A partnership with our neighbors to the north

Western Canada is comprised of majestic snow-capped mountains, spacious ranches, and a spectacular Pacific coastline. There are teeming cities with impressive skylines, hundreds of thousands of square miles of pristine wilderness, and some of the most gracious and hospitable people on Earth.

Canada’s flag is emblazoned with a red maple leaf on a white background bordered by two fields of red. In land area Canada is the second largest country in the world and 75 percent of its population of 33,529,014 lives within 100 miles of the United States. It is a bilingual and multicultural nation comprised of ten provinces and three territories. Unemployment is low and the standard of living is high.

Canada is a sportsman’s delight. Elk, moose, deer, big horn sheep, bear, and buffalo attract hunters and visitors each year. For those who prefer not to trek through the woods in pursuit of wild game there is the Canadians’ favorite sport, hockey. Canada – in particular the cities of Whistler and Vancouver – are gearing up to host the 2010 Winter Olympics.

 

The world’s largest shopping mall

For the ladies, Edmonton, Alberta boasts of having the largest shopping mall in the world with 5.3 million square feet of shopping and recreational space. The West Edmonton Mall is marketed as “The greatest indoor show on earth.”

When visitors to the mall grow weary of shopping there is the Galaxy Amusement Park, Sea Life Caverns, the Ice Palace, miniature golf, the World Waterpark, and much, much more.

 

Baptists are growing in Canada

However, Canada may even be more of a secular nation that the United States. Only 7 percent of Canada’s population claim to have a tie to any evangelical church. Of the major Protestant denominations in Canada only one of the groups recorded any growth during the last decade of the 20th Century – the Baptists.

The Presbyterians declined by a startling 36 percent. The Pentecostal church fell by 15 percent. The liberal United Church, the official church of Canada, declined by 8 percent. Anglicans were down by 7 percent. The Lutheran Church experienced a 5 percent decline.

The fastest growing religion in Canada is “no religion.” Prior to 1971, less than 1 percent of the Canadian population reported having no religion. In 2001, that percentage increased to 16 percent of the population. That figure now seems to be doubling with every census (10 years).

Only the Baptists, registering a 10 percent increase, bucked the tragic trend of decline among the Protestant denominations. But those who identified themselves as Muslims recorded the biggest increase, more than doubling from 253,300 in 1991 to 579,600 in 2001.

There are approximately 13,000 Southern Baptists in Canada in 274 churches; and they lead all Baptist groups in percentage of growth.

Over 50 percent of the Canadian Southern Baptist churches have no building and over 50 percent of the pastors are bi-vocational.

Gerry Taillon, the national leader for the Canadian Convention of Southern Baptists, and those who work with him have set some ambitious goals for their Convention. They are strategizing to have 1,000 churches and 100,000 baptisms by 2020. Within the next twelve years the Convention is also determined to send out 10,000 missions volunteers beyond the sphere of their own church and commission 100 international missionaries.

 

The need for missions volunteers

Moved by the spiritual need in Canada and the ambitious goals of the Canadian Convention of Southern Baptists, Dr. J. Robert White, executive director of the Georgia Baptist Convention, and the GBC leadership proposed a partnership with the CCSB. The Convention voted to enter into that partnership at the annual meeting in Duluth in 2006.

Speaking of the partnership, Bob Shelton, who works with the CCSB as the National Strengthen Team Leader to promote good health among the churches, states, “We can’t impact this country without volunteers. Volunteers and partnerships help us champion the cause of Christ. Partnerships are a lifeline of hope to our churches.”

Shelton remarked, “We are trying to educate pastors on how to receive partnerships. Once they understand how beneficial a partnership can be they get excited.” Shelton spoke of one pastor who was “infused with hope” because a church sent some volunteers to Canada to help build a stage.

Dwight Huffman, the National Start Team leader for the CCBS, spoke with passion about the need to start new churches in the sprawling country north of the U.S. border. He explained, “Fifty percent of our church starts should be non-Anglo, because we have 146 language groups in Canada. There are 126 language groups with no CCSB church.

“The reason there is not a church in every community in Canada is because we are not prepared to join God in starting one. We are going to prayerwalk 2,000 communities in 2008, 4000 communities in 2009, and every community in Canada by 2010, because wherever we walk, pray, and explore God shows up.”

Huffman added, “We have been taught that the only way to start a church is with $300,000 and three staff members, but we have more people, spent more money, had more conferences, and led less people to Christ with more lost people to lead to Christ than ever before.

“In the westward expansion in America the people intentionally planted churches wherever they went. But today we have people under forty years of age who have never heard the gospel and don’t even know anyone who is a Christian.”

 

Red Deer’s visionary pastor

Ashley Olinger, pastor of Riverside Baptist Church in Red Deer, Alberta, is undoubtedly one of the most enthusiastic church planters in Canada. He is young, full of energy, and along with his wife, Lisa, has made their home a veritable hotel for volunteer missionaries. Their hospitality and ability to use missions volunteers has greatly enhanced their ministry.

In view of the vast majority of the population being unsaved, Olinger lamented, “I see the lostness all around me. Going to church is the last thing people think of when they get up on Sunday morning.

“In western Canada churches are looked at more as parasites than anything else. So we are starting farther behind than folks in Georgia, but we are gaining ground. Community leaders are beginning to trust us; and they call on us for assistance quite often.”

Olinger declared, “I did not come to Red Deer to just plant one church (Riverside), but to impact the whole region by planting multiple churches.”

He has already determined to start churches in Lacome and Springbrook. A small group has already begun to meet in Lacome; and Olinger has won the trust of the leadership of Springbrook where he has been asked to start a program for youth and where there has been no religious influence for years.

Olinger has attracted considerable attention to his church planting purposes by using remote control cars called G Force. The cars, valued at $1,000, can perform at a high level of efficiency and can effectively draw crowds and create an interest in what Olinger is all about. He also uses carnivals, sports camps, and whatever works to get people interested in the gospel.

 

Ministering where the ‘grouch’ is hailed

Al Litchfield lives in “cowboy country” and is pastor of the Baptist church in Evansburg, a town of about 800 persons located on the Yellowhead Highway approximately 60 miles west of Edmonton. Litchfield remarked, “There are probably four or five thousand people living in this area and only 200 or 300 are in church on any given Sunday – that’s any kind of church.”

Evansburg was once a coal-mining town, but after the coal mining operation was shut down some of the people became bitter. The city fathers decided to come up with an image or character to promote the town and they came up with the idea of a “grouch.” Following this decision television’s David Letterman called to acknowledge the uniqueness of the idea.

An Internet website offers the following distinctive description of Evansburg: “Every year they have an election. No, not for mayor, not for a beauty queen, but for the Town Grouch. The winner is licensed to pester, harass, antagonize, criticize, complain, and grumble without fear of reprisal for the whole next year. You can have lunch in the local diner, but let’s hope you don’t get a waitress who is in training.”

Litchfield reminisced, “When the Canadian Convention of Southern Baptists Annual Convention took place in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, my wife and I hosted two seminary professors and two pastors in our home, and through their influence I decided to go to the seminary at 44 years of age.

“After seminary I went to Ontario and planted Shanliwood Baptist Church in Spencerfield. The church was born out of folks studying Henry Blackaby’s book, “Experiencing God.” After awhile I started suffering some burnout and moved to Calgary and eventually was asked to preach for the folks at Evansburg. After three months they called me to be their pastor.

“The challenge in Evansburg was to help the members overcome the bad reputation of the church. The church has had 200 members unite with it in its 20-year history; most of them still live in the community, but many do not come to church.”

Litchfield is leading his flock to make inroads into the community by performing acts of kindness. They have washed the windows of the stores and businesses of the community – even the liquor store. They cleaned up after the Perimeter Valley Day parade. They have tried to build relationships by going the extra mile with random deeds of service.

Litchfield has become a vital part of the Evansburg community. He has joined the Canadian Legion and is very much involved with the Perimeter Valley Days, a festive occasion culminating with the election of the Town Grouch.

He makes himself visible to the people of the community by visiting them in the hospital and is most adept at building relationships. Consequently, he has become the pastor of the whole community.

The Evansburg pastor exclaimed, “My dream is that this church becomes a hub for Bible studies all over this area and that we can gather all the Bible study groups here for worship.”

 

1 million people to reach

Dwayne Bartley was the pastor of a very healthy church in Colorado before assuming the same role at Cambrian Heights Baptist Church in Calgary, Alberta. His friends told him, “Don’t go to Cambrian Heights. That church is going to die. If you go you might want to figure out what kind of memorial service you are going to have for the church.”

Bartley replied, “I knew that God doesn’t kill churches. People kill churches. When I came to pastor Cambrian Heights there were only 43 people present for the first service, but I came to the church with a promise from God in my heart. It’s the promise found in Isaiah 43:19 where God says, ‘Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.’”

The Calgary pastor added, “God seemed to be saying to me, ‘I’m not giving you a church. I’m giving you a city to reach for Christ.’ God changed my heart and all of a sudden I saw a city of 1 million needing to hear the gospel. Unfortunately, most of them don’t know they need the gospel. They are cold and indifferent and aren’t desperate for anything but their paychecks.”

The pastors in Canada labor tirelessly to reach people for Christ and plant new churches. “I work six days a week and 12 hours a day,” insisted Bartley, “but that is far more biblical than the union method of 37 and ˝ hours a week. I also expect the people in my church to work. I often say, ‘If you are coming to Cambrian Heights and don’t plan to do anything, we don’t have room for you.’ The 100 people who come are workers.

“Now, Margaret Bell is 96 years old and she doesn’t do much, but it frustrates her, ‘cause she wants to.”

Bartley not only mobilizes his people to work, he is training his people to be disciples by getting them to memorize scripture and become soul winners. He explained, “The goal is to get them to become self-feeders. I was a cattle rancher; and as long as you have to feed those little ones they are a lot of trouble.”

 

A church planting frenzy

Many of the churches in Alberta can trace their roots back to Cambrian Heights, because many churches have been birthed out of that fellowship. They have recently started a “cowboy church” in Cochrane and another one in Clearwater.

CHBC has also started a Russian church in South Calgary, a Korean and Bangla (Bangladesh) church in Calgary, and a Hispanic church in Cochrane.

A Muslim, Wasim Ahmed, was saved out of the Bangla church. He testified, “There are only two books, the book of war (the Quran) and the book of love (the Bible). For years I followed the book of war, but now as a Christian I follow the book of love.”

“We want our church to be a resource center for church planting,” Bartley declared. “In fact, we want to see 100 churches started out of CHBC by 2020.”

The dedication of the pastors and the staff of the Canadian Convention of Southern Baptists is awe-inspiring and their passion for planting churches and reaching their nation for Christ is an inspiration to any sincere follower of Jesus Christ.