I’ve been a little tardy on posting. Again. I should really stop apologizing for not posting. Although, perhaps I should start posting? The issue is what to post. I don’t want to write random, useless stuff. Like how much I love the Calgary Flames (I do), or how much the cold is annoying me. Which is silly crazy because I spent 30 years living in this arctic wasteland we call Alberta, then left for a winter and now cannot seem to stay warm. Ugh.
So what are we up to right now? Well, we’re excited to be starting a new something with a couple members of our church body. What is it? Well, that’s what we’re trying to figure out.
First, history. When we left Airdrie last year to go to Tlaxiaco there were few to no Spanish speakers living here. I know, there were some, but we had no connections to them. But when we got back we found that the population had “boomed”. We keep meeting new residents of Airdrie who come from Mexico, Colombia and Costa Rica. And even in the last couple of weeks at church we have been introduced to another few people who just came to Airdrie and walked through our doors. Something is going on; the Spanish speaking nations are coming to our town. (We’ll assume the answer for “Why?” is that there are jobs. Which is true because a few different companies have actively sponsored their visas to bring them here. Of course, the other answer to that question is also that God is bringing them here to us. Cool)
So what do we do? Well, we have a few young believers. Some searchers and a pretty good number of “know nothing”ers. Combine that with this unrepentant urge to plant house churches (thanks MTS) among the nations and you get an idea of what we are thinking. And doing.
A couple of weeks back we gave it our first go. Our teacher is a former missionary to/from Colombia. We have a couple of “missionaries” (white people who are friends with our target culture) to assist. And I think we have one very good and eager disciple. The format is vague right now, but we figure it consists of eating together and practicing English and then studying the Bible together in Spanish. Amongst all of that we want to build into these people a sense of community (or church) that will allow them to grow without our intervention. And then we can watch them continue to reach out and grab any new arrivals to Airdrie.
The first go was interesting. But we went. The one guest was a little unprepared and a little uncomfortable when it came time to talk about the Bible. He also has a mormon background so we were well aware of the spiritual oppression he must have been feeling. Pray for “J”, he is definitely fertile soil.
This week, it looks like we’re going to take an evening and just spend some time in prayer and planning for this. Decide on a loose format, talk out issues as leaders and just take an evening to get on the same page on what we’re doing and who we are targeting. So pray for us as we pursue this. We’re in this for God’s glory and for souls saved, and nothing else.
Oh ya, so what do we call it? Bible study? Outreach? Church? I’m going with church. Simply because I can find no biblical reason to call it something else. Forget the term church as a service, and remember that a church is a body or community. Then it is easy! So ya, we’re planting a church. One focused on reaching the Spanish speaking community of Airdrie. One focused on building community and love for God and each other.
Pray that Christ would build His church in this community.
/RD
We will definitely pray! 🙂