Gary and Tamara MooreGary and Tamara Moore
By Gary Moore
SURREY, British Columbia--The Canadian region, like all others, is working through the incredible process of renewal led by Jesus Christ.
Each year brings its share of challenges and opportunities. The decline in church attendance and income show signs of bottoming out. People are still leaving, but at a reduced rate.
We see a gradual increase in the number of guests and new attendees in various congregations. The lines haven't yet crossed, but in due time they will, and we should begin to see growth.
We have 78 congregations in Canada. A children's church that George and Miriam de Vlugt began in Strathroy, Ontario, has grown into a full congregation averaging between 30 and 40 people in attendance. Their highest attendance for the year was 63 people at their Incarnation service.
Our new magazine, Northern Light, has completed its first year of existence. The magazine, the chief print communication tool for the WCG in Canada, nurtures Canadian members and provides news of churches across Canada, and in other nations.
We produce 10 issues a year, and an online edition is also available on the Internet at www.wcg.ca A new sermon is added each week for people unable to attend services, and members can express their thoughts and opinions in online polls and message boards.
We developed a ministerial site for our pastors. It includes educational and training opportunities for our distant pastors.
A taped class from Regent College has been offered, and now we are working our way through George Barna's new book, The Second Coming of the Church, in weekly segments. Participating ministers can offer their thoughts on each segment on a message board.
We conducted regional youth camps at four locations in 1998. Afterward, a number of teens were baptized. We are seeing an increase in teen baptisms in our congregations. We are delighted to see them accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and their commitment to live lives to glorify him.
As the denomination permits a range of liturgical choices, congregations are using this freedom to meet the needs of members.
This creates more diversity in our fellowship over issues involving forms of worship, but the substance that unites us is the true foundation of all Christianity--the past, present and future work of Jesus Christ.
Dealing with this diversity is stimulating growth in the ability to discern issues of central importance from secondary issues of personal preference.
We conducted the autumn festival at a variety of points from Penticton, British Columbia, in the west, all the way to St. John's Newfoundland in the east. A significant percentage of our members participated and were further anchored in the centrality of our salvation in Christ.
This year we are offering a new Feast site--online. Of course this cannot replace the experience of being with others, but we hope it will provide an opportunity for members unable to attend a site.
We work to implement our vision for spiritual health in our congregations. That vision includes congregations that are upwardly oriented in worship to God; inwardly oriented in nurturing and discipleship; and outwardly oriented in community service and evangelism.
Our pastors and congregations are working to improve their functions in all three of those critical aspects of Christian community life.
This is being done in the larger context of a nation in which Christianity has seen a tremendous decrease in its societal influence.
Canadian church attendance rates are well below U.S. levels, though they are still higher than in Western Europe. Christianity in Canada is seen as merely one of a number of options in a range of cultural and religious choices.
We pray that rather than being swallowed up by the prevailing culture, our congregations can truly be lights of the world and the salt of the earth in our nation.
We want to be examples of the kingdom of God in a darkened world. We solicit the prayers of our denominational brothers and sisters. Many Canadian members have you in their prayers daily.
Copyright © Worldwide Church of God, 1999