Serving on the board of directors I have been part of the team that has built the Anglican Network in Canada from the ground up. It is a marvelous cause for celebration and rejoicing to see what the Lord has done over the past two years. I clearly remember a time when the idea of a diocese of biblically faithful Anglicans, with global communion recognition was but a prayerful dream. Now we are part of an international province. All glory to Jesus.
As chairman of church planting I lead a group that developed the policies for church planting in Canada. We are now extending our mission to clear the way for God to plant new churches in our movement while at the same time supporting the new churches that He has already begun over the past 2 years.
We are regularly assessing potential church planters, training rectors in church planting and building this movement on the fly.
Please pray that we would never settle for institutional orthodoxy. Pray that the Lord would keep us focused on the mission field on our doorstep, here in Canada. Pray the Lord of the harvest will send labourers into His field.
3) ACNA
What a delight for St. George’s to host the inaugural meeting of the house of bishops and provincial council of the Anglican Church in North America in December 2009. I was honoured to be the bible teacher and to open God’s word in such august company. Since then God has been building the province. Our bishop, Don, is the dean of the province. In this capacity he travels to functions within the province and throughout the Anglican Communion on behalf of Archbishop Duncan. The ACNA is growing in size, in global recognition and in missional clarity. All glory to Jesus.
From my end, the Anglican 1000 movement was born when my friend and U.S. counterpart David Roseberry took up the Archbishop’s call to plant 1000 new congregations during his 5 year tenure. The Anglican 1000 movement does not plant churches. Rather it facilitates the planting of churches through each diocese in the ACNA. To do so we hold an annual summit, we have a communications wing that developed a dynamic website for Anglican church planters, we are holding regional meetings across Canada and the U.S. and we are pulling together rectors of resourced churches to support one another in following Jesus’ calling to plant gospel-oriented Anglican churches.
Please pray for our Archbishop and for our Anglican 1000 movement. Pray that we never lose sigh of the fact that church planting is not about planting churches. It is always, only, ever about the glory of God in seeing sinners saved and disciples formed in communities across our continent.
Heeding our Master’s call to serve the broader church in these ways has meant that my life consists of many conference calls and much travel across North America. However, I have a strong assurance that I am doing this important work on your behalf. This truly is the biblical model of ministry. We need only read the epistles to see how often Paul greets the saints of the new churches he is starting on behalf of the churches that sent him. I will continue to greet the new churches on behalf of my St. George’s family.
Soli Deo Gloria.
RD
