Canadian Evangelism

I'm in Grande Prairie this week, ostensibly to attend  a dance competition where my daughter, Jen's dance studio is competing, and doing very well, if I may say so with a bit of fatherly pride. However, as I do not yet have a travel budget, I stole the opportunity to make calls on the churches in town, with some very encouraging results. I have previously visited most of them during my time with Alpha, so this was a matter of renewing relationships and re-introducing myself in my new capacity with Christianity Explored . Most calls just involved friendly conversation and ministry updates. I have also told all my churches that I am happy to encourage them with Alpha as well, so I shared the joy of what is probably the main Grande Prairie Alpha church, over the number of new believers coming to faith through their Alphas. Then, however, without my having even mentioned it, he produced material on a new discipleship program they are considering - Discipleship Explored - ...

My new business card Well, it's a start. And it fulfils in me a sense of belonging. We don't have a fully formed organization yet, but I have a card. And they say a card is as good as a raise. And a raise would be nice. In fact I've asked my boss, who is me, to double my salary. Considering I haven't yet begun to draw one, it was an easy request to grant. In fact, he (I) offered to triple it. What a generous boss! Second best boss I've ever had. Forgive, if you noticed it, the pretentiousness of the address - "Suite 35." Considering the fact that it is a condo unit, and it is unit # 35, it is only a slight enhancement, but it does add a bit of prestige, n'est pas ? So now it's time to hit the ground running. I've already had a number of encouraging conversations with local churches who are, or have run, Christianity Explored (CE) programs. Time now to broaden the field to introduce CE to other churches with a passion to introduce their communit...

Yes, it has been another while. I was looking at a fundraising proposal I made a year or so after I joined Alpha in a part-time role in 2011. I stated, in a tone of writing that sounds to me now rather boastful, that my target was to have 100 Alphas run in Alberta in 2012, and that I actually exceeded that target by 10. We had 110 Alphas in the Province in 2012. I chuckled at my innocence, even naivety, of those early days. In 2017 we had just shy of 700 Alphas in the Province. Already, in the first four months of 2018, there have been over 350 registered, including an encouraging number in the Province's schools. Having said that, my time with Alpha Canada has come to an end. Alpha Canada has decided to terminate the Alberta Regional Director position as of April 30, 2018, in favour of a Canada West Director to cover both Alberta and British Columbia. (With the current pipeline dispute, as of the date of this post, I hope my replacement...