Church planters grapple with post-Christendom realities
CALGARY, AB—A passion to see Canada saturated with churches is bringing a network of Canadian leaders together to "facilitate the multiplication of churches across Canada." Church Planting Canada (CPC) is keen to promote the development of new communities of faith where loving one's neighbour (and neighbourhood) in Jesus' name is paramount.
"This isn't just about planting as many churches as we can," says CPC national director Cam Roxburgh. Rather, it's to see more and more churches "organized around mission" get started throughout the country. "We live in a culture that has turned off the church," he says. "We need to tear down unnecessary walls separating [Christians] from their neighbours."
That key message was strongly promoted to more than 700 pastors, denominational leaders and motivated Christians who gathered for "Renov8," CPC's biannual church planting congress, held November 17 to 20 at Centre Street Church in Calgary.
Keynote speaker Michael Frost set the tone with a spirited call to "missional" action. "If your church was taken from your neighbourhood, would anybody grieve the loss?" he asked. He encouraged Christians to "follow the missio Dei into strange places. See where it leads you. You might be surprised, and it won't burn you out."
Glenn Smith of Christian Direction in Montreal posed a similar question: "Who is this God we serve, and why does He love place so much? Why does He love neighbourhoods?" Smith moved on to posit a four-part agenda for churches to engage their neighbourhoods.
"Church planting has changed," explains Stuart Murray, a British church planter and author of The Church After Christendom. "Ten years ago we knew what we were doing. We assumed we were bringing God to the neighbourhood. We wanted to build a congregation and attract people to our meetings.
"But that's changed," he says. "Our context has changed. Christendom is resistant to attractional and programmatic forms. In the past we focused on de-churched or semi-churched people. They had some connection to the church. But that group is rapidly shrinking. The new reality is mission among the non-churched and never churched."
Conference delegate Brent Williams of Genesis Canada in Edmonton, observed: "This was not really a church planting conference. It was about transforming neighbourhoods. How do we establish communities of missio Dei where we live?"
Roxburgh, who also heads the Forge Canada missional network and leads South Delta Community Church in Surrey, B.C., says Church Planting Canada has developed into a broad network of Canadian leaders who realize that the best way to plant vital churches involves "the transformation of our neighbourhoods with the love of Christ."
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