Winter 2025

Family Highlights

Merry Christmas!

I am writing this during Christmas break, mindful that some Christmas cards have gone out to our support team, which then point them to this page, and I have not yet managed to get to writing an an actual update. 🙃 It has been a terribly busy fall / winter, building up to the big event just three weeks ago where (if not obvious from the photo above) Katie & Gavin were married! 🎉  The wedding weekend was a beautiful time getting to know his family, gathering with so many loved ones as well as witnessing and celebrating this solemn and momentous event of two lives being joined together in Christ to form a new family. We are so thrilled for both of them and couldn't be happier to welcome Gavin into our family as a new son-in-law. They are so perfect for one another and the story of how God brought them together seems truly miraculous and definitely God-ordained.

Gavin is currently deployed to Hawaii, and despite getting the ball rolling months in advance, Gavin & Katie still have not yet cleared all of the bureaucratic hoops the U.S. military require for them to be assigned housing. So sadly, despite being married, Katie is still living at home with us, navigating marriage through an iPad and a five-hour time difference. 😓

Prayer request #1 would be that the LORD would give them favor with officials and provide everything needed to get assigned housing so that they can live together soon.

As for the rest of the family, Ben is halfway through his second year at Heritage and couldn't be happier, studying Greek, working as a Resident Assistant and playing volleyball among other things. Emma has completed her SATs and is looking for additional work to save up to join Ben at Heritage for a one-year program in the fall. Severine is in full recovery mode from a year of wedding planning in addition to continuing to help run their large homeschool group. And for me, on top of helping with each of our family member's activities noted above, I have been very, very busy with ministry stuff...

Ministry Highlights

This past November we had another twenty baptisms, and we successfully planted Church 21 Vaudreuil. The new congregation has been doing well, reaching new people with the gospel.

There have been the usual challenges and spiritual attacks, but nothing we're not used to by now.

Prayer request #2 would be that the LORD would protect the new congregation, its leaders, particularly Pastor Jesse & his family.

The Christian organization Montreal Youth for Christ, who are the landlords of where our Church 21 West Island meets, have given us formal notice that they intend to sell the building.  As it is zoned exclusively for religious worship (the property cannot be redeveloped into condos) the next owner will almost certainly be a church entity, in which case they would most likely terminate the rental agreement of Church 21 West Island (as it can be confusing to have more than one church occupying the same space, etc.). However, because Church 21 West Island merged with "Reach Montreal" a few years back, we actually run the charter of that older organization who were the original owners of the building many years ago, and have the "right of first refusal" (meaning it gets a shot at purchasing the building back before any other buyer).

Long story short, after much negotiation during the fall, we (acting as "Reach Montreal") have made an offer to purchase the building. There is an inspection scheduled for January and then if all goes well, we hope to close on the sale by January 31st.

We are operating our first capital campaign to complete the purchase, as well as raise funds for some very necessary renovation (the image above shows one possible version of said renovations). If you would like more information about getting involved, we have a detailed capital campaign document I can send you, just message me. As you can imagine, this whole new unplanned thing has taken up some of my time. 😅

Prayer request #3 would be that the LORD would give us wisdom as we seek to become church property owners for the first time.

The Church 21 McGill project has pivoted to being Church 21 University. This is going to allow us to reach a wider array of students, as well as hopefully help bleed off some of the massive amount of people who are visiting our Downtown location, overwhelming Pastor Peter who is in charge of that congregation. We hope to start worship gatherings in the spring, but in the meantime Pastor Tim, the University project lead, is helping to run Relevant McGill, a week-long apologetics event on the campus, followed up by an Exploring Jesus series at our church, for university students.

Prayer request #4 would be that the LORD would open the hearts and minds of students to the gospel during Relevant McGill, that the organizers would have favor (and not opposition) on campus, and for Pastor Tim as he lays the foundation for a new church.

We are also planning to start gatherings this summer for our second French location, Église 21 Delson, with an eye toward a more official launch in the fall. This will be a tag-team effort by our existing staff, co-planted by our Église 21 Centre-ville and Church 21 South Shore locations.

Prayer request #5 would be that the LORD would reach many new families in this 99% French suburb, and for Pastor Trenton and Pastor Jonathan as they collaborate on this new work.

We also have about thirty-five Spanish speaking folks that are a part of our Downtown congregation, for whom we are actively evaluating pastoral candidates. We're not sure of a timeline but if we find the right guy, we're probably going to be starting a Spanish congregation inmediatamente.

Prayer request #6 would be that the LORD would guide us in the search for a Spanish speaking lead pastor.

As always, thank you for your faithful support of our ministry in Quebec! Usually I am always able to report that we are "fully funded" and going into the next season of ministry with everything we need. However, we have lost a few supporters from our team in the last months, and for the first time in several years, we are moving into the New year with a deficit in our fundraising account.

Now, the church isn't going to stop paying me, don't worry on that front. But in as much as we are (obviously) very aggressively seeking to plant new churches (at least two more in 2026, if not three if we find our Spanish guy) we are always way out over our skis in funding all of this stuff. So I'm trying to do my part to keep the overhead cost of our organization off of the backs of these new / young congregations.

Currently our funding account sits at about $2,300 CAD short of where we should be (to just break even for 2025). 

Opportunity to give in a unique way #1 would be to make a one-time gift toward the above (current) shortfall.

Our ongoing funding sits at about $1,800 CAD a month. To be fully funded we would be closer to $2,100 CAD a month, so we have about a $300 CAD a month shortfall (about $220 USD).

Opportunity to give in a unique way #2 would be to make an increased monthly commitment toward this (month-over-month) shortfall.

YOUR donations make the rapid pace of these church plants possible, and we desperately need new churches to house the many, many new believers we're seeing Jesus save and bring into our congregations. It's wild.

As always, you have the option of giving either in the U.S. or in Canada (and receiving a charitable tax receipt that works for your country), just tap here to see all options. It is also now possible to donate stock from within either country. If you are interested in that option, message me.

Thank you again for your prayers and your generosity as we seek to serve Jesus here and plant more churches! 🔥

Blessings,

Brian & Severine