What is God doing on the fringes of Canadian culture? Flying under the radar of pop-Christianity, experimental churches are quietly establishing genuine Kingdom outposts in settings both feared and forgotten. ‘One Size Fits All?’ uncovers the obscure story of these Canadian missional communities and its leaders.
It’s very different from the Hip 2B Holy documentary that was on Global TV recently, and while that had it’s place, One Size Fits All, is so much more representative to me of the direction God has been taking the church.
There’s nothing else like this that I’m aware of from a Canadian perspective.
People and communities that are featured in this include:
Rob Abbott, theGig – Kitchener, ON David Brazzeal, Curieux – Montreal, QC Nick Brotherwood, Emerge – Montreal, QC Gary Castle, neXt Church – Kingston, ON Kristen Cato, The Open House – Vancouver, BC Kate Dewhurst, The Agora – Halifax, NS Al Doseger, Rustle – Kingston, ON Cyril Guerette, Freedomize – Toronto, ON Pernell Goodyear, FRWY – Hamilton, ON Jamie Howison, St. Benedict’s Table – Winnipeg, MB David Manafo, The Gathering Café, Montreal, QC Kyle Martin, The Open House – Vancouver, BC Paul Moores, Living Room Church – Vancouver, BC Joseph Moreau, Ecclesiax – Ottawa, ON Greg Paul, Sanctuary – Toronto, ON Helen Ramfield, St. Benedict’s Table – Winnipeg, MB Kim Reid, The Open Door – Montreal, QC Domenic Ruso, The Embassy – Waterloo, ON David Sawler, Lighthouse – Glace Bay, NS Brad Sommers, Pax North – Halifax, NS Scott Williams, Club 365 – Mission, BC
And there are so many other stories that weren’t captured and have yet to be told.
Check out the trailer below, and buy your copy here. My hope is that denominational leaders who are holding vacant buildings and the purse-strings to the future will see this… and maybe, just maybe, they’ll creatively invest in carving out a new path for being the church in Canada.
Lots of great connections this past week, I don’t know how I’ve managed with my daughter tagging along full time the last while!
Excellent video skype chat with Jay Lee, church planter of Catalyst GTA of Every Nation ministry. If you’re in the UT area, check’em out.
Had a great call from Marty Schmidt the coolest person I know in all of Iowa. If you’re every in Iowa (flyover land I believe they call it, so I don’t know why you’d be there), check out his church plant – the bridge.
My fellow leader at Mosaic just opened up Kneadings Bread & Cafe this week. If for some reason, you’re in newmarket you need to drop in (that means you JD).
Attended the starfish network gathering of ontario house churches. If you’re interested you need to connect with Rad Zdero of housechurch.ca
Just got a note from friend Alex McManus to join the imn immersion (it’s been on my things to do for a few years now) but sadly won’t be able to participate this round. If you’re able to make it to florida in february you need to be a part of fight4humanity.com
Attended Vision360 for Toronto Canada yesterday. If you’re interested in city-engaging church planting in the GTA you need to get connected with these guys asap. Let me know too, because I’m still looking for a team of people myself as well. It was hilarious hearing leaders talk about advancing the kingdom and changing the world while Stellar scurried around with her stuffed monkey.
that’s all for now, tune in for more name dropping next week…
Over five years ago I adopted this mission statement for my life – To live by faith, to cultivate love, and to be a voice of hope.
I wrapped up my degree in May and gave myself a blank slate to work from going forward (even though I had planned the next thirty years of my life six years ago). I strongly considered returning to the corporate job I loved and just being a regular dude fumbling through becoming the person God created me to be.
Through plenty of silence, reflection, wise counsel and prayer, I kept returning to this theme of faith, love, and hope. And I kept asking myself, what would it look like for me to truly wrap my life around these elements? What would it look like in my own specific context, to invest my god-given skills and passion to living this life of faith, love, and hope?
Here’s what I’ve come up with…
Spiritual Direction – Helping point people towards their Creator and the person they were created to be. Primarily through one on one mentoring, discipleship, speaking, and innovating upon ancient practices.
Community Development – Creating and redeeming spaces for meaningful relationships and interactions, whether locally, globally, or even virtually. These will be environments inside and outside of the church that value diversity and inclusiveness while accepting life as messy, struggle as a reality, but where hope always prevails.
Mobilizing for Mission – Empowering and guiding individuals and communities towards living out their unique dreams through service, and making the world a little bit more beautiful.
Basically, I see myself as a missionary to the city of Toronto. I really can’t think of anything else I’d rather do with my life right now. How this will work out in the long run financially I have no idea, but I guess that’s part of the adventure.
Practically over the next while, I’ll be providing leadership at Mosaic to becoming more missional and incarnational in practice; Creating spiritually engaging environments such as the Solar Crash event coming up; Prototyping what it means for the church to have an influential presence in Toronto’s rapidly growing condominium communities, starting with my own; And networking with other influencers in how we can seek the good of the city together.
I’m totally stoked!
Let me know if this is something that interests you as well, or if you’ve got any questions.
The multiplying church is an excellent primer on catalyzing church planting movements.
If you’re well-versed in all of this, you might not find too much that’s new other than Roberts’ passion and unique stories. I found that it spoke to me in just the right ways at just the right time in my life right now.
ie. I love the simple burnout deterrence mantra he shares:
1. I am not invincible. I can get sick, sin, and weary. 2. I am not immortal. I am going to die. 3. I am not indispensable. The kingdom keeps going without me. 4. I am not an island. I need friends around me.
Recently I was working on a research project interviewing a wide spectrum of people at a church. Questions were along the lines of where they were at spiritually with the church, what could use improvement, what they would do to change things and so on.
One interesting insight that came out of it was when I asked people what they loved about the church. Most people could rave on and on about their church, I assume that’s why they’re there.
Tell me, what do you love about your church?
I would also ask people where they saw Jesus working in the church. It was interesting how the responses were at times different from what they loved about the church.
Jesus is indeed working, but what makes these responses different?
Could it be that sometimes we’re building the church, that Jesus isn’t…?
Joe Manafo just sent me the documentary he made with Nathan Colquhoun, called One Size Fits All?
Nothing to say today.
Recently I was working on a research project interviewing a wide spectrum of people at a church. Questions were along the lines of where they were at spiritually with the church, what could use improvement, what they would do to change things and so on.
