By Harold Campbell
MONTREAL—Connecting people with Jesus is the vision for Connexion, a new French-speaking Canadian National Baptist Convention (CNBC) church in the Ahuntsic-Cartierville area of Montreal.
“The vision is to connect French-speaking Quebecers with Jesus for life transformation, using service to others and the community, with a DNA of multiplication,” said Baker Hill, International Mission Board (IMB) francophone church planter in Montreal.
The church grew out of a dream of Francois Verschelden, a CNBC church planter and pastor of Living Rock Church in St. Felix de Valois, Quebec.
Although St. Felix is about an hour north of Montreal, several Montreal residents began attending Living Rock. Verschelden then began to pray about using these people as a nucleus for starting a French-speaking CNBC church in Montreal.
About that same time, the Hills, who spent more than 25 years as IMB missionaries in French-speaking areas of West Africa, were in transition to answer a request for francophone church planting in Quebec. They met Verschelden on their first trip to Montreal in October 2008, then after moving to Montreal in January 2009 they immediately began meeting with Verschelden and his “Start Team” to plan for planting a French-speaking church.
Hill said after much prayer, discussion, training and legwork, they began to hold weekly meetings in June for worship and Bible study, modeling a participative method and a mentality of multiplication.
In late summer another CNBC couple, Ruben and Jessica Nicolas, graduates of the Canadian Southern Baptist Seminary in 2006, joined them, and they, along with the Hills and Verschelden, formed a leadership team and made many contacts.
The church was launched on November 1 with a core group of 12 people, while 25 people attended a Christmas meal on December 20. The core group met on December 27 and chose to name the new church “Connexion” (“Connection” in English), a name which reflects their vision of “connecting people with Jesus for transformation, through service and with the goal of multiplication.”
Verschelden said the goal is to plant churches throughout the city of Montreal over the next decade. Even before the church has launched its first public service, cell group leaders are being trained, with plans to form three or four new cell groups and move into different areas of the city.
Currently, the church is meeting in the home of Hill and his wife, Gail, as the group has not found a permanent meeting place and is without funds needed to rent a facility.
“For now, this arrangement is working well; however, when we begin to have more cell groups at different places, it will not take long for our numbers to increase,” Verschelden said. “We will definitely need a place to gather by March.”
Hill said those who currently attend the church come from all over the city and represent a cross-section of well-grounded Christians, new Christians and non-believers.
“One of our desires is that a non-believer can come and feel accepted, as well as free to ask the questions which trouble him or her,” he said.