I believe with all my heart. We recognize the Lord is with us, but there is a special grace that Jesus has upon The Alliance in these days. I feel like that I am drowning in hope. That's how I feel right now. Drowning in hopes, thinking you know, sometimes you are like in a small church on your own. doing things on your own. You feel like, "Is there anybody who gets where you're going?" But God is actually working,
when you look at the bigger picture. We sometimes get a little ingrown, that we don't rely on The Alliance.
We're part of an organization that cares about world ministry and, reaching out to people. I've come to believe that we don't live in a time of spiritual hunger.
We're living in a day of spiritual starvation. People will literally do anything to get into a room where Jesus is real and working
Let it come out of your belly and roar, oh God, bring a new hunger into us as leaders so that we could walk with a doubling depth before we ever move towards doubling our reach. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you.
This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. The church has been pushed and rocked and faced great complexity.
But in every generation, God has raised up Timothys. Shepherded by Pauls, who carry the faith to the next generation. And God is faithful to build his Church by the power of his Spirit and the gates of hell. Don't stand a chance. The power of investing in a rising generation, giving people opportunity right from the get go, taking risks.
You're giving people freedom to fail and to take risks. People leading services like preaching. You have to make space for people like that to grow.
The lead pastor one day asked me to preach, but I didn't have much experience, and because of my accent, I felt underqualified.
I'm just so grateful for the opportunity. And I could tell that The Alliance is truly committed to encouraging the next generation.
That the greatest legacy that you leave for your church isn't a ministry. but is actually a person.
We got to go on the other side and cast our nets here. This is where the voice of Godis calling us to cast our net.
Personally, I serve a small group (of young people) that meets at my place and we started with five people. Now, we have about 45-50 people who come regularly. So, we can really see that God is at work.
He is doing extraordinary things in Québec This is a moment church to come alongside the young people in our nation,not to wait, but to act.
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. Just as a body, the one has many parts and all its many parts form one body. So it is with Christ. The future of the church in Canada is not just multicultural, it is deeply global. And that's not a problem to solve. It is a gift to receive.
People in our church that have just been coming in the last year, Indian family, Vietnamese family, we have Ukrainian people. And I'm going, the Lord, a new thing that he's going to do in our church. And I think it's going to be an intercultural church.
But for the church to be able to continue to grow, we need to figure out how to continue to empower and equip newcomers to lead and shape existing and new communities of church.
The question before us is not whether Canada is changing. The question is whether the church will recognize what God is doing.
Will we merely offer newcomers a seat at the table, or will we invite them into the kitchen to cook together?
Because when we do, the church begins to look a little more like heaven. And in recent stats, 84% of Canadians are open to spiritual conversations.
So, friends, this is not a crisis to survive, but a canvas on which to reimagine our future.
We have been challenged to double our reach, to double our depth, to reach the next generation. The cast our nets on the other side. To build a pipeline of leaders. For the future.
And here's my fear. Not of that will ever happen. If we love comfort more than Jesus. I want to commission people. Who want a Caleb spirit, who want a different spirit. I'm going to lay down comfort. I'm going to lay down my right, my timeline. I'm gonna lay down my bitterness because God is working and I want to lay down my legacy.
Again, we say wherever, whenever, whatever Jesus, our answer is yes.