Frequently Asked Questions

A: I (Brian) grew up attending Milwaukie First Baptist Church (now called Grace Pointe), which is a part of the Conservative Baptist denomination. Severine grew up attending People's Church of Montreal which is part of the Associated Gospel Churches (AGC) denomination. We both most closely identify with the reformed and baptistic movements of the protestant tradition, and are non-cessationists (regarding the continued work of the Spirit).

The churches we are planting are associated with the Fellowship Baptists of Canada, specifically the Association of Evangelical Baptist Churches in Quebec (or AEBEQ), and we work in partnership with their missions ministry, Mission Quebec, and their seminary, SEMBEQ.

A: Yes, most of our churches are a part of the Acts 29 Network, which is a global church planting family. We're also affiliated with Soma Communities, and sometimes receive funding from C2C collective, another church planting movement in Canada. As our legal organization currently houses the Acts 29 Canada, I sort of de-facto serve in the areas of strategy & finance for the network in Canada.

A: My (Brian) parents both became believers through Campus Crusade for Christ (now called Cru) in university and eventually became staff members so I grew up as a sort of missionary kid. I first responded in faith to the Gospel when I was four. I subsequently felt a strong call into ministry at the age of six. Severine became a believer around the age of five. A few years later, the pastor of her church asked if anyone wanted to be baptized. Without even knowing exactly what that meant, she sensed she was supposed to answer that call. After learning more, she was baptized at the age of 8.

A: I (Brian) spent one year at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, before transferring to Briercrest Bible College in Saskatchewan (Canada), where I met Severine. I graduated with a B.A. in Youth Ministry and a whole pile of theology class credits. Severine graduated with a B.A. in Christian Ministry and some Greek classes under her belt. I subsequently picked up about 50% of an M.A. in Theology at Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon. However God called us away to Montreal before I could complete my degree.

A: Following college, Severine and I got married and spent 2002 through 2010 in full-time youth ministry. The final two years of that involved developing and running a church-within-a-church plant that required me (Brian) to begin preaching each weekend, as well as begin leading leaders in a new way. Then in 2010 we left full-time paid ministry to move to Quebec to begin church planting. Instead of raising a support team at that time, the LORD led us to trust him and pursue a tent-making model. He blessed our efforts to the point where I was able to volunteer up to half of my time to the Executive Pastor role in the Montreal region of the churches we have been planting over the last ten years. Today I'm bi-vocational, serving in a paid staff capacity 4.5 days a week and managing our family business on the side with the help of Severine (and now our three kids). I have twenty-two years of experience in pastoral ministry, about nine of those specifically as an Executive Pastor over a multi-congregational & parachurch ministry organization.

A: The churches, church plants, and ministries that we're involved in are all still relatively young, and given that we are working within a largely unreached people group, our ministry still has a very "foreign missions" feel to it. While the financial capacity of the congregations we're ministering within are growing, our strategic team has traditionally favored planting new churches over the fiscal consolidation of a single larger church, one that could support more associated staff. This rapid expansion of the kingdom of God in Montreal has been possible due to the generosity of individuals & churches outside of Quebec who desire to see the gospel preached. All that said, we are maturing as an organization and I am leading a culture shift towards more self-sustainability. We expect the transition to take a few years, and in the meantime, we'll continue to piece together our income through support raising and our bi-vocational "tent-making" ventures.

A: Of course! Note that we have several locations that meet in different parts of the city and at different times. You can find more information about where and when we meet on our website at church21.ca