Red Deer 1: Breaking the Ice

Part 1 of 4

We felt a call to plant a church in Red Deer, Canada, on the first day of Westpoint 2018. However, there was a slight problem: we'd only moved back to England two days earlier!  

Mix the lingering haze of jetlag, the reality of camping with a wonderful (but totally unfamiliar) new church family, and a simultaneous sense of calling to plant a church in a province you'd naively declared you would never live. You'll get a good idea of how disoriented we were in those moments.  

But the voice of God was unmistakable. In the big tent, someone shared a prophetic word about church planting that stopped Sharaya (my wife) and me in our tracks. Later that evening, we were talking to one of the church elders and shared that we maybe sensed a call to plant a church.  

"Oh really? Whereabouts?" he asked.  

Before we had the chance to answer, we heard someone shout from across the marquee: "Red Deer!" We were blown away.  

Over the next six months, we focused on serving Ascot Life Church as well as possible and tried not to be too distracted by this sense of calling to Red Deer. There were so many questions:  

How do you plant a church? How do the vision and values of Commission translate into North American culture? Will we need to find jobs? Are we really ready to say goodbye to a church family that has become so dear to us so quickly? 

Like Jon and Laluna Sidnell (who shared their church planting journey here), Sharaya and I got to be a part of Gathering Momentum, the Commission training course for church planters and elders. The training was outstanding, but it was here that someone shared a prophetic word that caused this new season to explode into life. It was something to this effect: 

"I see pack ice around North America. But there are people in this room who will be like icebreakers, who will break through the ice and open up a way for others to follow." 

I wrote it down since we were one of only two couples planning to head to North America. However, if I'm honest, I probably didn't give it the attention or prayer I should have.  

A few weeks later, I'd organised a call with "Trinity Christian Fellowship," a church that had once been connected with the Relational Mission sphere of churches. Their online presence was almost non-existent, and even connecting with them was a challenge requiring a bit of detective work. However, we figured that if a New Frontiers church already existed in Red Deer, maybe we could go and serve them in some capacity rather than start something new. 

I spoke with the elders at Trinity. They told me the church was around twenty people and would close unless something changed soon. They'd loved connecting with New Frontiers but felt the distance made it too difficult to continue. They'd been praying for God to break in. 

At that point, I remembered the prophetic word from Gathering Momentum and shared it. "Maybe," I said, "God is opening up a new door for this connection?" 

The elders went silent. I figured I'd crossed a line.  

I was wrong. 

Almost a year earlier, one of the elders had dreamt of an icebreaker, and the elders had been praying about what it meant.  

It felt like God was drawing us together. How could we refuse? 

We moved out to Red Deer to join them in March 2020 - the week COVID began. But that's a story for another day.