THE GROWTH of a DISCIPLE CHURCH

One of the good things about our parish is that a lot of our parishioners are willing to share and bear testimony concerning their weakness, including myself. There are always many tears during Sunday worship, fellowships and groups. The other good thing is that more and more parishioners are willing to learn God's Word, no matter if it means reading lots of the Bible or joining discipleship classes, fellowships or house groups.

Although our community only became a parish on January 1, 2000, we began as a mission church, holding our first service on September 8, 1996. At that time we were richly blessed by Bishop Michael Ingham and the Anglican Initiatives Fund, as they supported the mission with a $330,000 grant for the first five years. Also, the Church of the Good Shepherd had sixty parishioners sign up to join this new mission. With this initial support, we were able to be self-supporting after just three-and-a-half years.

It's still a scary and insecure experience for me, because everything started from zero. It's like opening a new restaurant. There seem to be so many customers, but later they may be gone! Nothing can give me security except God. Comfort and promise: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." God is great and God is good indeed! During the past five years we have received a major command from the Lord Jesus Christ to focus our ministry to: LISTEN and OBEY. Approximately every two years we received a direction through various discernment processes, to live out the "listen and obey" command: July 1996 to December 1998 -make my disciples; January 99 to March 2001 - free the gifts; April 2001 to present, - build my church.

For the first two and a half years we all tried our best to build disciples for Christ. During this stage so that our leaders would not burn out, I led five Bible study groups out of six. The other group was led by our Music Minister. The High School Fellowship and Children's Sunday School were the only groups led by lay people. The Word of the Lord brought forth many new disciples for Christ, ready to go to the front lines.

For the next two and a half years we responded to the call: "free the gifts." We have gradually built up many groups, which sometimes number more than fifty. Training has occurred for quite a number of leaders. Our average attendance has risen from 70 to 210, and our weekly offerings have increased from $500 to $5000!

Our most successful group is called "201". It's a 13 week course using as a guide, Henry Blackaby's "Experiencing God". Eleven groups have completed the course and two have started as of when this was written in September 2001. Each group consists of eight to sixteen people and two leaders.

We have more than thirty lay people who can lead Bible Study groups and I am now leading thirteen groups myself (mostly discipleship ones).

We put a lot of effort into "convergence worship". Five times a year we can be as "high" as being filled with incense; at other times we worship with drums, guitars, and the joyful clapping of hands. We stress sermon series on each book of the Bible; we are now in a 16 week series on Romans.

Responding to the Lord's command to 'build my church", we started a new committee, the Development Committee this April. Our sister church, St. Alban's Anglican, has done their best to let us use their church and rooms on a "first come, first serve" basis. They also loaned us the ground floor of their former Rectory for our office. This is the time for us to think of long term development. We have come to "listen and obey" in a new stage. We don't know what it is and by faith; we're taking our first step.

The Lord also gave us a picture to help us enter into His provision. He led us in seeing that The Church of Emmanuel is like a new form of soccer team. Not a form of 4-3-3, 3-4-3, 2-4-4 or any other popular styles, but 11-in-one. we can play right wing, left wing, centre, guard, or even goalkeeper. This vision releases a lot of my stress and puts me into the trusting relationship of brothers and sisters that Jesus has provided. So, this is our story, a story of striving to learn how to live the life of being a disciple if Christ, to "listen and obey" each day. May His Name be glorified!  

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