By Frank Stirk
COCHRANE, AB—2008 proved to be another banner year for new church starts across the CNBC, even though the final tally fell short of projections.
To stay on track for reaching the goal of 1,000 churches by 2020, there needed to be 306 seeds and congregations in place by January 1, 2009. The actual total was 279.
“We would actually be at 306 by now, but we lost a number of churches. That really hurt us,” Start Team leader Dwight Huffman conceded. “They either didn’t take hold, which is what can happen, or they combined with another seed or two to form one group.”
But Huffman believes these numbers need to be seen through the lens of the past three years, when the current field-based strategy for starting churches was first implemented. Since then, he noted, CNBC churches and church-starters have planted a total of 110 new seeds and congregations—35 in 2006, 40 in 2007, and 35 in 2008.
“To plant between 35 and 40 churches three years in a row on basically $500,000 a year is something that only the Father can do,” said Huffman. “There’s been no other period in the history of the CNBC that we planted more churches on less money.”
As well, these numbers prove to him that local church leaders are beginning to embrace the need to start new works themselves. “Fifteen or 20 years ago,” Huffman said, “somebody in this office knew every church that was planted. But if you’re going to see a church-planting movement, our office doesn’t want to know about that until we see the results.”
The province with the most church starts in 2008 was Ontario (11), followed by British Columbia (7), Alberta (5), Quebec and Nova Scotia (4 each), New Brunswick (3) and Saskatchewan (1). Once again, there were no new starts in Manitoba.
The fact there was almost no growth on the Prairies is a situation that Huffman is confident will begin to change this year with the recent relocation of Eastern Canada church-starting advocate Gary Smith from Montreal to Winnipeg, and the addition of Maurice Tenkink as coordinator for Saskatchewan and Manitoba except for Winnipeg.
“The job isn’t fully defined yet,” said Tenkink from his family’s newly-built home near Prince Albert, “but we want to work with rural churches, we want to work with the small groups that probably won’t have a full-time pastor and probably won’t have a building.”
One of Tenkink’s top priorities will be developing indigenous leaders. “It takes somebody from the area who knows the people and who’s in it for the long haul to keep the church going,” he said.
With a team of advocates now in place in every region of Canada—a first for the CNBC—the Church Starting Team has set as a goal to plant 48 seeds and congregations in 2009. “That would be the most churches we’ve ever planted in one year,” said Huffman.
As he did last year, Huffman plans to explore and prayerwalk communities in every part of Canada in 2009. But this year, instead of spending four months on the road going coast to coast and back again—with Stafford and Mary Bryant, formerly of Shreveport, Louisiana, doing most of the driving—he will spread out his visits over the entire year.
“One of the things I learned was that my time would’ve been more productive if I did a better job of partnering with our national team advocates,” he said.
“So this year, I will be partnering with one of them for a full week in every month in 2009. I’ll be trusting these advocates to really help me know the priorities of their regions.”
But that is not to say their cross-country trek in 2008 was unproductive. “It was enlightening to see just about every place we went had a different set of needs—and each needing a different way to reach people,” said Mary Bryant, who used to be Huffman’s administrative assistant. “It’s not a textbook thing.”
“There were times,” she added, “when I really felt the Spirit very strongly that I was there to encourage women. I could see how they would get discouraged, when they’re doing the best they can and it doesn’t seem like anything is happening.”
“We have some wonderful leaders, men and women who are sacrificing a great deal to be where God’s called them to be,” said Huffman. “That’s encouraging. That’s refreshing.”
In January, Huffman and his wife, Judy, became Canadian citizens.