Covenant News
Two Church Plants Highlight Canada Conference Meeting
NELSON, BRITISH COLUMBIA (April 10, 2003) - Chris Marchand, professor of youth ministries at Providence College in Otterburn, Manitoba, was the keynote speaker during the 99th Annual Meeting of the Canada Conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC).A total of 82 delegates from 23 congregations traveled to the Evangelical Covenant Church of Nelson for last weekend's event, presented under the conference theme "Ministry With The Emerging Generation," according to Conference Supt. Jeff Anderson.
Highlights included the welcoming of Lighthouse Community Church of Sarnia, Ontario, into conference membership, pending approval during the ECC Annual Meeting in Rosemont, Illinois, June. Lighthouse Community has its roots in Kensington Community Church near Detroit, a mega-church that has assisted three church plants in the Covenant. Larry Sherman, associate superintendent of the Great Lakes Conference, has helped with the church plant. The congregation of 100 has worship services on Saturday evenings and has made community evangelism a high priority under pastor Mark Crate.
The conference also heard a report from Blackstrap Covenant Church, another new church plant near Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The congregation has grown from five core families to 11 during the seven weeks they have been conducting worship services. The pastor is Steve Menshenfriend.
"There's something going on here and it's good," Anderson noted. "And it's interesting to see how the Holy Spirit is working in the conference. It's a huge stretch for us to do two church plants, but people are excited about what's going on. A couple of churches are doing building projects. And we haven't had this kind of (incoming) depth and breadth of leadership in a long time."
Todd Slechta, who has been executive director of Covenant Bible College-Ecuador for the past two years, was introduced to the delegates as the new executive director for CBC-Canada, beginning this summer. Many in the audience had already seen Slechta in action as he previously served at CBC-Canada before heading to CBC's LaMerced campus.
The conference annual meeting opened with worship on Thursday before the Conference Ministerium and Covenant Women Ministries hosted their annual business meetings on Friday. Marchand addressed the Ministerium while youth pastors Kim Miller (Faith Covenant Church, Breton, Alberta) and Natasha Westerhoud (Malmo Covenant, Wetaskiwin, Alberta) spoke at the CWM meeting. Marchand led Friday evening worship with an inter-generation team from CBC, led by Kathy Brawley, providing the music.
On Saturday, approximately 200 attended the annual banquet, which featured CBC-Canada's touring musical group "Lift." The meetings ended with closing worship and communion on Sunday as Marchand preached at the Capital Theater in Nelson. Nearly 400 people representing three congregations attended Sunday's final service.
Anderson announced that the 100th Annual Meeting for the Canada Conference will be held at Winnipeg, Manitoba - Faith Covenant in Winnipeg is the host - on a date to be announced. For more information about the conference and its activities, call Anderson at 204-269-3437 or email him at ccc1@mts.net.
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