Home
Two Church Plants Highlight Canada Conference Meeting
NELSON, BRITISH COLUMBIA (April 10, 2003) - Chris Marchand, professor of youth
ministries at Providence College in Otterburn, Manitoba, was the keynote
speaker during the 99th Annual Meeting of the Canada Conference of the
Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC).
A total of 82 delegates from 23 congregations traveled to the Evangelical
Covenant Church of Nelson for last weekend's event, presented under the
conference theme "Ministry With The Emerging Generation," according to
Conference Supt. Jeff Anderson.
Highlights included the welcoming of Lighthouse Community Church of Sarnia,
Ontario,
into conference membership, pending approval during the ECC Annual Meeting
in Rosemont, Illinois, June. Lighthouse Community has its roots in
Kensington Community Church near Detroit, a mega-church that has assisted
three church plants in the Covenant. Larry Sherman, associate
superintendent of the Great Lakes Conference, has helped with the church
plant. The congregation of 100 has worship services on Saturday evenings
and has made community evangelism a high priority under pastor Mark Crate.
The conference also heard a report from Blackstrap Covenant Church, another
new church plant near Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The congregation has grown
from five core families to 11 during the seven weeks they have been
conducting worship services. The pastor is Steve Menshenfriend.
"There's something going on here and it's good," Anderson noted. "And it's
interesting to see how the Holy Spirit is working in the conference. It's a
huge stretch for us to do two church plants, but people are excited about
what's going on. A couple of churches are doing building projects. And we
haven't had this kind of (incoming) depth and breadth of leadership in a
long time."
Todd Slechta, who has been executive director of Covenant Bible
College-Ecuador for the past two years, was introduced to the delegates as
the new executive director for CBC-Canada, beginning this summer. Many in
the audience had already seen Slechta in action as he previously served at
CBC-Canada before heading to CBC's LaMerced campus.
The conference annual meeting opened with worship on Thursday before the
Conference Ministerium and Covenant Women Ministries hosted their annual
business meetings on Friday. Marchand addressed the Ministerium while youth
pastors Kim Miller (Faith Covenant Church, Breton, Alberta) and Natasha
Westerhoud (Malmo Covenant, Wetaskiwin, Alberta) spoke at the CWM meeting.
Marchand led Friday evening worship
with an inter-generation team from CBC, led by Kathy Brawley, providing the
music.
On Saturday, approximately 200 attended the annual banquet, which featured
CBC-Canada's touring musical group "Lift." The meetings ended with closing
worship and communion on Sunday as Marchand preached at the Capital Theater
in Nelson. Nearly 400 people representing three congregations attended
Sunday's final service.
Anderson announced that the 100th Annual Meeting for the Canada Conference
will be held at Winnipeg, Manitoba - Faith Covenant in Winnipeg is the host
- on a date to be announced. For more information about the conference and
its activities, call Anderson at 204-269-3437 or email him at ccc1@mts.net.
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
