Ash Wednesday Reflection: Becoming a Prayer Pupil

By Cailey Morgan

It’s been such a joy to participate for the past several weeks in the Orienting to God collective prayer series with CBWC churches. I believe that prayer is the most important way we can spend our time, so I am grateful to be invited into rhythms that foster both corporate and personal prayer. And now, as today is Ash Wednesday, we are given an opportunity to again engage in shared practices with congregations all around the world. 

Perhaps Lent is a good time to reflect on the tools that have been helpful in deepening our prayer lives in the past, and also look to how we will order our future in a way that prioritizes communion with God. 

Mentors in Prayer 
As a young teen, I was introduced to the practice of journaling by Linda, a youth leader who found deep connection with God through the physical method of writing to process her experiences and formulate her prayers. She showed me her journal and talked about what the process meant in her walk with God, and then even took me to London Drugs to buy my first notebook and helped me decorate it with silly photos and a fancy cover.  

A few of my journals. They’re much messier on the inside!

Looking back, I can attest that most of the profound moments in the “individual” facet of my prayer life have been grounded in putting pen to paper.  

But Linda’s not the only person who has opened wide their prayer life for me to learn from. Consider the breadth of emotion and depth of prayer that can be found in the (over 70!) Psalms of David that have been collected in Scripture: joy, desperation, awe, anxiety and depression, praise, contrition, and the list goes on.

When my own words flow, I journal them. When I’m stuck, the words of David serve to help express my feelings and serve as a reminder of our firm foundation: who God is and what He has done.  

Invitations to Pray 
I want to invite you to take these weeks of Lent as an opportunity to become a prayer pupil. How can you take the posture of a learner to hone your personal practices of prayer? Experiment with writing down your prayers each morning, or choose a Psalm to repeat throughout the day. 

And in following with the generosity of David and of Linda in offering their hearts of prayer as an encouragement to others, I offer you a prayer I wrote during Lent 2020. Reach towards Christ, whether with your own words or those of who came before, and may you see that He is reaching towards you! 

Morning Prayer  
by Cailey Morgan 

Poke through 
Turn up 
Interrupt 

Weave your compassion and grace  
Through the fabric of my day 
Remind me to pray  
Infuse what I say 
And actions I take 
With Your healing way 

So that I stay 
Planted 
Rooted 
Grounded 
Not stuck but transfixed 
Can’t move until You move 

Can’t stop until You return 
Abundant life like liquid gold 
Dripping through Your cupped hands as 
You run toward us 
Each drop falling like water 
Like fire 
Dissolving a hole between 
Heaven 
and  
Earth 

Oh to catch a glimpse 
Oh to be a glimpse 

Inspiration respirate on me 
On us 
Spirit of Power You renew 
Refresh 
Revive 
Re-enliven with Your Word 

Another sunrise another surge 
Another rebirth 
Faithful Father 
Making all things new 

How then, shall we meet?

By Shannon Youell

“The most missional question we can be asking is: ‘in what ways do we meet again’?” 

Summer is here!  Many folks have at least one vaccine and, increasingly, two; Provincial Health Orders are being incrementally relaxed, and people are just aching to get back to normal activities.  Perhaps your church has already started meeting again, (in some provinces, such as BC where I am, we haven’t been able to have even limited church services until a few weeks ago), or you are just now experiencing an increase in the number of people who can congregate.  

Whatever your current situation, I am hoping we are not so excited to finally see our brothers and sisters gathered for worship that we quickly forget everything we have been learning these past fifteen months about ourselves, our societal and church cultures, our mission beyond a Sunday service, our discipleship, and our gatherings. 

So I draw us back to the question I asked last month:  

                                   “In what ways do we meet again?” 

As much as I am looking forward to meeting in person again, I must also confess that some aspects of online is enticing, especially the aspect where I actually have a Sunday left to be present with family, friends and neighbours.  For people involved in hosting, facilitating and ministering on Sundays there is often little time and energy leftover for just hanging out with whoever might be around. 

I am a walker.  I have walked and prayed in my neighbourhood for more than a decade, usually after work or in the early evenings when the days are longer, and I rarely met other people.    With a one hour service online, my walks have often been in the middle of the day and what I observed was how many people are actually home and about the neighbourhood on a Sunday!  It turns out the one day I may have more opportunities to meet people who don’t know Jesus is the same day I predominantly spend with other believers. 

This has alerted me.  Here are the ripening harvest fields, yet the harvesters are not in the fields but beautifully and meaningfully gathering together in a building.  I will say again as I have previously:  I am not advocating brothers and sisters in Christ cease gathering – I am simply asking the question through a missional lens: “in what ways do we meet again”.   This is a rapidly growing conversation being engaged by pastors and denominational associations and, I pray, by all of us who are followers and co-labourers of Christ. 

As I was writing this article, my inbox box reminded me of unread emails (I hope I’m not the only one who has those!) and one of them was a post from Carey Nieuwhof earlier this week on his blog.  The title caught my attention, “5 Confessions of a Pastor about Online Church Attendance”.  It caught my eye since I am in the mood for confessing.  In the blog Carey confessed his own enjoyment of a more relaxed Sunday and also shared the same observation in his neighbourhood as had I. Hmmmm.

 Read it HERE and let us know what you think; what worries you; what challenges you and what excites you; and where you see God at work amid the things that are shifting.  In everything we’ve gone through and learned during this pandemic experience, what have you been learning about joining God on His mission of reconcilliation, redemption and restoration in the world he so loves?   

Shannon is the CBWC Director of Church Planting (and passionate voice for churches growing towards missional communities).  Drop her an email at syouell@cbwc.ca – we’d love to hear from you! 

Church Plants Re-Missioning in COVID-19 Context

By Shannon Youell

Earlier this summer, during an interview with Pastor Tim Dickau for the Church Planting Blog, Tim asked me how the new church plants were managing with all the current challenges. I answered that, surprisingly, most of the plants seem to be finding, even within the same difficulties, deeper discipleship, relationships and new faith.  

Tim asked why I thought that was. I concluded that a significant part was that young churches still seem to have a sense of adventure, of excitement. Church plants can pivot faster as they are less embedded in how they do things as they are still discerning and growing in who they are as disciples and as local missionaries. They see God at work in the new believers that they are engaged with and are more fluid in the things they do. Thus, church plants may be less reactive against change because change is a normal part of their reality. 

GCF Winnipeg East continues to build deeper community among their core group of planters and new people alike, growing slowly but steadily.

GCF Winnipeg-East has found that starting a church plant in a season where we can’t eat and party together (in true Filipino style) has been challenging! The food fellowship is integral to how this group evangelizes, yet they are finding their way and are thrilled to recently be able to gather on a Sunday within the Manitoba restrictions. Despite the COVID restrictions, this group has grown to about 50 regular disciples, including 80% participation in the Life Groups, which now meet via Zoom! PRAY with them as they plan to officially launch in November of this year. As well, the building they meet in for services is undergoing renovations for the next six months, so pray for a suitable temporary location for the church. 

Hope Church of Calgary is struggling with not meeting together, some pushing to meet anyways. The people, who are Arabic, are finding the same difficulties as GCF W-E: community is paramount for how they share the gospel with one another. The group is small but committed and there is some good potential leadership to continue the church if Pastor Mouner ends up training missionaries overseas as he is feeling called towards. PRAY that the Spirit of God will encourage this church in the midst of all the challenges and changes of the present and future. 

Emmanuel Baptist Church Fellowship of Calgary is a flourishing Spanish-speaking community. Formally doing ministry under the umbrella of First Baptist Calgary, they discerned it was time to launch out on their own. One of the main reasons was the realization that almost their entire congregation and the community they were reaching out to live within a five-minute drive of one another, across town from the FBC campus! Connections were made and partnership has been established with Bonavista Baptist Church, which brings the church facility much closer to their neighbourhoods. They are currently working on affiliating as a new church with CBWC. PRAY for a speedy acceptance of their Charitable Status and that their faithful presence in their neighbourhood continues to bear much fruit that lasts. 

Emmanuel Iranian Church’s August baptism service.

EIC has baptized one hundred and thirty new believers this summer.

In the midst of COVID-19, Emmanuel Iranian Church (North Vancouver & Coquitlam) brought on board a new co-pastor, Ali Hosseinzaden, to share the immense work alongside Pastor Arash Azad in the discipleship of hundreds of new believers in Jesus Christ. EIC has been meeting in the restricted groups of 50, which means Pastor Arash is preaching 3 or 4 times each Sunday as well as his continued discipleship of several churches in Turkey. PRAY for more leaders/pastors for EIC to augment and share the teaching, discipleship and preaching with Arash and Ali. Pray for times of refreshment for them both. Pray for creative ways to engage their young people virtually.   

Makarios Evangelical Church (New Westminster) has four young adults from their college ministry, and one adult, preparing for baptism. Intentional discipleship and formation are central to the ministry and Pastor Jessica notes that during this time of challenge, more people are being brave and willing to talk about deep things in their lives. The church had several outreach ministries that were just beginning or soon to launch at the time of the shutdown. However, the church has pivoted quickly to adapt to doing outreach differently and is seeing God’s goodness shine through. PRAY for increased creativity and innovation on how to serve both the MEC congregation and the college students to whom they are building relationships with. Pray for creativity as today’s plans have to adjust to tomorrow’s new reality. 

Our plants and planters are finding both fruit and joy in their ministry as well as experiencing the same challenges our established churches have around our new reality in a pandemic world. 

I wonder whether this has something to say to all our churches in this time. Barna research has shown that more than one third of church attenders have stopped attending, now that services have been online for several months. My first thought was that those who are challenged with using computers may be part of that one third. However, the research shows that, “Among millennials, it’s even higher: Half of those who used to go to church have stopped since the pandemic started.” 

As restrictions continue or become even more stringent, how might our churches re-mission to both create community and reconnect community that is used to being community in a church building? How might they continue to minister to one another but also to those who, not in “church life,” are feeling all the same angst, anxiety and uncertainty in their own places and spaces? How might we engage Gospel in a time such as this? What might it look like to utilize house-church-type meeting that still honors the health authority restrictions? How do we continue to establish new communities of faith? What might it look like if some of our churches become “church plants?”  

These are questions worthy of wrestling with as CBWC continues to care for and support our plants and our long-established church communities. These are also good questions for all of us who are CBWC. 

Creative Restraints

By Shannon Youell and Cailey Morgan

Cailey
My husband Kyson is a fantastic photographer. He loves to capture the vastness of the ocean at sunrise, the intensity of colour in a flower petal, and the diversity of culture and personality in our community. During Lent, he took weekly prayer-photo-walks around the neighbourhood. For two of those weeks, he set his camera to only shoot in a 1:1 square ratio, in black and white, with a 35mm prime lens. No zoom. No colour. No cropping. 

These creative restraints forced Kyson to see the street that we’ve lived on for 6 years in a whole new light.

Kyson Morgan Photography

Kyson Morgan Photography

Kyson Morgan Photography

Kyson Morgan Photography

Kyson Morgan Photography

Kyson Morgan Photography

Kyson Morgan Photography

He found beauty, symmetry and life in places that had seemed barren at first glance. And the bright, shiny characters that usually drew his attention lost some of their luster when seen through the equalizing glass of the black and white viewfinder. By narrowing his field of view, he broadened his perspective.

My hope for each of us—and for each of our churches—is that the creative restraint of a social-distancing world will help us broaden our vision of what church is meant to be, and what that means explicitly for me and you and the Body of Christ right now in our specific ministry contexts.  

What is God inviting your congregation into, in this very moment, in your tiny piece of the planet?  

This is a question we should consistently be asking, whether we are gathered face-to-face in our communities or making eye contact with our webcams as we practice discipleship over Zoom.  

Shannon
A few weeks ago in a commentary in my city’s newspaper, a Bishop from the U.K was reflecting upon his hope that this time in our world of needing to stay home and socially distance from one another is a good time to rediscover things in our lives that we’ve ignored or disregarded due to the pace of life and expectations of that pace.  As best as I can recall he said we can all reflect on “being who we’re really meant to be because the other things that have captured our attention aren’t available to us right now.“ 

I wonder how often, as followers of Jesus, we take the time to examine if we are living, acting, demonstrating and communicating who we’re really meant to be in every arena we are present in. We are so conditioned by the culture around us that has shaped our worldview, that we often reflect the same biases, judgments, and perspectives as all those other things that capture our attention–at the great cost of looking more like ourselves and less like those who love God with everything we are and love others likewise.   

Perhaps this is a just the time to reflect on our own motivations and desires. Do they align with the teaching of Jesus that announces the kingdom of God is among us and which we are to embody? 

As we reflect, can we rethink? Can we reframe this resurrection life we’ve been raised into with Christ, and honestly assess areas where we can imagine remissioning ourselves to be the collective light of the world Jesus call us to? This is who we were always meant to be, his witnesses, in both the demonstrating and the telling of the grand story of God’s love for us all. 

Cailey and Shannon
Over the coming weeks we will be hearing from several sources around the idea of expanding our perspectives. This may mean remissioning in an existing church, clarifying direction of a new church plant, or introspecting about the example of mission we are setting through our lives and leadership, in the midst and aftermath of this pandemic as well as in our future patterns.

We hope you’ll join us on the journey!

Faithfully Present

By Shannon Youell

My inbox is overflowing with emails from every business, organization, missional group and thinker around our changed pace during the current world crisis we have found ourselves in. Each one has methods and helpful guidelines on how we will make it through this by working together and thoughts about where opportunities lie in potentially changing how we work, live, play and pray. 

I’ve heard people saying the church will never be the same and others saying here are the five (or seven or twelve) things to do to grow your church during this time through online presence. Where some are lamenting, others are seeing potential and opportunity to tell the Jesus story—all good things to be considering. 

Yet, from the beginning, I have been praying for God’s discernment to see what He is doing in the midst of this. Rather than being fearful, or making plans to ‘grow’ a Sunday gathering, I’ve been very aware of God’s presence and work in the neighbourhoods around us. I live on a steep mountain road that I punish myself by walking down regularly (the punishment is never the going down part….). I usually pray, think, reflect while on these walks, at the same time as observing the neighbourhoods that branch off this road where many new subdivisions have gone in over the last 10 years. I rarely, and I mean rarely, encounter another human on these walks (unless they are in cars passing me by). No neighbours chatting over driveways and, amazingly, no children playing in the cul de sacs and roads. Lately that has changed dramatically.  

People are out and about. Children are riding bikes or playing hockey with siblings and parents on the driveways. People are walking more and so I get to have safe–distanced conversations with those who have been nameless and faceless people in my community. What I have seen is life erupting out of the desert of houses with empty faces staring out at the world. There is life in the neighbourhoods and people are discovering it, perhaps for the first time for some in the current consume/produce culture we are all enslaved to.  

The Gospel has always been about relationships, with God, with self, with others and neighbours. Here, in this time, is the opportunity to actually build some of those relationships, to discover there is indeed life in the neighbourhood, that God is present and working in neighbourhoods. The question, then, is how do I, how do you, lean into being faithfully present there as well. Here, I ponder, are where we can find the opportunities for the church to grow – growing into the places where there is not always access to building relationships that can lead to sharing life, faith, hope, lament, grief and joy together.  

Here are a couple of blog articles, both by David Fitch, as he muses on the same things:

• Faithful Presence During a Pandemic
• Church Amid COVID-19

There are some interesting ideas of things he and his family have been doing in their neighbourhood at this time. One warning, the first was written prior to the total safe-distancing orders. Keep in mind, as you will see in the second blog, that he is not advocating gathering in homes whilst ignoring the order.  

 

Creating a Culture of Shared Practices

By Shannon Youell

I know, I know, when you read today’s title, some of you are already thinking “we already share practices in our congregation: each week we faithfully gather together to worship, fellowship, pray for one another and hear teaching on Sunday and, often, we gather in smaller groups during the week.”

Yes, we do already share these rich times together. So good! We also encourage one another, rightly so, to spend time daily with God in prayer, meditation, scripture reading, confession and reflection for our own personal growth when we are not together. 

Yet, we believe there is a thicker definition of what it means to embody this kingdom life we’ve been called to. When Jesus talks about the kingdom of God, he is always talking about a community of people who are 24/7 citizens of that kingdom participating in the practices, the devotions, and the mission of the kingdom together. And he frames it all in the midst of discipleship, something that one does not pursue individually, but rather in relationship to others. 

Like many of our human innovations, the proliferation of published books/information has both enhanced humanity immensely and also fed into the disconnection and fragmentation of community.  There are so many amazing and wonderful devotionals, spiritual formationals, Bible studies, theological reflections and any other genre of book written, and we celebrate those and continue to encourage disciples of Jesus to pursue knowing God deeper, enriching people wherever they live, work, play and pray.   

However, partnered with our western-world philosophical adherence to individuality and self-help, and distrust of anyone telling us what to think or do, our endless Kindle reading lists can actually separate us from the ancient practices that built and sustained communities of the faithful, which made those early disciples distinguishable in the places where they were embedded and participated in the new kingdom community marked by the Jesus way. In our current reality, discipleship itself has become optional, an add-on for those who are “wanting” more than the service on a Sunday morning or who are viewed as “more religious.” 

Both Jesus and the early church demonstrated a journey of discipleship that was done within a community. Putting the idealized Acts 2 church into perspective, the people did not sit on the temple steps 24/7, forgoing work, family, civic duties and all the other components that make up humanity’s days.  I believe the point of that passage in Acts is that they were intentional to gather and be discipled together and that they were equally as intentional to continue these practices when scattered, resulting in a community that were being both shaped and influenced together.   

They were building a culture of discipleship that incorporated shared practices while scattered and that also enriched the shared practices of their gathered times. 

We like to say this is a thicker understanding of what it means to be church together because it expands what we do, say and confess as a people together into the other six and half days of our lives.  It takes our theology of what we believe and understand about God and his people to the place of praxis – what does that look like lived out? 

Dallas Willard calls nondiscipleship the “elephant in the church.”  He continues to say that the “elephant” is not the “much discussed moral failures, financial abuses, or the amazing similarity between Christians and non-Christians.” 1 Rather, nondiscipleship is the underlying problem to those failures. It’s the thing that everyone knows fills the room but nobody really talks about, especially when challenged with the part of discipleship that makes us accountable to a community of fellow disciples.   

It is much easier (and safer) to just do whatever one does by oneself.  The barrier the church finds itself up against is that we’ve done a good job of making believers but a dismal pass on making disciples who make disciples, who are on God’s mission together to bring his kingdom shalom into the world. 

The good news is that God is waking up the church to this reality! In fact, it has been the Baptist historical ethos: whenever the church became too involved in self, God stirred up his followers to look around and see what is missing from their life together.  Those who yearn to see the church become distinguishable from the rest of culture recognize that what is missing in our life together is the together part—a people who are devoted to the journey of discipleship that actually continues to transform us more and more to Christ-likeness! The together part is bigger and richer and more formational and thus tranformational, enhancing all the other wonderful rich things we do when we gather for a service.  It is about shared practices—things we do together even when we are not together—things we do “together” as we engage being on mission with God to make disciples of all peoples and then teaching them to do the same. 

In this next series of blogs, we will be sharing what we’ve learned ‘as we go’ in the rich pathway of shared practices, including stories of our own congregations as well as those of other lovers of Jesus who knew there was more to this life as church than what we have been engaging in.   

Our purpose is that all of us as people who are faithful in our lives to God’s work in the world desire to see the culture around us be infiltrated with God’s goodness and kingdom. The reality is that before we can really see that happen, we must first shift our own internal culture into that of disciples on mission with Jesus. 

Follow with us, comment, email us, and let’s share this journey of going deeper and wider together by creating a culture of shared practices. 

Update on Emmanuel Iranian

By Shannon Youell

At Assembly in May, we welcomed into membership Emmanuel Iranian Church, a church plant in North Vancouver, and as of May 4th, a second plant in Coquitlam.

On June 23rd, EIC held a service of celebration in which BCY Regional Minister Larry Schram and his wife, and myself and Cailey as the church planting team welcomed the congregation into our CBWC family of churches, and what a celebration it was and is!

The warm and embracing welcome we received as guests was incredible and we met so many lovely people that we now consider family. It was like a family reunion where we were meeting relatives from afar for the first time, and they us. Hugs and cheek kisses were abundant as the joy of the Lord active and living in the community poured out upon us.

As we participated in vibrant and alive worship singing (in Farsi), and in prayer for the congregation and the pastor, we were aware of the presence of the Spirit and to the church’s obedience and response to both Spirit and Word. This is a community who are fully alive in Christ and hopeful in their challenges because Christ is with them.

Larry and I both spoke, with Pastor Arash interpreting.  I warmly welcomed the community to the CBWC fellowship of churches, speaking of our shared labouring in the Gospel and commending the church as they continue in our deep and rich Baptist heritage of people who join God at his work of redemption, reconciliation and restoration of God with humans, humans with one another and with all creation itself.

Larry spoke from Colossians 1:9-14, reminding the congregation “…since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” He then encouraged and commissioned the church to the ministry of the gospel, just as they are doing and an extended time of prayer for EIC and Pastor Arash concluded the service…..or so we thought!

As the last amen was spoken, something beautiful unfolded as one by one, twelve people stepped out of their chairs and came up to the front and declared they wanted to submit to Jesus as Savior and Lord. It was incredible!  I was standing beside Elder Kam, who was taking down names for discipleship follow-up. I asked him if this happened often. “Every week,” he responded! He looked back on the last month and counted more than 25 commitments! Twenty-five new followers of Jesus, in one month. God is present and working in this place.

Talking with people after the service, we heard stories of those who felt as though God himself had plucked them up and placed them at EIC and the obvious response was following Jesus, many for the first time. We also heard stories of personal challenges of life as new Canadians and of prayers for those who are still back home in Iran. 

And the celebration continued from there. Then there was cake! And food and an exhibition by the communities artisans. More hugs, stories, photos, kisses and joy to be a part of God’s family.

“…thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.  For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.”

What a celebration. What a welcome. What an aroma!

Stop. Breathe. Think. Pray.

By Shannon Youell

My daughter gave me a lovely journal for my last birthday. I have kept journals for years, mostly for thoughts and notes as I read Scripture, am inspired by Scripture,  and am inspired by sermon ideas.

These journals are very messy and I decided I wanted this one to be beautiful, which means I have to take some more thoughtful time while furiously writing my inspirations!

So I started with a sticker:

just breathe sticker

And then I expanded that thought:

• Stop
• Breathe
• Think
• Pray

Often, with life so full and busy (who else has come to despise that word–I wonder when humanity made busy such a virtue), I often find that I have done none of those things within the waking hours of my day. Well, of course I have breathed, but not the kind of breath that brings pause.

Ministry work is daunting at best and often overwhelming when we attempt to use our strength by which to minister. Yet, if we follow the example of our Master, we find Jesus withdrawing to a quiet place, to stop, to breathe, to think, to pray. He comes away knowing He has heard and seen God for the next segment of His journey, of His day, of His hours. Jesus practiced sitting where His soul finds home and so must we. Five or ten minutes a few times throughout the day brings focus and refreshment. It brings clarity and resolve. It invites the Spirit an opportunity to speak and for us to actually hear.

Psalm 1 in my reading this morning speaks of the wisdom of delighting in the law of the Lord and meditating on it. I have always loved this Psalm (well, to be honest, I love most of them!), as it speaks to me of stopping. Of breathing. Of thinking. Of praying. It reminds me that doing this amazing work of God’s Kingdom is not for me to do alone, or you to do alone, but for us to do alongside the God-With-Us who is always present even in the mundane tasks and the daunting to-do lists.

The promise, of course, is that we will be well-watered, refreshed and bear fruit. I am learning (still and again) that when I take these pauses throughout my day, I actually find the work a joy even in the more difficult times, for I am letting my soul find its way home for a “nap.”

Here is how I am practicing this pause in my day’s labour right now:

Stop – Stop means to “arrest” or “suspend.” In the sense of this pause in our day, I would choose “Suspend”—suspend for 10 minutes everything that has been occupying my body, mind and soul. I find notifications distracting, so I switch them off both on my computer and my phone for that time. If you can, leave the environs of what you were doing. Take your work out of your visual field.

Breathe – Deep measured breathing oxygenates the brain, calms the busy-ness, and helps us to refocus. Sue Hunter, our lovely former Alberta Regional Administrator, taught us to breathe in through the nose and count to 4, and then breathe out of the mouth counting to 4. Then to 6 and then 10, until we had a slowed, thoughtful rhythmic breathing. Then replace counting with “speak Lord” as you breathe in and “I’m listening” as you breathe out. Practice this until you sense yourself aware and alert of God’s peace resting on you.

Think – I like shaping this around Philippians 4:8-9: thinking on what is true in my day; what is right in my day right now; what is pure and lovely in the midst of the busyness of the day. Peterson’s Message translation is helpful. “You’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse.”

Pray – Philippians continues, “Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.” As we’ve spent time thinking and listening to the Spirit, pray those things back: gratitude for what has been realized and repentance for the realization our thoughts that day may have been ugly, unkind, disingenuous. Follow with thankfulness that God’s grace is rich and His goodness nurturing. Approach the next portion of your day by “putting into practice” these things and see God at work weaving you into His song.

As we move into our co-labouring of living out the Gospel of the kingdom of God, these pauses are equally as necessary as the tasks before us, the relationships we live in and bring nurture to, and the sharing of God’s Big Story. This is the soul-care of our own persons, which promises to give us resiliency and joy in joining God in His work in our world.

Something Happened Along the Way

By Shannon Youell

Over the winter, my home church in Victoria engaged in the 77 Days of Prayer Initiative with CBWC. As CBWC staff, I suggested the idea and promoted it. After all, we have been teaching, preaching and practicing corporate prayer for at least the last few years!

By corporate prayer I mean prayer that moves beyond petitionary prayer for needs and includes—as Grenz states it—a “cry for the kingdom,” for the whole purpose of God, church and discipleship.

So we invited our congregation on the journey. If your congregation is anything like ours, it is populated by a diverse group of people indoctrinated on our Western worldview of individualism and self-help. We had some reluctance and even a little push back; just a few folk who didn’t want to be told what scriptures to meditate and pray into.

The reluctance, however, was that people weren’t feeling comfortable being put into a triad or quadrad group for eleven weeks. Because they don’t know each other as well as one might imagine they would, even though we all attend the same small church. Because the pastoral staff was forming the triads. Because they felt they didn’t know how to pray, or felt they didn’t hear God even when they did. Because most of them claim to be introverts. But, we have great folk who trust us, and to our delight, more than half our congregation signed up to journey with staff and leaders.

As the weeks passed and we engaged the prayer initiative together, something began to happen. The most reluctant and sometimes resistant folk began to look forward to their weekly meeting. But what caused us to dance and sing and thank God was the byproduct: discipleship started to happen. We have been working hard to become an intentional community that makes disciples who can then make disciples by sharing Jesus with others and discipling them. But it has been hard, because, well, folk are reluctant. Reluctant because discipleship in the manner in which Jesus modeled it takes commitment, and commitment takes making changes to our own personal priorities.

I will confess that for the most part, though each group read the Scripture, prayed, listened and followed the rhythm of the 77 Days of Prayer, they didn’t report too much around what they were hearing in regards to the CBWC initiative. But they did report what God was speaking to them about life together as a community of believers who are to be sent ones, co-labouring with Christ in the kingdom-of-God initiative of on-earth-as-it-is-in-heaven Shalom and disciplemaking.

Dallas Willard said that “every church should be able to answer two questions: First, what is our plan for making disciples? Second, does our plan work?” Is what we are currently doing shaping disciples who live out the gospel in such way that others are drawn to them and are discipled by them?

On this blog, we will be posting several articles and some musings about the call of the church to make disciples. I’ve heard multiple leaders contend that if we make church we rarely get disciples; but if we make disciples we always get church. What do you think?

Stillwaters Counselling

Our next story comes from Summerland, BC, where church and marketplace meet to provide important care for the community. As Tracey says below, “With the changing culture in which we live, it is important to think outside of the ‘church box.'” How can your congregation think outside the box to bring hope into the lives of a new demographic in your neighbourhood? ~Cailey Morgan

Stillwaters Counselling
by Tracey Bennett

Stillwaters Counselling is a faith based counselling centre located in the heart of Summerland, BC. It was created in response to the expressed needs of individuals who resided in the local area.

After delivering a seminar on grief, a local Christian counselor identified a gap in service provision, with a particular focus on faith based counselling.

After much prayer and some initial research, Summerland Baptist Church was approached and consulted with as it was identified as one of the main active churches involved in the community. Counselling had indeed been on their agenda for a period of time, so with the vision and expressed need, a process of consultation began.

The senior pastors, deacons and church community were unanimous in their support of a faith-based counselling centre. A steering committee was formed. Prayer was core and collaboration with other agencies took place, as well as with members of the community. A successful pioneering model was taken and molded to suit the community in which the counselling centre was to be based. The steering committee discussed and formulated a business plan, identifying an empty business property on the local high street to rent. Summerland Baptist raised the core finances to fund the refurbishment of the counselling centre and created a subsidy fund to enable counselling to be accessible to all who were not covered by insurance companies or who could not financially afford it. A team of part-time master’s level counselors were recruited and a Clinical Director was appointed.

The counselling centre was advertised and launched in March 2017, and by the end of the year, many people had accessed care. The financial model was sustainable and a much needed service was being accessed by all. Christians and non-Christians were referred and self-referred by Pastors and various health care providers.

Stillwaters is an example of pioneer mission. With the changing culture in which we live, it is important to think outside of the “church box.” Using the leading of the Lord through prayer and scripture, the skill and expertise of various individuals, a low cost, self-sustaining ministry has been created.

“Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest in your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).