Go Plant Ministries

(Come back as we update this article)

It’s growing out of a Provincial Movement:

The Fellowship of Evangelical Baptists in Quebec (which we partner with here in Quebec) are in the middle
of their vision: 30 new churches, 100 new workers, in 10 years.

This
vision began in 2002 and we are now looking at its successful
completion in 2012. We are beginning on average 3 healthy new churches every
year all over Quebec. This in and of itself is motivating. God is
moving throughout our Association.

It Is A Regional Movement:

On a smaller scale, L’église Baptise Évangélique de Terrebonne Mascouche (www.ebetm.org),
of which Louis Bourque is the pastor, has developped what they call “La
Vision Conquérante” (Literally “A Conquering Vision”… but a phrase like “Movement Quebec” may better capture the spirit of the phrase). The elders unanimously accepted and are behind
this vision of planting 10 new daughter churches before 2025. All of
these are above and beyond the three daughter churches EBETM has
already birthed throughout their history. The church in St-Jérôme (of
which I am the lead planter) is the first of the 10. We began weekly
Sunday services in January 2008.

To move the vision forward, the elders of EBETM put together a church planting action team (of which I am a part). This team has created and now practices the following strategy:

4-Part Strategy:

All four parts of our strategy are intended to liberate gifted church planting teams
(the vast majority are native Quebeckers who were discipled, trained, and mentored in our local churches) as they fulfill the great commission and great commandment in their
communities. Of course, we have a much more detailed plan, but
this overview will gives a general idea.

• • L’ÉVALUATION (Assessment): Finding gifted church planting teams. Our desire
    is to invest enormous amounts of time, finances, and people in each
    team, so intentional evaluation in people with the needed gifting is
    essential:
  • • Informal evaluation: An extended conversation as we get to know the person, their desires and availability.
    • Formal evaluation:
      Meeting face to face, resumé, references, theology, church planter
      evaluations, psychological evaluations, financial status, their favorite hockey team (a
      must as well… no Bruins fans allowed), etc.
  • LA FORMATION (Training): In conjunction with SEMBEQ, we are creating
    a 1-2 year full-time internship process where the couples would come
    and be a part of EBETM for 1-2 years. During this time they would go
    through a church planter boot camp, be coached by Louis (the teaching pastor) and others, work and learn
    from Noël Morrissette (the pastor of evangelism at Louis’ church) on
    how to form and train disciple-makers in a local church situation,
    learn how to form and train leaders in the church, and form and train
    their core group that will eventually be sent out.
  • LA MISE À PART (Send-off):  The church planting leadership team, along
    with their core group, will be sent out with all the financial,
    emotional, spiritual, and personal resources necessary.
  • L’ENCADREMENT (Support & Accountability):
    The daughter church will continue to exist under the wing of the mother
    church for a time. The leaders will be accountable to the mother church. Why? To keep them liberated to put all their energy
    into church planting instead of becoming bogged down in the myriad of
    administrative tasks within a new church. The mother church will also
    help organize their finances, help with preaching duties, and the many
    other issues that always come up in church planting.

We have gone from the question of “what are we able to do?”
to the question of “what does it take?”. Yes, all of the above costs
much and is a huge investment by the mother church. But part of our
desire is that right from the start, daughter churches would
contribute financially, emotionally, and spiritually, as they are able, back into the network which is “La Vision
Conquérante”. The desire is that in time we will have a
self-propogating movement. Our church in St Jérôme is already doing
this.

To give to this movement, click here

For a description of how funds are used, click here