Flying HIgh


Adam and me driving at the PNE, this summer.
I am sort of connected in with Southside Community Church. This is a church that has grown into multiple congregations quite quickly. A large part of this is due to the giftedness and leadership of the lead pastor: Cam Roxburgh. (Cam is Alan Roxburgh's nephew. Alan is leading consultant on the missional church around the world.)

I attend the Missional Training Network that they host. Cam is also my church planting coach. So today we had a little chat over some Tim Horton's coffee. I brought him up to speed on what was happening with Urban Sanctuary. It was the most valuable hour I have spent all month.

As we chatted, I sort of looked back on the history of Urban Sanctuary. To completely bore you, here it is:

Sept. 2005 - first@night starts as the evening congregation of First Baptist Church Vancouver.
  • there is a lot of "identity confusion" about this new service - is it the evening service, an outreach program, a church plant?
  • we end up in April 2006 feeling burnt out and tired
  • we do end up baptizing 2 people which is cool
Sept 2006
  • start looking for our own spot - outside of FBC
  • go through the whole "Bar None" debacle (ask me and I'll tell you what this was) -I did get my picture in the globe and mail!
  • core group starts to come together
  • start to move away from First Baptist - different vision, etc.
Sept 2007

  • start moving towards being an independent church within our denomination
  • commisioning service at FBC
  • core group is gelled and strong
Right now - very strong committed core who are moving out missionaly in our community

So, that's us.

Wise word from Cam (although he was channeling some old guy):
"If God has called you, don't give up - no matter what ANYONE says."

Man - I have had some voices (both internal and external) telling me to pack it in. I even had one older pastor tell me that I had mis-heard God, when He called me -THANKS BUDDY!!!!

Anyways - I am staying the course.

Comments

Anonymous said…
hi santosh!

small world. cam is the son of bob roxburgh, the pastor who married sandra and i in 1981. he was also part of our establishing a community health centre out of our church trinity baptist, which ran from 1987 to 1990. at which time i left to retrain in psychiatry.

last time i saw cam, he was a soccer playing teen in guildford, when we visited the roxburghs on returning from a short term health care mission in northern pakistan in october 83.

i continue to have a warm place in my heart for the roxburghs.

blessings,
stewart
9:58 AM
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