Reflections on The Leadership Factor Event
Ontario - March 9, 2019
By Paul Menacanin
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The RCA Church Multiplication Conference in Niagara Falls provided a forum where, together, several wonderful people from our Ontario classis gathered in one room and were stretched, inspired, challenged, and urged to consider how to embrace and fulfill Jesus’s call to “go and make disciples” in the midst of a rapidly-changing North American culture. Our conference speakers offered valuable insights and practical suggestions for how to mobilize in order to make in-roads in our communities by declaring the gospel, planting churches and discipling believers along the journey. Here were some of the many memorable highlights from an awesome day of learning… |
Our first presenter, Randy Weener, unpacked the RCA’s grand vision of planting 1,000 churches in the next 20 years and offered the compelling rationale for planting now. In reference to today’s culture, he reminded us that “we need new wineskins for new wine.” Randy helped us to reflect on a wide array of planter pathways and project models that can be adopted in making church multiplication a reality in our various settings. These models included multi-site and global plants, pilot projects, microchurches and missional communities. Conference participants learned of a wide range of entry points for churches to become involved in the planting process, including embracing the vital necessity of prayer, adopting and supporting existing plants, raising up leaders, providing resources, and building important community networks and connections.
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Tommy Kiedes, our second speaker, followed Randy by proposing that “planting churching is not something we do. It is something weget to do.” Drawing on the wisdom of God’s Word in Nehemiah and Esther, he outlined what was necessary to mobilize people for mission, a list that included a holy discontent, clear vision, unwavering faith, unapologetic ask, distinct next step and perhaps the most motivating of all, a relentless tenacity. As the church, we were challenged to “overcome” -overcome inertia, overcome the power of the status quo, andovercome the contentment to stay safe. Instilling a DNA of planting in our churches will occur as we provide opportunities to hear the miraculous stories of people coming to faith.
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In tying together discipleship and multiplication, Chad Ferrand followed Tommy by inviting each listener to “put our story inside Jesus’ story”. Citing the four key components of discipleship – invitation, information, innovation and imitation – Chad emphasized how the true disciple is one who makes disciples and lives like a disciple. In order to find our way forward in growing and multiplying churches, the importance was placed on establishing discipleship cultures where discipleship, family ministry and generosity are cultivated and valued. |
Chan Kilgore closed the series of plenary presentations with a talk that explored how each disciple is urged to invite not-yet-believers to embrace the riches of the gospel and in doing so, be drawn, compelled and captivated by its eternal truth. Chan stressed the paramount importance of training in cultural fluency (becoming missionaries in our current culture by asking good questions and confidently offering how the gospel informs and transforms all of our lives) and gospel fluency (providing opportunities for gospel exposure, gospel familiarity, gospel understanding and gospel mission to occur). He reminded us of the necessity to strike a balance between listening and speaking in our interactions when we present the gospel in today’s culture.
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All in all, the conference was a resounding success. In our reflection time immediately following the day’s sessions, a number of attendees from our congregation at Forestview Church in Grimsby agreed that an important next step is to mobilize together to establish a tangible missional community that opens doors for new gospel interactions in the local neighbouring community of Winona.