I was asked to speak at Missions-Globales 2011 for the youth night. Ironically, I was asked to speak in French while Christine (a phenomenally bilingual francophone) translated into English for me. I shared the advancement of world missions from 1960 to 2010… and it was amazing to hear 600 teenagers begin applauding as they saw God’s work before their eyes. (I’ll share those slides in another post).
The theme of my talk was “The Pursuit of Jesus as my ultimate dream”. Dreams grounded solely in this world will let us down… whether I succeed or fail…
Here are some photos and a video of the event (somehow I didn’t make it into this round of photos. At least you can see what the event was like):
Québec is a unique region that has experienced in one or two generations the secularization and modernization that took France centuries to accomplish. While mostly French in language and culture, it is increasingly multicultural, with an Anglophone minority and growing immigrant communities. Pray for:
Political currents that swirl around the issue of separation from Canada. Although such sentiment has waned of late, it is never far from becoming prominent. Pray that Quebec might make a valuable contribution to the redemptive history of Canada.
The Catholic church dominates Québecois identity and culture (more than 80% self-identify as Catholic), but not in attendance. Québec’s church attendance rate is Canada’s lowest. There is a demonstrably low commitment to community activities; in particular, church and faith are highly personal and privatized.
Church planting needs to occur in much greater measure. To bring Québec up to par with the rest of Canada in the numbers of evangelical congregations, 3,000 more churches must be planted.
Ministry vision to Québec and beyond. Christian Direction/Urbanus partners with all denominations in the vision to have a spiritual impact on the whole Francophone world, starting in Québec. French-Canadian evangelicals usually feel more affinity with other Francophone evangelicals globally than with Anglophone Canadian evangelicals.
From 1930′s prohibition to Avatar; continually pressing toward a French and artistic avant-gardism: Montréal is not your typical N. American city.
What an amazing seedbed for an entirely new evangel-centered movement.
Old-town Montréal
A horse carriage is shown going through the streets in old downtown Montreal on March 8, 2005. Before Vegas stole the nickname “Sin City,” that title went to Montreal, once the destination for Americans journeying north to enjoy the vices outlawed in the Prohibition-era United States. Montreal now has another claim to fame: The city has become headquarters for many of the world’s leading video-game developers. -Foreign Policy Magazine
Planting French-speaking churches on the island of Montréal (1.9 million live on the island, 4 million live in the region) is excruciatingly difficult.
Please God, raise up a new generation of young people committed to raising families on the island as they live out the radical love of Jesus Christ for Your glory.
Who will respond to this challenge?
This week Don Carson is in Montréal to teach the book of Acts… in French. Don grew up in Québec, and even being a world-renowned theologian today, he makes time to visit and teach in Québec for at least one week a year.
In this video, Mark Driscoll interviews Don concerning his childhood growing up as a son of a church-planter in the difficult province of Québec:
As the Montréal Canadiens prepare for their Eastern Conference Finals opponent (either Boston or Philadelphia), these flags are popping up all over the place:
13 of us watched the Montreal Canadiens win last night… Caleb and I included.
People in Montréal are nuts about Hockey. The game was in Pittsburgh, but the Bell Center was sold-out in Montréal as 21,000 people watched in the big screen.
Montréal’s 5-2 victory propelled thousands into the streets to celebrate (and it’s only round two). Then, a few hours later, riot police had to be called in as several windows were smashed and theft broke out.
I’m sure Gérald Tremblay (Montréal’s mayor), has mixed feelings about Montréal’s continued success.
The Montréal Canadiens won the last of their 24 Stanley Cups in 1993. Patrick Roy was the Goalie and I was 15. (I don’t remember it. All I cared about sports-wise at that time was the Portland Trailblazers and the Seattle Seahawks.)
The Catholic church dominates Québecois identity and culture (more than 80% self-identify as Catholic), but not in attendance. Québec’s church attendance rate is Canada’s lowest. There is a demonstrably low commitment to community activities; in particular, church and faith are highly personal and privatized.
13 of us watched the Montreal Canadiens win last night… Caleb and I included.
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