Western Canada District

Today Ed and I went over to Grand Rapids for District Conference. It was held at Frontline Community Church. From what I understand, West Michigan is the only district in the denomination that holds a one day district conference. The entire event was fascinating, since I have never been to a district conference before.

For the most part, district conference is simply the annual business meeting where they voted on the district board for the next year, heard the general report from all the various churches, and voted on a proposition for financing new church plants. However, it was interesting because I also had the ability to meet some other pastors from the district and understand the inner workings of the district a little more.

It seems like every now and then God increases my vision for the church planting out in Calgary. When it first started, I knew that I would go to Calgary and help plant a church. Then, after The Summit closed down, and I realized that there was no longer a church plant to help with, I realized that I would go out and be the lead planter in the church. However, the more I learned about church planting and the “missio dei,” or mission of God, the more I realized that simply planting a new church in Calgary was not enough. In order to expand the kingdom of God we would need to use that new church to plant more churches in Calgary. So the vision was expanded to encompass the idea that I would plant a church-planting church, or essentially I would plant more churches off of the church I plant.

However, in talks with people about Calgary, I have heard denominational officials mention that Western Canada as a whole is equally in need of new churches. So, as long as I am planting churches off of my original church in Calgary, why should I think it too big of a deal to plant some of those churches in Edmonton or Vancouver? So the vision was spread to planting a network of churches in Western Canada. Which has lead me to realize that, at least at this point, my desire and vision is to start a new Western Canada District of the Wesleyan Church.

It is this desire to plant a new district in Western Canada that has made me curious as to how the West Michigan District operates. In order to help establish a new district I will certainly need to understand how districts operate.