In this episode we chat with one of our Multiply Network lead team members on rural church planting opportunities, obstacles and the great benefits of church multiplication in rural settings. We also check in on the great things happening the Saskatchewan District!
In this episode we chat with one of our Multiply Network lead team members on rural church planting opportunities, obstacles and the great benefits of church multiplication in rural settings. We also check in on the great things happening the Saskatchewan District!
Transcript of Podcast by Multiply Network
Created to champion church multiplication, provide learning and inspire new disciple-
making communities across Canada
2018 – Kevin Sawatsky
Paul Fraser: Welcome to the Multiply Network podcast, a podcast created to champion church multiplication, provide learning and inspire new disciple-making communities across Canada.
Hi there. Welcome to the Multiply Network podcast. My name is Paul Fraser, the host of the Multiply Network podcast. I’m so glad you tuned in today.
I am excited to chat with Pastor Kevin Sawatsky from Yorkton, Saskatchewan. It is an incredible story about revitalizing a church, planting 2 other churches out of that small rural community and he is now the lead pastor of one of those plants that the mother church planted. It’s such an incredible story of faith, favour and reaching the community. He is also an Executive Officer with the District of Saskatchewan. He sits on our Multiply Network lead team. We talk in this episode about rural church planting; the benefits, the obstacles and some of the how. But what you are going to hear most is the passion for church multiplication. I hope you catch it for rural communities because there are such incredible opportunities. So sit back, relax and listen to this great interview with Pastor Kevin Sawatsky.
Q. We’re happy to have pastor reverend bishop ---
Kevin Sawatsky:
A. Laughs.
Q. --Kevin Sawatsky with us on the Multiply Network podcast. He is a full-time church planter in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, launching the Dream Center there. He also has another portfolio that has him at District Office working with revitalization and church planting in the District of Saskatchewan. Pastor Kevin, welcome to the podcast.
A. It is really an honour to be here, Paul. I’m so thankful you would want to invest a little bit in us in Saskatchewan. So thank you for doing that today.
Q. We’re really excited to have you on. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about you, your family and your church plant in Yorkton?
A. Some of my best years came when we moved to Saskatchewan in 2002. 2002 in Saskatchewan was a year when everyone was leaving Saskatchewan, not coming here. We moved into a small community about an hour outside of Saskatoon into a church of all seniors, my wife and I, and back in those days our 3 young children. Since we have been in Saskatchewan we added one more child so we’re a family of 4 kids. And now we’re getting close to the empty nester stage. Seventeen years later we have only one at home. The rest of my other 3 kids are across Canada. Rachelle and I, my wife of twenty-seven years, have had a great adventure not only to get a chance to see our kids grow up and begin to start missional behaviour on their own, I have a daughter in Calgary, a son who travels back and forth between Saskatoon and Richmond, my son who just graduated lives in Saskatoon and then we’ve got a 14-year old. We have lived now in Yorkton for just over 5 years as we have been replanting our closed ministry from 2011 here. But I’ll tell you more about that later.
Q. So some exciting things are happening there. You have also done some church multiplication in your previous church. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about that? You talked about that church being full of seniors at the time but you had a real focus on missional community and connecting with them. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about that season?
A. That is a great story for us. Our story connects with a lot of people because it is a rural story. The majority of our churches within PAOC are actually in the smaller solo church pastorates. We moved to a community of 1,300 people, into a church of thirty people and the only family that had young kids was my wife and I. We had 3 children. There was one family that was attending the church that had their youngest child who was 13 at the time. That was a group of people that, at our very first meeting in 2002 when we sat with this old church, and it was one of those old churches that were built in Canada’s 100th Centennial. PAOC had a real push in the 1960’s, late sixties, to plant churches and it was one of those. It was an A-frame kind of building. You’ve been in one, pastor’s office to the right, downstairs. And a little plaque on the wall that showed attendance and offering from last week. Paneling on the back, you know, you’ve got to have wood paneling! That church, in 2002, it was a vintage 1974 building. It was fantastic. It was a current modern 1974 building in 2002.
We came into that church and Rachelle and I were overwhelmed leaving the City of Edmonton, a brand new building and a brand new ministry there and when we left to go to this small community we sat with the church and we said to them, what do you feel is your future in Lanigan? One of the Board Members, who was in his late sixties, retired, said: “I think that in ten years our church is going to close.” I responded and I really feel it was the Lord’s question because we weren’t thinking vitality or renewal or church turnaround. In 2002 that wasn’t really the conversation. I said, “Do you think that God planted this church in 1967 just to close it thirty-five years later?” They said, “No.” I said, “What would you be willing to do to make sure that this church stays healthy and vitalized (we didn’t use that word) here in the next ten years?” They said they thought they would be willing to do anything. That was the beginning of an adventure. That church grew to about a hundred people. It built a brand new building. In a small community the church completely changed its focus. It was a painful growth period but those senior people, the best honouring I can give of them is that they were willing to lose their church to get it back. They lost their ministry that they loved and they liked the way they had created it, but they lost it all so they could get it back. Then that church, not only did it have a strong turnaround, that church became a church planting church. Its DNA was based upon the fact it was planted from a small community about forty-five minutes away and we revisited that DNA of the church and we became a rural church that began to be a planting church. So that church planted 2 churches and I am now pastoring in the second plant out of that rural church. So that is still my mother church in a community, again, of 1,300 people. It is a church of less than seventy-five and they planted 2 churches, and that’s both ministries, both plants, the mother church is well and the planted church is well and now this plant. Rachelle and I resigned that church in 2016 and began full-time here to take on this ministry because all 3 churches had become bigger than just one person could handle. It’s a great story, Paul, just a great story.
It is our story because it is rural Saskatchewan. It is church planting within a rural context, which I don’t think a lot of our rural churches believe they can actually do. So we’ve had a great ride here in Saskatchewan, and now being able to push into rural churches, speaking to that demographic because they look at me and they say, “Oh well, that couldn’t happen here in our church of thirty”. “You probably had young people”. I say, “Well, no, my wife and I were the only young people. But there was a group of people who said, ‘we’ll throw it all on the table for the glory of God’. And God blessed them”.
Q. Amen.
A. They just celebrated fifty years and that church now sits in a building that is worth over a million dollars. It is insured for $1.2 million and they paid off their debt.
Q. Wow.
A. So a church that had no money, a church that had no vision, built a million dollar building for $300,000 and is now out of debt less than 10 years later. It’s just a crazy story. It’s a great story. So I get pretty pumped about this story.
Q. I am reminded of that statement and I don’t know if I have used it on this podcast before. Don’t tell me the sky is the limit when there’s footprints on the moon!
A. Hallelujah!
Q. I think there’s a lot of rural planters out there that go “We can’t plant. We can’t grow. There’s a community twenty minutes away. They’ll never receive the gospel there.” Why don’t you tell us a little bit about what you see as the potential for rural multiplication, rural planting in Saskatchewan, but broaden it out. There are rural communities all over Canada. Talk to us about the potential.
A. As I said, our statistics say that we are a smaller ---
The vast majority of our churches, 1,100 PAOC churches, are within the ‘under a hundred’ model. So we really have to figure this out because if we are continuing to look to the larger churches, the settings within a multi-staff thing, as being the leaders of this, we are going to find ourselves in a significant amount of trouble because we still are massively rural-based in Canada. So much of our ministry needs to continue to focus in on those hundreds of communities now that have no gospel witness. At one time there used to be United Churches and Catholic Churches, and often there still are Catholic Churches. But a lot of those churches have closed. They are sitting empty. If we could have a vision and a re-passioning for our smaller communities that don’t have any gospel witness, we could make a significant dent in the kingdom of darkness for the kingdom of light. If smaller churches could get over their ‘we can’t do this, we’re old, we’re not able to go down there’. It doesn’t take a lot of work to go ten minutes or an hour, or half an hour down the street, put up some bulletins and say we’re going to meet on Wednesday in the Catholic Church with some worship and some stuff and see who shows up. You would be shocked at who will show up because God is at work in these communities. They just need someone to lead it.
Q. Right.
A. We get rural. Rural church get rural churches. If they have been in the church long enough they not only know everyone in their community but they know everyone in everyone else’s community. So they have credibility. They’ve already got relationships within these other communities. It is very difficult for some church to plant into an area in which they have no relationships because that is one of the barriers of planting in rural communities. People have been there forever. Rachelle and I pastored in Lanigan for sixteen years and still felt like new people, even though we had been there that long. But we had earned, over the sixteen years, to have the big events where someone in the community dies and they would call us because we had been so involved in the community and helping with the major events. That gives you layer after layer of greater influence around the broader area.
So I think rural ministry and planting from established churches is a very significant marketing ---
Maybe that’s a striking word for people. They don’t like that word. But really it would be very advantageous, a responsibility for us within the PAOC because we’re there. We’ve got sixty-plus churches in Saskatchewan and the vast majority of them are in smaller communities.
Q. I like what your Superintendent said. I was at a Healthy Leaders Network ---
A. John is amazing.
Q. John is amazing. He just got up and said: “Think about the communities twenty minutes down the highway.” People in cities will drive forty minutes to a church sometimes.
A. Yes, they will.
Q. Think twenty minutes down the highway. Think about doing an Alpha. Think about doing a Bible study, like you said. Start a worship service. Something. We need gospel witnesses there.
What do you think? You’ve done rural planting. You’ve been in the city context. You understand both. But coming to the rural communities, what were some of the mind sets you had to overcome or to get past or to maybe learn new ones in order to plant successfully in a rural setting? Maybe broaden it out to what are other planters, what are other rural pastors needing to get over?
A. I had to get over being PAOC. I am grateful for being a part of the family and I think that we as a large family have a responsibility to Canada as one of the largest families. When we moved to Leroy to plant the church there I felt clearly the call of God to Leroy. There were lots of reasons behind it but I clearly felt the call. The day I went to the final service in the Lutheran Church ---
The Lutheran Church was closing after ninety-nine years, or something like that, and they were shutting down the building and they had their last service. When they closed the door at the end of the service there was no longer any gospel witness left in Leroy, Saskatchewan. And the Lord said to me: “What are you going to do about that?” I said, “Well, I don’t know. I don’t know what I’m going to do about that.”
So as we got close to the launch I knew that I had to launch based upon a multi-denominational context. I did not need to come in heavy charismatic because I knew that we needed to be a community church that provided a ministry opportunity. We would be faithful to who we are in the Word, faithful to our expression in worship, but a lot of those other things I needed to expand my ---
Like I don’t usually do the Lord’s Prayer every week in our church. And I don’t usually read the Apostles’ Creed in our church. But there are a lot of churches that do it every single week and find great joy in it. It is a big part of their faith expression. That was a barrier for me that I kind of needed to get over.
When we planted Leroy we planted it as Leroy Community Church. We made it clear that though we were PAOC we were coming in there to plant a Christian service that believed in high value in worshipping Jesus, high value in listening to the Word and a high value in reaching people with the gospel of Jesus. We weren’t going to soften any of those things. But a lot of the other stuff we could lay aside. We didn’t have to go in extreme in the service.
The amazing thing about it is we are able, as we stayed true in relationship, we have been able to bring our doctrine and the things we hold dear into the service. This is what we believe and this is why we think this right, but in a respectful manner. So one of the guys that was coming he said, you know, I would like to actually have a study on the Holy Spirit because I really don’t know anything about Him. I have gone to church my whole life and I don’t know anything about it. So they had a mid-week ---
Well, our service was mid-week so they did it on Friday nights at another house where they spent the whole time just walking through, using the Alpha course, actually, as their guide to talking about the Holy Spirit. I remember the day when the Lutheran lady from the church came to me and she said, “Pastor Kevin, I was filled with the Holy Spirit. I am speaking in tongues now! It is so exciting. I have always wanted this but I didn’t know the context within our liturgy.” She’s die-hard Lutheran. She would be buried in a Lutheran grave, you know. So that was a big part of it for me.
The other thing that was hard for me to get over was that a community of five hundred people is worth my time. Five hundred people are worth the effort to bring the gospel into that community. So we started in a school. We started in a classroom in a school. It was hard work. We brought in the drum set, brought in speakers, brought in a keyboard, brought in a projector and we brought in everything that we would bring to a service. We carried it all, we packed it all in and fourteen people showed up at that first service. Seven of them were ours and seven of them were from the community. Those seven people that first came have never left. They have grown that church to twenty-five or thirty people because they have been a part of the community and love their community. They trusted us. And we were thankful because they were people that were part of our group in Lanigan that lived in Leroy so they had great credibility and we were able to ride on that.
So those were some of the things I had to overcome; a community of that size was worth the effort and that we needed to lay aside some of our things that are just us and look at the bigger gospel picture of everyone needs ---
Q. You have a great statement. I just love it. Everyone deserves an access point to the gospel.
A. Yes. That is a great expression. We didn’t know but that was kind of the idea. We just wanted to give an access point that would not hold people away. So, we were very very careful to say “You come. We’re going to include these things.” And the Lutherans walked away saying “thank you so much for singing that chorus” or “thank you so much for adding that part of the Eucharist.” That was just really ---
I missed that. Thank you for including that. That’s not my tradition or my experience but I found great joy in that. I hope that answers that question.
Q. Yes. I think you just identified 2 things that are really important; that the gospel supersedes denominational and theological differences. We’ve got to think through what does that look like, what does serving a new community look like without, maybe, force-feeding Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada doctrine. But what I find beautiful about it is people get hungry for God in that and they experience Him the way, maybe, similar to the expressions like you mentioned before, that we would experience or my tradition would be, at least.
I love the second part, too. Five hundred people are worth it. I couldn’t agree more. I couldn’t agree more.
So how do we get -- how do you think we could get our rural planters, rural pastors? Maybe some of them are out there listening to this podcast because they saw, ‘oh look, a podcast talking about rural planting, I’m very interested’. How do we get a mindset of multiplication in our rural planters that maybe think ‘I don’t have the resources, ‘We don’t have the people’, ‘We don’t have the money’, ‘Where are we going to plant it?’ They create a lot of obstacles. How do we overcome some of those?
A. You are right. We didn’t have the money and we didn’t have the resources. But we had a couple of people that were willing to drive down the street and we borrowed some money from some of our reserve funds - which a lot of our churches are sitting on a ton of reserve funds, saving for who knows when - and people around them ---
Rural churches are usually far better off than ---
‘Well, we don’t want to touch the reserve funds.’ I made the comment years ago that one of the great turnarounds for Lanigan was when they spent their reserve funds to update the building a little bit. They touched what I consider to be more sacred than the nuclear launch codes. You don’t touch those things! We don’t touch our reserve funds. But they spent all of it. A lot of our rural churches do have more resources. What they don’t have is that they don’t have someone who says it really matters for this church that we become a church that is willing to risk a little bit for the kingdom down over there. That is something that I find to be a real challenge. Risk-averse-ness. We are just afraid of what will this mean for us. We can’t.
We have to hold a Bible study on Wednesday night because we have a few people in our church who want more Bible studies. At the Healthy Leader Network we ran yesterday, our District Superintendent made this comment. He said, “I think that most of our churches are 3,000 verses overweight. Stop doing Bible studies mid-week and hold an Alpha or hold a Celebrate Recovery or run a Grief Care. Stop.”
Maybe I shouldn’t be quoting him here and I didn’t ask his permission to do so. But those are pretty strong words. Our churches tried something different. Let’s drive down the road, let’s run a ‘something’ over there. Alpha is free. You can download the stuff and put up signs. And if you don’t have the money to do it, Rural Pastor, Saskatchewan will help you. We’ve got some money set aside we’ll send to you to help you run an Alpha.
Q. C’mon. Let’s talk to Saskatchewan, friends!
A. Yes, that’s it. I’ll tell you. And you know that all of us are hungry across Canada in this. There is not a limit when it comes to vision and people will feed into vision financially. But we just desperately need some people that would care about the church, the community down the street that is five hundred people and say that is worth a Wednesday night. It is worth me driving through the snow and yes, I wrecked my car. I did! I wrecked my van driving to Leroy one Wednesday because the snow was howling and I ran over a drift that was a lot harder than I thought. I smashed off the front and I was mad. I was like “God, I’m trying to serve your people and here I wrecked my van driving over a drift.”
But you know, their community has a church now and that church is loving that community and they are a part of it. They saw 5 kids this summer come to Jesus through a VBS.
Q. Wow.
A. How can we be so lost in the value of our stuff that that doesn’t matter to us anymore? I’m the wrong guy to talk to about why you can’t do something because you can, and we can help you. Our Districts, we can help you. But it needs some people. I don’t care what your age is. I am so tired of the fact that so many of our older pastors are just looking to the hills and saying ‘I’ve got another 5 years. I’m just going to cruise in that way.’ Man, you are going to be uncomfortable around me because let’s do something within our churches.
You wouldn’t believe that when you do something like that, the kind of effect it has on the people of God attending your church. They may all of a sudden catch your vision and a passion for stuff that you never believed they could. So now I’m having these older people, over fifty, driving every week to this small community church because they have found something there that they never believed they could actually find. Their church has become -- You know, they know everyone; they’ve had coffee; they have visited forever. They don’t want to visit anymore -- And now they are actually meeting some new people and making an impact in the kingdom.
We need to capture the vision for the value of sacrificial ministry within our rural communities. There are people there even now. I know we spend a lot of time looking for church planters. And that’s a big issue for me, to find new people. But a lot of our churches within a lot of our small communities are primed and ready to go. They just need to believe they can do it.
Q. I couldn’t agree more.
A. They just need to try something. Even do it once a month. Okay. Here’s another example for you. There was a church that was planted in Ituna, Saskatchewan. It was not part of our Fellowship. They knew of our story landing in Leroy so I know we were influencing that. They saw a community that had no church and so they went and held a service once a month. Just once a month - not once every week - just once a month. They put up some signs and said, ‘let’s do something once a month.’ Guess what happened? People showed up. People showed up and eventually after about 6 or 8 months of visiting they came and said they would like more. “Would you please figure out a way that we can have something on a Sunday that we can invite our friends in our community to come and be a part of?” So, guess what they did? They got some people together who began to have a passion for this. Just because they met once a month! Do you think our small rural churches couldn’t do a gospel service in another community once a month on a Wednesday night? Stop their Bible study. Say, “Hey, we’re going to do something in the school or the old Legion Hall” or figure it out. The communities are filled with empty buildings. There’s all kinds of empty buildings, even empty churches sitting there, gospel-centered places that are empty now. Oh my, oh my, there is so much opportunity and I would love for our guys to recognize that the Spirit of God is calling us to people that are lost. Our rural communities are filled with lost people who are open to the gospel if we would just show up. Just show up. You will be shocked at what the Spirit is doing behind the scenes.
Q. Yes. You’ve just got to be present with them. I am reminded of the story of Elisha with the widow. He says, “how much oil do you have?” She goes, “I have nothing. Oh wait, I’ve got a little bit.” And God multiplies.
A. (Laughs) A little bit.
Q. “I’ve got a little bit.” And he goes, “That’s enough.” I think there’s rural pastors out there that could say, listening to you - this very passionate appeal that you are giving us today, which I think is absolutely incredible - they go, “Kevin, I think I might have a little to give. If God could multiply our little we could maybe make an impact in several communities.”
I grew up in rural communities. We could talk about youth ministry in rural communities and how open small towns are to engaging young people and how town councils would give you money to do things. They will give you the gym for free. I know stories from rural pastors who just opened up the gym and seventy or eighty kids would show up on a gym night. There’s some youth groups in cities that don’t have seventy or eighty people. The opportunities, I want people to hear today, are incredible.
But Kevin, why don’t you sell us a little bit on the value, maybe -- the benefit for your family; the benefit for you -- of planting in rural settings? What were some of the things, unless you lived in a rural setting you wouldn’t know, was a benefit?
A. The benefits are significant, far beyond what I ever could have imagined. At the beginning all I saw was the cost. I never saw the actual gift that it was, which I felt embarrassed about that, too. Because so much of ministry for us is another price to pay. ‘Oh man, I’ve got to do something else. I’ve got to add another thing to the list.’ But what I found is that, as soon as we began to do this, there was an opportunity for us to see God working really up close. I’m hungry, as a Pentecostal, to see evidence of the Spirit’s moving and sometimes, as we look across our established churches, we don’t see evidence of that. But when you step into this kind of a thing, all of a sudden you move into an area where you see God is really significantly working.
I was blind to it. So, as a family to see this: people hungry for the gospel, which sometimes in our established churches we miss that. So, in a church plant, you are kind of a little bit out there, right, and you are risky. All of a sudden, you see these stories and hear these stories and then you begin to fall in love with the people that you have met, which is a massive benefit. When people are loving you and you are loving them back, and they are showing up on a Wednesday saying, “Hey, Pastor. Man, I just love what you’re doing here. Here’s a whole bunch of muffins for you and your family. I baked them this week.”
Listen Paul, on Wednesday night in the Leroy church, we would worship for a half-hour and then we would take a break. Kind of modeled it after something: We take a twenty-minute break just to visit and connect with each other. These people connect and visit with each other all the time because they live in a small community. If there are only five hundred, you know everybody really, really well. The visiting and connecting time became such a massive value as a church family. They would pack that place out with food, with treats, and it was awful in a most fantastic way because we would stop for coffee and we would go, “Who made this?” “Where did this come from?” Because these older people, can they cook! These ladies, oh my, we would be overwhelmed with the generosity and we would laugh and cheer and celebrate and everyone’s birthday would be celebrated. There was not a person missed. They felt so ---
You get a whole bunch of joy out of that, recognizing you’re a part of this community of relationships -- which today, we are very disconnected -- So to have this environment where there is love and joy and growth. And then you see people saved and you see people being water baptized and your family is excited to see the mission of God. Boy, I tell you, the benefits are pretty significant and real live benefits.
One of the greatest things that happened for my family is that my kids began to understand the cost and the joy of the cost of missionary behaviour within Canada. I feel very, very thankful for a group of kids that are hungry for paying the price in the gospel. You’ve heard my heart for our pastor’s kids and I keep bringing it up over and over. We’ve got a generation of pastor’s kids that need to be released into ministry far younger. We are still holding them back and we’re still doing it as adult professionals. In these kind of environments, when you’ve got a group of thirty people coming to your church and you need a drummer and a guitar player, you are looking for anyone, anybody who can ---
“Hey, can you hit drums? Can you hit this one beat? Just come sit here and hit this thing every one, two, one, two.” They would never get on the stage in most of our churches but they are our worship team! They have a whole life that comes ahead of them in the midst of this ministry. So the benefits to my kids in seeing the gospel explode in their hearts as they are involved in ministry, and being involved in church planting and being involved and being loved by these older people, and loving them back - the benefits are more numerous than I can imagine.
Yet, when we started, we didn’t see any of that. All we were interested in was “How much is it going to cost me?” Then you get into it and you say, “Man, this is the best thing I’ve ever done. This is the most fantastic thing. I didn’t know I could have this much fun. I love these people. I really love them. And they really love me. And they love my kids and they love each other. God, why was I ever crying about the cost when you had all this ready for me and I just wasn’t willing to do it?”
Q. Wow. Well said. Well said.
A. It’s huge guys. Get in there. Find a community. Do it.
Q. Yes. There is no shortage of opportunity there, is there?
A. No shortage.
Q. So we’ve got a couple of minutes left. I want to ask you about your District role. What excites you about your church multiplication role - coordinating, leading, directing for Saskatchewan? Why don’t you tell us about some cool things happening there?
A. Saskatchewan is a great province. I am humbled by the fact that I get to put my hat into this ring, getting to work with people like you, Paul, and the other national leaders. It was really great to just spend a couple of days a few weeks ago, and just hear the heart of passion for reaching people within Canada. I am very, very grateful for that expression.
Saskatchewan is a province that is leading the way in decline and plateau. Our task is fairly significant. Our province is growing though. So when I say to the churches -- I mean we’re talking about being plateaued, that’s just a fake word -- When your community and our province is growing and you are not, you are in decline even though you may have the same numbers as last year. You may say ‘okay, you are plateaued’ but really, we are all in decline. So the opportunities before us in Saskatchewan are significant. That is a real exciting place to be. So we do have some church multiplication things that are on the table. As we are having the conversation with all of our city and rural churches about them becoming involved in the three “P’s”: planting, partnering or providing for a plant, as we are trying to engage that with the 2020 Vision, I am hearing more buy-in than I have ever heard. There’s a church in Tisdale, Saskatchewan that is looking at trying to plant 2 churches in the area around Tisdale because they’ve got people that are driving from those communities already to their church and they are saying ‘why don’t you look at doing some type of missional something in your place on a mid-week?’ Pastor Jack there is trying to prime that pump, and those people are ready to do that kind of work.
So, I’m seeing a lot of excitement in our rural communities to take on some of these things that are literally sitting on the table. They just need to sit up at the table and actually start participating in them.
But we also have a lot of vision within our city, as cities. Probably our biggest engagement is with new people who are moving into Saskatchewan. We’ve got a significant number of Filipino people, African people, Nepalese people, who have moved primarily into our cities, but they are in our rural communities as well. They are very hungry to see multiplication take place and are doing so. So Saskatchewan has added about 4 or 5 church plants to our PAOC family in the last year, which is a little bit of a stretch for us because they are doing church real different than what I’m used to. They do things like this: On New Year’s Eve, when all of us within our church families are trying to stay home, they are getting together for all night prayer meetings. They are meeting together to pray in the New Year.
I remember doing that as a kid but I can’t even find a youth group that is getting together on New Year’s Eve. They are posting on Facebook. They are highly social Internet users. They’ve got pictures of them seeking God, worship nights, right into the New Year and those people are now making an impact on us as PAOC Saskatchewan. I’m thankful for them.
But I’m also thankful for some young people who are saying, “We think it is time for us to plant and we want to plant a missionary church that is targeting a specific year.” In our cities we can do that. In rural you need to be a little bit more neutral to all generations and be really kind of a Swiss Army Knife kind of pastor, even a Swiss Army Knife kind of church where you have a little bit of everything. Not everything is amazing but you’ve got to have a little bit. But you can do so in the cities.
So we’ve got a potential church planter who is coming into Saskatoon. He’s just in the process of assessment and walking through that. But they have a very clear vision they are wanting to target people within their own demographic. It’s early thirties so it’s that Millennial age. They want to set up a church that will really speak to the highly relational aspect of Millennials. I’m really trying to figure out how we all work together with that. Because you’re right: I am a full-time church planter and I do this on the side. We’ve called it co-vocational, I think I’m co-volunteerial. I don’t know if that is a word. But it’s just something we do.
But there are some really exciting opportunities we have in Saskatchewan. We are a smaller District, so we don’t have a lot of paid staff, which is okay. I’m okay with that. But there are opportunities for us. Pastor John is right. The District is always limited and we all are limited in our Districts by what we can do. The person that is listening to this, if this is a pastor in a smaller church, you are the most important person in this whole puzzle.
Q. Right.
A. You are the guy that will go to your church and you will say, “Let us take on something risky. I believe God is calling.” And if this podcast does nothing but kind of gives that push - that we can help you to do this; you can do this; we believe that you can do this - then this will be a very beneficial thing. Because there are great things that are going on. This young man came, I approached him and said, “Would you please consider it?” and he said, “You know, I think we’re ready.” I’m hearing that kind of stuff.
Paul, I’m really grateful even for organizations like Multiply Network, because you are actually able to talk to those people; saying, “Consider this. Consider this.” And they’re going, “You know, I’ve never actually had anyone talk to me about that.”
Q. Yes.
A. So there is some great stuff going on. It is hard work. It is a long ways away from lots of success but I’m ready to stay in the ring as long as the Lord gives me breath and life. I will do my best to try to move this ball down the field, with your help, and with others within our province and within the great PAOC.
Q. As am I. Well, Kevin, thanks so much for sharing your heart today; sharing your passion. You, your District, your churches are really jumping onto that 2020 Vision and pushing hard. You are doing a great job. Every time I’m around you, Kevin, I always get excited again because you are a passionate guy. Your heart is right and you want to make sure the main thing is the main thing. Reaching people far from God is what we’re here to do. So I just want to applaud you. Keep going. We’ll track with you and your church plant in Yorkton and what God is doing there.
Again, thank you so much for being a part of this.
And just if I could say, too: One of the things I really appreciate about you is how you have talked about your family; how this has been a family thing. This isn’t about Kevin. This is about our family: you and Rachelle and your kids. That’s a great lesson to bring your kids into ministry; bring them into the vision. Let their ministry start when yours starts. I think you are a good example of that, so I just want to applaud you for that. Thanks for sharing that.
Kevin, thanks for being on the podcast today. Appreciate it, man.
A. It is a great day. Thank you, Paul.
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