All We Can Be

My wife and I recently stayed in a century-old bed and breakfast in the Maritimes. We found it online and were able to view the quality of the accommodations before we reserved our room. It was quite impressive. A large shingle sided Victorian home, it was surrounded by tall oak and maple trees and sat on the banks of the harbour. The dining and living rooms had high ceilings rimmed by wide crown mouldings. The windows were over seven feet tall, looking out over the tidal bore. The guest rooms, each with its own fireplace and ensuite bath, invited travellers to find rest in the cherry wood furniture and fresh white linens. Our hostess was warm and endearing, creating a special dish for each of our breakfasts. It was our great fortune to be her only guests on that particular weekend.

As we talked with her, she told us how she and her husband had come to own this particular house. She showed us the photo journal since their original purchase. To our amazement, they had bought a burned-out hulk of a house that had charred gaping holes in the roof and inches of frozen water on its wide plank pine floors. Yet they bought it because they had a vision for what that house could become.

Vision is about what could be—or better, what should be. The PAOC has a vision for this nation. It is a vision founded on the good work of our missional family in Canada, but acknowledges there is still more to be done for the sake of our neighbours who are alienated from their God, in need of redemption. It is a vision rooted in reality and in God’s promise that if we ask, He will give the nations as our inheritance.

"Vision is about what could be—or better, what should be. The PAOC has a vision for this nation."

Mission Canada is tasked to care for this vision, working collaboratively with local and regional leadership within the PAOC. We focus on five areas of clear need in Canada. Specifically, we direct our energies and resources to:

 Canada’s Aboriginal peoples—First Nations peoples, Métis and Inuit. They have not been served well by the church in the past and are still underserved.

·Newcomers to Canada—those who have come to our land to make their home here. The dynamics of cross-cultural mission are a reality in Canada as the church is called to serve these people and the subsequent generations of their families.

 The province of Quebec and the francophones of our nation who have a cultural connectedness to the Roman Catholic Church, but who have largely abandoned Christian practice. Quebec is the “landing zone” for the majority of immigrants from French-speaking nations.

The millions of Canadians who live in a major urban centre like Vancouver or Montreal. The inner cores of our cities are being revitalized with new development and are inviting people to move back from the suburbs. The church must move back too.

 Finally, we care deeply for Canada’s next generation—our children, our teens and our college and university students. This generation of Canadians is being raised with little knowledge of the Bible and no inherent orientation toward the Christian faith.

"What could be depends on each of us acknowledging that we have a role in serving the diversity of people in our nation."

While this vision has been embraced by our national leadership and communicated to our Fellowship, its fulfilment requires that local churches embrace it too. What could be depends on each of us acknowledging that we have a role in serving the diversity of people in our nation. Without each congregation—each person in every congregation, for that matter—taking responsibility for these needs, the spiritual and societal plight of our homeland suffers. Every follower of Jesus has been given a mission. It is the extension of Christ’s own mission to make disciples, to announce the redemption of God, and to act in this world so that people know of God’s righteousness, truth, and life and accept His invitation to walk in it.

This Fellowship can make an increasing impact in these five areas of priority. God has promised and provided the power and ability for us to do so. But we must walk in humble obedience to His commission. Each of us must find our place in the kingdom. Congregations and their leadership must equip individuals to be missionaries in their own contexts, provide training and mentoring in personal growth as disciples, and commit funds in their budgets to support mission work in other areas of our homeland. Individually, each of us has the opportunity to embrace new degrees of faith and adventure as we live out our personal roles of mission in Canada.

Mission Canada is committed to help. Through the provision of insight, resources, and relational connections with likeminded people, we seek to be fuel on the fires of passion that are burning and those yet to be kindled. The vision is large and the work is great. We all are privileged to be able to work together for the changed nation that could result as we do.

George Werner can be reached at gwerner@paoc.org. Visit www.paoc.org to learn more about Mission Canada’s missional priorities.

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This article appeared in the March 2010 edition of testimony, the monthly publication of The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada.