The church planting movement known as The Sanctuary is in place and growing, according to the Canadian Convention of Southern Baptists (CCSB).
At their last annual convention of the last millennium, the CCSB with its 165 churches unveiled its vision for 1,000 churches by the year 2020.
This vision first “bubbled up during a prayertime at a gathering of dozens of Canadian pastors and leaders in August 1998,” recalls Gerry Taillon, the CCSB’s national ministry leader.
The Greater Toronto Area (GTA) has a population of 5.3 million and an urban sprawl that spans five Canadian cities. An ever-growing group of church planters believes God has called them to live out the principles of authentic Christianity as practiced by first-century followers of Christ, according to Taillon.
Using the New Testament church in the Book of Acts as its blueprint, The Sanctuary church planting effort has increased from a few couples three years ago to more than 40 people who have left homes, careers and sometimes homelands to take part.
The name Sanctuary was chosen to appeal to the fast-paced, high-earning, over-committed families who predominate the area. Sanctuary refers to a safe haven, as well as a place of spiritual
significance.
Acts records God’s miraculous works as His followers turned their backs on their earthly security and invested in more eternal pursuits. History is still recording the results of those early evangelists. Christ’s disciples were more than church planters. They were Kingdom multipliers who used church planting as their primary vehicle.
Jeff and Laura Christopherson were church planters in Calgary, Alberta, when they became involved in the CCSB vision. The couple was aware of the great need for churches in the GTA, and, although convention staff were fervently praying for churches there, they had no funds to back it up. The Christophersons and three other couples met in Oakville, a Toronto suburb, in the home of catalytic missionary Barry Bonney one weekend in May 2000. They prayed. The call to do something bigger than they could have imagined was confirmed.
Before the summer of 2000 ended, the Bonneys’ house resembled a biblical inn as four families, pets included, converged and began the process of resettling uprooted lives.
The vision: 25 church planting centers by the year 2020.
“What we’re doing is what Christ intended every church to do,” Jeff Christopherson said.
“No church should say: ‘We exist for ourselves’ and be satisfied with giving a little to the Cooperative Program.
“Every church we plant should be a church planting center. We don’t want to grow a megachurch. A church chooses whether to gather or give away. Most churches gather — but that’s when they stop multiplying and start adding.”
Jeff Christopherson and the others knew that to reach Canada they had to reach Toronto first.
It is the financial center of Canada and a major media center. The first church was planned for Oakville.
“The leaders of Canada live in Toronto,” Jeff Christopherson said. “And the leaders of Toronto live in Oakville, a suburb of the GTA with a population of 160,000. If we can reach these people we can plant other churches.” From an initial group of four families in 2000, the leadership mushroomed into 19 teams and is still growing. (BP)
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