February 8thThe truth will set you free
This paper is from the Church Planting Resource - Fall 2022 - A resource written by Norm Dyck, Mission Minister, Michel Monette, Catalyzer Minister and Fanosie Legesse, Intercultural Mission Minister. You can download the complete resource or read individual articles online.
Michel Monette, MCEC Catalyzer Minister - When I was called to do church planting, I was praying and seeking what God wanted from me. I read a few books and the two that stood out for me were Rick Warren’s “The Purpose Driven Church” and Ray Bakke’s “Hope for the City.”
The first one invited me to pray for the place that God had chosen for me, not to be infatuated with methods of implementation nor with a ready-made recipe, but to look at the principles behind the methods. Even though at the end of the book, Warren is tempted to give us recipes, I tried to look for universal principles instead of replicating recipes.
What I want to share with you is the approach we used in one of Montreal’s most impoverished neighbourhoods.
The second book invited me back to the city. It extols God’s love for the city and invites Christians to come back to the city, abandon the suburbs and embrace the city. At that time, the biggest gang war of the 20th century was going on in Montreal and it was in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve area. It was then that God convinced me to move to Hochelaga. It is when the darkness is thickest that one small light, no matter how thin and weak, can make all the difference. Thus began my journey among the marginalized and the most destitute.
I will spare you the full story of my call, as it will be explained in a book currently being written. What I want to share with you is the approach we used in one of Montreal’s most impoverished neighbourhoods.
I faced the misunderstanding of my call and the fear of the leaders around me.
We arrived in 2004 with a firm conviction that God was calling us to plant a church here. At that time, churches and church planting movements focused on Sunday services and growth in baptism and membership. A successful church was a large church. At a planters’ training, when I was already thinking about starting a non-traditional church, the teacher shared with us how to plant a non-traditional church, while giving us examples of the traditional services in the church, such as Sunday worship, worship team, Sunday school, senior services, singles services and teen services. My journal at the time, July 2005, records this. “It would seem that planting a non-traditional church is a two-fold counter-current exercise and a double-edged sword: the sword of society that has rejected God and the church, and the sword of the church that is looking for Sunday meetings that are bound to a tradition imported from the United States.”
I faced the misunderstanding of my call and the fear of the leaders around me. At that time, I started a blog called “Reinventing the Church.” It was simply an exercise in mental torture that encouraged me to do and try everything in church planting that had not been tried and to do it among the poorest in Montreal. Every three months, I reported on the number of baptisms, new members and evangelism activities. I was so fed up that one day, I answered, “Here is the number of church members in Hochelaga, 50,000 people. They are all church members because they live in the neighbourhood. They simply have yet to know they belong to the body of Christ. If you need an update, the government conducts a census every four years. That will give you an idea of how things are moving. I am not responsible for how God is convicting of sin and righteousness: I am just a crossing guard of hope. If by grace God uses me to help someone find the way to salvation, I will be humbly pleased and with much false modesty very proud.”
Brigadier of Hope
We then set about finding ways to help our neighbourhood come out of the darkness. To do this, we had to get to know it. We got help from Christian Direction, an organization that was created during Expo ‘67 in Montreal. Glenn Smith, the executive director, hired students to do an exegesis of the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve neighborhood. Our goal was to understand the neighborhood’s history, where it came from, and what was in it: the organizations, businesses, politics, residents, their income and leisure and social conditions, etc. From this exegesis came findings on which we then based our actions. It was inconceivable for us to plant a church without it having an impact on the neighbourhood. Of course, this impact had to be a positive one. We have seen many churches come and go without even noticing their arrival or departure. Jesus calls this “throwing pearls to swine”: a waste of time and resources for the Kingdom. There are churches in this neighborhood that no one even knows exist: either useless buildings or cultural objects to be defended without entering or becoming involved.
The church in an underprivileged neighborhood cannot be content to simply offer a Sunday service. The Sunday model is not viable unless it is accompanied by concrete actions in the daily lives of the neighborhood’s people and the community. Catholics call this a parish.
The purpose of the hope brigadiers is to give hope to neighbourhood members as they go through difficult times.
The brigadiers of hope in action
A couple came to me one day and told me that God was calling them to plant a church in Hochelaga. I rejoiced that God was sending workers into the harvest and I made it my task to accompany them. I told them that they had to be transparent about their intentions and not have a double agenda. They seemed to understand. They started working with the young people from a subsidized housing complex where they held day camps. The lady reached out to the sex workers who are very present in the neighbourhood. They told people that their only goal was community work, but this was a lie. The enemy is the father of lies and knows how to use them to destroy the work of God. Our young couple was accountable to their church family for the progress and advancement of their call. They sent a letter, explaining everything that they were doing, not forgetting to mention their planting work. The church family was impressed with their work and published the letter on their website so that believers from elsewhere could support the work in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. This letter was then found by people in the neighborhood who did not like Christians. It was revealed that the couple intended to plant a church and not just do community work. A complaint was sent to the Member of Parliament at the time. Faced with a loss of credibility and an inability to continue the work, both with the children and with the sex workers, the couple had to leave the neighbourhood and the precious work they had started was lost. The enemy continues to rejoice.
I tell you this story to warn you against the temptation of secret motives. If people suspect that you have not told them the truth, you will lose any kind of credibility with them, and the Kingdom of God will lose. If you are planting a church, say so. If it is social work, say so. If it is both, say so. The truth will set you free. Stick to the truth.
The purpose of the hope brigadiers is to give hope to neighbourhood members as they go through difficult times. Dignity chaplains provide humane and dignified services. Dignity is what is most lacking when you are homeless or when you must go to the food bank to get your food. The man or woman who is begging on the street has lost all kinds of dignity and often all kinds of hope. We need brigadiers and chaplains. Perhaps you call them pastors and deacons. The people in your neighbourhood do not know those words. Hope and dignity, however, are words that they do know.
People are not fooled: they usually know the intentions of Christians. Believers often lack credibility even before they arrive in a neighbourhood because others before them have already damaged the reputation of the Kingdom of God and its members. It is up to us to stand in the truth, name it and defend it. There will always be slanderers but the truth will always win.
You may have heard the saying, “Not all truth is good to tell.” But I say to you, be truth-tellers. Lies lurk in the shadows. Tell the truth. The light always wins.