Baptists working hard to reach Maritimes

In 2001, Canada’s census revealed that only 8.65 million of Canada’s 29.6 million people claimed to be affiliated with a Protestant denomination. 
  
While 12.9 million claimed affiliation with the Roman Catholic Church, almost 5 million claimed no religious affiliation at all. Others were divided among Christian Orthodox, other Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu and Sikh, among other faith groups.
  
As Southern Baptists are working in Canada and the Maritime Provinces to involve Canadians in evangelical, Protestant churches, other Baptist groups are also working in the nation. 
  
Perhaps the strongest of these entities is Canadian Baptist Ministries, an organization that dates back at least 125 years and has more than 1,000 churches across Canada. 
  
In the Atlantic Provinces, which include the three Maritime Provinces and the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Baptist work is conducted by the Convention of Atlantic Baptist Churches (CABC). More than 500 churches are affiliated with the CABC. 
  
The churches are primarily small, although there are some larger ones in the cities, according to a representative in the office of Harry Gardner, CABC executive minister. Most of the pastors are seminary-trained, but some churches have lay pastors. Many pastors are full-time employees, and some are bivocational. The convention helps its lay pastors by providing a three-year training program for them. 
  
Under Gardner’s leadership, the CABC is responding to the increasingly secular nature of the Canadian society. 
  
He pointed out that Canada is growing increasingly diverse, particularly in the large cities, with Toronto earning the title of the most ethnically and culturally diverse city in the world. 
  
“The changing culture has meant that we have to find creative ways to conduct outreach to our community,” Gardner said.
  
Traditional revivals no longer work, he said. “We don’t have any place where we can ring the church bells and expect any kind of evangelistic crusade. We were seeing only Christians coming, not non-Christians.” 
  
One method that has replaced traditional forms of outreach is the Alpha program, designed to  draw non-Christians to church to hear the gospel through small-group meetings. 
  
Other methods include offering compassionate­ ­ministries such as divorce care and grief care classes for church and community members. Churches also receive a strong response to ministries to children, teens and young adults, Gardner noted.
  
The CABC also sponsors two institutions of higher learning. Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, is one of the oldest Baptist universities in Canada. Founded in 1838, the university is older than Alabama’s three Southern Baptist schools and was home to 3,604 full-time students in the 2005–2006 school year. The school’s Acadia Divinity College serves as the CABC seminary.
  
Atlantic Baptist University in Moncton, New Brunswick, was founded in 1949 by the CABC. With about 700 full-time students — many of whom commute — the school offers degrees and certificates in a variety of areas.