Monday Again

Fifteen Pastors of 13 churches from the Avalon Peninsula to the South Shore to Northern Maine convened last Monday for the Breakthru Roundtable hosted by Ken Banks (Connection). This four-hour forum included one-half virtual participants via Zoom as they joined the others in the Edgett Boardroom at District Office. This collaborative day of dialog yielded many salient points of commonality in both the struggles and strengths of leading churches of 100 or less. This “iron-sharpens-iron” event provided both encouragement and shared wisdom/resources as well as identified several areas for further exploration and Kingdom synergy. Stay tuned for future opportunities – thanks Ken for your initiative and leadership – we are stronger together!

• Yarmouth (AJ Plaizier) hosted a multi-denominational South Shore youth rally on Friday night with 215 in attendance. Hats off to Youth Pastors Alex Decker and Aaron Doucette for this excellent effort. Jason Parker (Woods Harbour) preached and there were at least 10 first time commitments to Christ – praise God! About 40 students came forward to receive a key that symbolized giving Jesus control of their life.

• It was encouraging to meet with The Lighthouse (Tim Guptill) LBA on Tuesday as we reviewed next steps for the new facility and celebrated God’s provision in the final closing of the North Head property resulting in a total on hand with prior savings and the “Do It Again” Campaign offering in December of $450K. Great days ahead as Tim & Luke Anderson tag-team this new chapter of Grand Manan ministry.

• David Zigler received unanimous renewal of his extended call from the Coastal Community LBA on Wednesday evening.

• Don Ingersoll (Sussex) resigned yesterday morning effective the usual time of pastoral transition in July. He will be joining Kings (Brent Ingersoll) as Associate Pastor of Spiritual Life. This will conclude four years of ministry that have provided another inspiring example of a church family in lifting up their pastoral family. It was also announced that Andrea Gunter would be stepping down from her part-time staff position on or before March 1st to assume a new TBA ministry position. Andrea will continue as Executive Director of Camp Ministry as she transitions into this new role. I met with the LBA on Thursday night as they received this news and we began prayerful consideration of next steps.

• Earlier this month Youth Pastor Bradford Jordan (Sussex) and his wife Oliva announced they will both be joining the staff of Blacks Harbour (Greg Card) in May following her graduation from Kingswood University. This was made possible by a very generous three-year grant to the church from a local business wanting to invest in the children and youth of Blacks Harbour.

• Carl & Evelyn Brewer (Hope) announced their resignation yesterday and will continue in Shelburne until Beulah Family Camp in July. The incredible ministry of this couple in the restart of our Shelburne congregation has yielded a vibrant church family of 60+ with the vast majority being new faces with no previous history with our church. Heroes of the faith to be sure!

• A Saturday meeting with the Port Maitland LAC (Barry Vernon) reported increased morale, new faces and a very stable financial outlook for this church family in revitalization.

• A full house for Sunday School yesterday at West Head (John Symonds) preceded an opportunity to preach in the morning service followed by a lunch meeting with the LBA as we explored forward options. John and Willo Ann have been a wonderful gift to this church family during this interim year of ministry on Cape Sable Island.

• This continues to be an exciting and busy month. In the past 10 days, I have driven more than 3500 kms, preached at one funeral and two Sunday morning services, attended two district events for ministry collaboration, met with six LBAs, been on both the Grand Manan Adventure and the Fundy Rose, AND spent a day at Poley with our two youngest daughters 😎, Julia & Shorey! So honoured to serve and proud to stand with our Atlantic leaders and church families!

Thot: The worst thing that can happen is that you spend your life trying to outrun God because you think He’s chasing you to collect what you owe – when He’s really chasing you to give you what you could never afford. (Kyle Idleman)