The World at our Door

Monday morning I jumped a car with a Rob, a friend who has planted a church here in London that has grown to about 1400 people in worship on Sunday's in 15 years. We headed up to Ottawa to meet with other church planters in Canada (most of them are staying for the week, but Rob and I, as self proclaimed home-bodies, slipped out late last night).

I could write several blogs on the past two days, and probably will. It was amazing to see and hear what God is doing. He's growing a "holy discontent" in many pastor's lives, and pushing them to into new endeavors. He's stretching men and women, and opening new doors. He's planting churches and changing lives. And He's changing Canada.

No really, Canada is changing. We talked a lot about the changing face of this nation. Between '96 and '01 the growth of minorities was astounding. The stats are not all in yet, but the changes between '01 and '07 are even more dramatic. Basically, minorities are not minorities anymore. We're moving to a nation of co-existing multiplicities. Many groups with enough critical mass to constitute very viable and lively communities within our cities.

A lot of folks shared about what they are doing to reach out to these communities, and to bring them together. There was a great push to establish multi- racial, cultural, economic, educational and ethnic congregations.

So what will that look like for Connections? Well if we are true to our name, we'll find our community starting to diversify. If we are true to our values, we'll celebrate our "diversity in unity." I suppose what I'm saying is that I'd love to see Connections reflect the final image we have in the bible, where we see in the city of God,

people "from every tribe and language and people and nation" worshiping Jesus (Revelation 5:9).

I also don't believe it will "just happen." We need to work to make it happen- by taking a risk, talking to somebody that looks different, walking across the street, stumbling through an awkward introduction.

For 2000+ years the church has grown by taking seriously Jesus' command to go out to all the world. So what will we do when the world comes to Canada, to London, to our neighborhood?

By the way, I'm actually a minority immigrant. Who'd have guessed?