“Contemporary without compromise”
OAKVILLE, ON-The Christian fellowship associated with James MacDonald's "Walk In The Word" radio ministry is about to launch its second Canadian congregation; a church plant in the Greater Toronto Area.
Harvest Bible Chapel Oakville-a non-charismatic, conservative, evangelical church-will launch Easter Sunday.
At a time when many churches are setting their sights on being culturally relevant, the leadership at this church states emphatically that that's not what they're after. What Harvest Bible is about, they say, is the Bible.
"We are contemporary without compromise," says pastor Robbie Symons, 29. "That's one of our mottos, meaning, I'm not concerned with what people want to hear; I'm concerned with what God has already said, and that's a huge distinction with us."
It is a distinction that can be traced back to the founding pastor of the original Harvest Bible Chapel in Rolling Meadows, Illinois, Canadian-born James MacDonald. Known for his precise expository-style preaching, MacDonald can be heard daily on more than 600 radio stations across Canada and the United States, and online at www.walkintheword.com.
If numbers are any indication, MacDonald may be on to something. The Rolling Meadows church has grown to approximately 6,000 worshippers since its founding in 1988. Over the past four years, they have birthed six churches, including Canada's first Harvest Bible Chapel in Barrie, Ontario.
"Barrie has been a very lively plant for Harvest," says executive director of Harvest Bible Fellowship, Gordon Zwirkoski. "A lot of people [are] coming to Christ and getting discipled, and the church is flourishing. When we saw that happening, we thought, 'there appear to be opportunities to do more in Canada.'"
The new church in Oakville has moved into the former home of Calvary Baptist Church, a Fellowship Baptist congregation. The building is almost 30,000 square feet, situated on eight acres of prime Ontario real estate in one of this country's most affluent communities, only a few blocks from the shores of Lake Ontario.
Harvest leaders say the fact that they were literally given the building and land-which have a combined estimated value of $10 million-can only be described as an act of God.
"God gave it to us," says Harvest Oakville treasurer and leadership team member John MacDonald, who is older brother to James. "My wife and I went [to Calvary] one Sunday, and we recognized that while the people were very friendly, the church was in a period of decline...they were in significant difficulty."
In fact, the church had been experiencing considerable cash flow problems for some time.
"Calvary was on its last legs," says Stewart Jones, former chairman of the board of Calvary Baptist Church. "We just weren't bringing the money in to cover the mortgage debt."
John MacDonald says that after "resisting God" for several weeks, he made contact with Calvary's leadership. "[I told them] I thought God was really calling me to meet with them, about them giving Harvest Bible Chapel their church building."
The meeting occurred the first week of October, and thus began a process, whereby John says it was revealed to all concerned that, "this was what God really wanted."
"It ended with them voting to reconstitute their church as a Harvest Bible Chapel," explains John, "and change their form of governance and hand over the leadership of the church to Harvest Bible Chapel."
Ninety percent of the congregation voted in favour of the move during a secret ballot conducted November 16.
"It was a pretty phenomenal thing. Only God could do this," says John. As part of the terms of the arrangement, Harvest Oakville has assumed Calvary's outstanding debt of $1.2 million.
But Symons and his wife Gill, who have just completed an intensive almost yearlong internship, won't be losing any sleep over the debt. "Does that scare me? No," says Symons.
"[God] has met our needs from the beginning. And we've been very blessed. So we're very expectant of the future."
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