Why Are We Moving To Toronto to Plant Churches?

Why Are We  Moving To Toronto to Plant Churches?

1.  Diane and I believe it is the call of God on our lives.  After much prayer, we both sense it is the right direction, and counsel has strongly affirmed it.

2.  The NEED is great. God’s heart breaks over the overwhelming lostness of this densely populated region of 12 million.

• We estimate that only 1-2% of the people in the Toronto to Montreal corridor are involved in an evangelical church.  Mission experts would classify this as an unreached people group, and it is right here in North America.

• The vast majority of the few churches that do exist are plateaued or declining.

• The Canadian National Baptist Convention (CNBC), the group we will be working with, has less than .02% of the population attending their churches in Ontario (the most influential province in Canada). As in most evangelical denominations, CNBC baptisms are dramatically down since 2006.   If we are going to start turning the tide in the cosmic struggle to win souls in Toronto, we will need all the help we can get from stronger churches and organizations from around the world.

• Look at the chart below for comparisons between Southern Baptist (SBC) work in USA to Canadian Baptists (CNBC) and let it motivate you to help send workers to the harvest fields in Southern Ontario, where Toronto is.

	Population	CNBC or SBC Churches	CNBC or SBC Church Members	Church to Population Ratio	Church Member to Population Ratio
Ontario	13,000,000	45	2,300	1 to 288,000	1 to 5652
San Diego County	3,000,000	130	27,000	1 to 23,000	1 to 111
Georgia	10,000,000	2300	1,400,000	1 to     2,777	1 to    7.1

• Ontario does not have many other large strong evangelical churches like both San Diego and Georgia have.  For example, in San Diego 60,000+ attend Calvary Chapel related churches. Atlanta has several churches like NorthPointe, that have more members than all Baptist churches in Ontario combined.

• There are 450,000 college students in the Greater Toronto Area alone. The best estimates are that less than 2000 students attend any “on campus” evangelical ministry. This is less than 1/2 of one percent.   We must field more workers for this highly strategic mission.

3.  We also believe Toronto is a good fit for our gifts and experience.

• We have planted churches in tough areas which have similarities with Toronto.

• Since we will not only be planting directly, but also working through other planters, our experience in assessing, coaching, and training planters will be useful.

• We also have had a good deal of experience with different nationalities.  This is important for GTA because it is probably the most international city in the world.  In fact more than half the people that live in GTA were foreign born rather than Canadian born.

• Few organizations are successfully planting churches. Discovering better ways to reach people and plant churches is needed to have the breakthrough results we all desire. Our experience in the innovation area also makes this a good fit. See: http://churchplanting.net/?p=104

4.  Other reasons we feel called to Toronto include:

• Great alignment with leadership:  we will get to work with outstanding missional thinkers and friends like Dan Morgan, Jeff Christopherson, and Gary Smith.

• North American Mission Board (NAMB) has made Toronto a high priority “Send City”, which means they will be channeling significant church planting dollars there.  This will enable us to apply for matching funds for church plants – for example if you gave $10,000, they will be able to match it with another $10,000.

• John was raised in the nearby Cleveland area. Since he did not hear the gospel growing up, he has a heart for those in a similar plight.