By Editor Bob Terry
In 1984, Southern Baptists in Canada did not like the decision made by the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). Today, however, leaders of the Canadian Convention of Southern Baptists (CCSB) say the decision was the “best thing for Baptists in Canada.”
In February, the annual meetings of state Baptist convention executive directors and state paper editors, which share a common venue, were held in Canada. The groups were there at the invitation of the CCSB, whose leaders participate in the respective organizations.
Canadian Baptist leaders recalled those days of disappointment a little more than two decades ago and praised God for the growth in Baptist work that has occurred since that historic decision.
1984 was the year messengers to the SBC annual meeting approved a report declining to include Baptist churches in Canada as part of the SBC and recommended the churches form their own national Baptist convention.
As a result, churches located in Canada and affiliated with the Northwest Baptist Convention (covering mainly Washington and Oregon) formed the nucleus of a new national body. In the intervening 20-plus years, the convention has grown to 248 churches with about 12,000 members. Both figures have doubled in the last 15 years. Today affiliated churches reach from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Victoria, British Columbia, from the borders of the Great Lakes to the Artic Circle.
The size of Canada is startling. The province of Alberta, together with the southern part of the Northwest Territories, is about the same size as all of the states east of the Mississippi River combined. Western Canada equals all the 48 contiguous states in size.
About 32.5 million people live in this vast territory. Baptists hope to reach many of them for Christ by the year 2020. By that year, Canadian Baptists hope to have 1,000 healthy, growing churches. Leaders have divided the nation into 67 different regions and identified priority church-start sites in each area.
Canadians are different than Americans, leaders pointed out. “Your motto is ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’ Ours is ‘peace, order and good government,’” one speaker said. The United States is known as the melting pot. Canada is more of a salad bowl in which ethnic diversity is valued.
Dwight Huffman, a North American Mission Board (NAMB) missionary who serves on the Canadian convention staff, described Canada as more diverse than most U.S. cities. In Calgary, Alberta, a city of about 1 million people, for example, about 10 percent are Chinese. Each ethnic community keeps its identity and its culture, he added.
Baptists are trying to penetrate those ethnic clusters. The largest church affiliated with the CCSB is a Chinese church in Vancouver, British Columbia, with about 1,500 members. The largest Anglo church runs about 400. Most of the churches are small in number, Huffman said. The challenge facing the CCSB is reflected in the list of immediate church-start opportunities. The list includes French speakers for the Quebec City area and to reach Acadians in the Maritime provinces. Also included are Italian speakers, Mandarin speakers, yuppies for reaching young professional couples along the lakeshores of Toronto and “pioneer” types to minister to the scattered populations in the territories. The list shows the detailed work done to facilitate new church starts.
Shortly after the 1984 decision, the International Mission Board (IMB) formed a new seminary in Cochrane, Alberta. IMB missionaries composed the first faculty. When Southern Baptists reorganized their convention in 1995 and assigned Canada to the new NAMB, the future of the seminary was in doubt. The CCSB could not afford the seminary nor did NAMB have sufficient resources to keep the seminary alive. That is when the IMB agreed to continue funding the present missionaries teaching in Canada in order to keep the seminary alive. Whether the IMB will appoint new missionaries to the seminary is questionable, according to Canadian Baptist leaders.
Among those serving as IMB missionaries in Canada is Alabama-native Michael McGough, who was born in Jasper. McGough received his doctorate from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and began as a professor of New Testament and Greek. But when the seminary needed a preaching professor, McGough retooled and now teaches preaching and homiletics. Before being appointed a missionary, McGough served in Winston Baptist Association.
Like missionaries everywhere, McGough is also involved in church planting. He has been chaplain for the Alberta Cattlemen’s Association for some years. Through that contact, he was instrumental in forming the Cowboy Trail Baptist Church, which meets every Tuesday night in Cochrane. In a little more than a year, the church has grown to more than 200 in average attendance. Some people drive an hour or more to participate.
Canada is a beautiful place, even in winter. The CCSB is doing a wonderful job in reaching people for the Lord through establishing healthy, growing churches. Pray for the work in Canada and those missionaries, whether North American or international, who serve the Lord in that place.
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