Red Deer 4: The Turning Point
Part 4 of 4
The losses of 2021 were excruciating for us at Trinity Church, but as pain often does, it pulled our little community together in a special way. There was a real determination to press on as a church family, and in the first few months of 2022, something began to shift.
Suddenly, people started to join us (seemingly out of nowhere) and catch something of the vision we believe God had called us to as a church. We lost another of our elders, this time as he moved to the States to be near his family; this forced a restructuring of our leadership team, which has been wonderful.
As we waited for the annual summer lull, nothing happened!
In fact, we continued to grow. We'd prayed hard to be a multigenerational church, but by the beginning of 2022, we were still the youngest people at Trinity. Incredibly, in what can only be God's grace, we finished the with almost half the church our age or younger - seven of which were Bible college graduates! We stepped out in faith to double our missions giving together, entered a new season of close-knit community together -oh, and our second child was born, too! We finished the year once again excited about what was to come.
Today, there are around 55 people who call Trinity their home church. In 2023, we're seeing subtle glimpses of an Acts 2:42-47-like church starting to form. There's a long way to go, but we've seen radical generosity, incredible supernatural healing (a few weeks ago, someone's broken leg and ankle were instantly healed!), and an increasing sense of family as we do life together. We now have enough children in our church that we're preparing to finally launch our kids' ministry in September (with test runs over the summer). Paul Williams joined us from Fordingbridge as we hosted our first Canadian Commission Conference in March.
God is moving.
We believe we're called to be Gospel-focused and radically display God's love to people. We feel it's our duty to be the most loving community in Red Deer. We're passionate that it's not just Word and Spirit that we're striving for, but Word, Spirit, and Relationship (both with God and with those around us). We've found that the North American church often does two out of three of these areas well but rarely all three. We believe something special happens when we fulfil these biblical mandates and have found that the following diagram has been really helpful in communicating this to our church family.
It's an exciting time to be a part of Trinity Church and to see God move in Red Deer, Alberta. However, we know that we're just at the beginning of what Eugene Peterson describes as A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. Church planting (or restarting, adopting, or whatever it is you think best represents our adventure) is sometimes inconceivably painful and, at other times, indescribably rewarding.
There will undoubtedly be enormous hurdles to come in our future as a church and as leaders, but I am convinced that a painful journey in obedience to our Great God is infinitely more rewarding than an easy ride in disobedience. Only the Lord knows what the future holds for us and for you, but let's pray for the radical, early-Church-like faith to see great things for the Kingdom of God and the courage to persevere for His sake whatever the cost.
Who knows, maybe God is even calling you to Canada, too!
Dave and Sharaya Betts are a part of Trinity Church in Red Deer, AB, Canada. If you’d like to get in touch, you can visit their website (trinityreddeer.ca) or email info@trinityreddeer.ca.
If this has provoked you to consider church planting, and you'd like to speak to someone about it, then please email Chris Kilby from the Commission UK Team on chrisk@commission.global
