Mission to Stoney Creek UpDate - April Newsletter

These are exciting times for Mission to Stoney Creek. On February 25, Moses and I shared the direction forward for our group and announced the transition from intermission group to church plant “launch team.” I shared some good reasons to join a church plant: geography, gifting, and growth! This article goes into this in some depth. We then embarked on four weeks of outreach as a group, first hosting a mental health talk by Brett Ullman titled “Walking Wounded” which dovetailed into 3 weeks of “Hope Explored,” an introductory course to the hope that we have in Jesus, studies based in the gospel of Luke.

We had an average of 8-10 individuals from outside our group join us every week. Many of these were attracted to the theme of hope and looking for community and a safe place to explore the gospel of Jesus. As a group we are grateful for the opportunity we had to start some new friendships and to engage with a few people checking out church for the first time, and others re-engaging with the church. Each week we chatted about the hope, purpose, and peace that only Christ can bring. Many of our guests said they plan to return when we resume our studies on the Lord’s Prayer on April 14.

Mission to Stoney Creek is now at a significant transition point. This past week has seen several commitments made to the church plant. After discussions with New City’s elders, we believe it is time for this group to take the next step to becoming a church! On May 31, at our next presbytery meeting in Ottawa, we hope to become a mission church. This means we would begin to receive members and prepare for public worship services. If all goes well, we plan to have a special service at New City Church on June 16, to be blessed and commissioned as a team to serve the Lord as a new church in Stoney Creek.

Friends, these are exciting times. We believe that the task of building a church is an impossible task (humanly-speaking), but with God all things are possible. Jesus himself has promised to build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail over it. The area of Lower Stoney Creek and the neighbourhoods surrounding the Red Hill have more than 100,000 souls who need to hear the good news and have an encounter with Jesus (read Matthew 9:35-38). Please join us in prayer as we earnestly seek the Lord’s blessing, and provision of both people and resources. We are still praying for committed members who can bless our growing community with their gifts and who are willing to live into New City’s call to be a multiplication-oriented church.

The days to come will be full of exciting developments as we have a front-row seat to all that God is doing. Pray for us as we learn to work, serve, and pray together as a community to see God’s kingdom come in Stoney Creek as it is in heaven.