Happy Birthday Canada

Today we celebrate Canada’s 150th Birthday and a while back I was asked to speak at a Cristian School in Burnaby about Faith in the last 150 years. I immediately knew which story I wanted to share.

In the 1920’s the Cristian and Missionary Alliance in the USA send to Canada what was affectionately called “Saddle-Bag” Preachers. There were Student Interns from Nyack New York. They were young, passionate and crazy committed to Jesus. These interns got on a train and travel across the country to Calgary Alberta for the summer.

They would meet a local Pastor or Church and be given the following; a Horse, Blanket, Days worth of food, map and a Bible. They were then pointed in a direction and told to RIDE till they got to the first homestead. There they would asked to be invited in and that was their chance TO SHARE THE GOSPEL OF JESUS

Isn’t that the most crazy thing you have ever heard? So many things could have gone wrong; Bugs, Disease, Getting Lost, Water Issues, Robbers, Running out of FOOD, not finding anyone… the list could go on and on. Yet because of their work 4 “Branches” were started in the west and in the 1930s when the depression hit these church grew instead of shrinking.

If you or anyone you know attends an ALLIANCE CHURCH in Alberta or BC. Then they are there as a DIRECT RESULT of the seeds that were by these young men and woman RIDING INTO THE UNKNOW for Jesus.

The question I find myself wondering is what will be THIS GENERATIONS “Saddle-Bag” moment? What can I do to encourage and champion my students to go into the world with this same kind of conviction and change the face of our country? What will our role be over the next 150 years?

It’s questions like this that keep me focused and engaged in youth ministry and why we (Matt, Sydney and Michelle) have chosen to start Fresh Ministry Consulting. Together let’s lead a generation of students to Jesus and help them craft their own “Saddle-Bag” moment.

Our Growing Team

I’m super excited to announce that our team is growing here at Fresh Ministry Consulting. Not only is Michelle our Chief Editor but starting this week we have added two new people to the team, Sydney and Matt.

Sydney and Matt are both joining our team as Content Creators. Sydney Penner will be creating content from the student perspective. She graduated a year ago and has a huge heart and passion for youth ministry. She was one of my early Student Leaders and has always had an critical eye to help make things better. She will be making some of her own content but most of the time you will see her STUDENT PERSPECTIVE note within our blogs and posts.

Matt Boettcher will also be creating new content but Matt’s primary area will be blogging his journey as he steps into his very first SOLO Youth Pastor role. Matt is one of the best young Pastors that I know and he has a passion for writing and teaching. He is funny, great at his job and has a huge heart for ministry.

These three amazing people and myself make up the founding team for Fresh Ministry Consulting and we are pumped for the future. Each one of them brings something new to the table and helps bring the counter point to my experience. I’ve been honoured to call them friends for years and now I’m excited to call them teammates.

 

Slow and Steady

Well Fresh Ministry Consulting is growing slowly but steadily these days. This week we added our very first “Guide“. The guides are meant to be additional information and resources to the videos. They may not always have a video attached to them but the goal is to give you some material that you can bit in to and work your way through.

One of the most exciting things for me this week was that our Top 10 Transition Tip Guide was edited by the one and only Michelle. Michelle is one of our founding team members and she is our Chief Editor. Its a big fancy title that just means Michelle can edit really really well. We also have two additional team mates but I’ll be waiting a few more weeks before I introduce them to you.

Over all this has been an exciting week and I can’t wait to see how things grow.

Blessings

JC