President's Blog

One night, Jesus met with Nicodemus, a Jewish leader and a religious man. Nicodemus was born in sin, so he could not inherit the Kingdom of God. He was also blind to sin, so he could not see the Kingdom of God. He was bound by sin, so he could not enter the Kingdom of God. But, the Spirit of God breathed life into this religious man and he was born again. He was brought back to life from the dead.

There is a discipleship drought in our churches and the solution is found in Ezekiel 37:1-5:

1. Ezekiel sees a revelation (vv. 1-2)

2. Ezekiel receives a responsibility (vv. 3-5)

3. Ezekiel’s witness of a resurrection (vv. 6-8, 10)

In response to the anointed preaching and fervent praying of the prophet, the Lord chose to move in a powerful way. The dry bones are brought back to life. The astonished prophet watched the valley rattling and moving, as the bones began connecting, and then were covered in sinews, flesh, and skin. Finally, at the Lord’s direction, Ezekiel prophesies to the breath to “breathe on these slain, that they may live” (v. 9b). New birth, whether in people or churches, is a supernatural event! Ezekiel 37:10 (ESV) says: “…they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.”

But it’s not enough to just connect the bones. God also strengthened them sufficiently enough to stand, and to stand without the aid of crutches, splints, or a respirator. They were strong! We pray earnestly that many would come to faith, but also be strengthened by His Spirit and discipled by His Church, to stand and withstand. “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,” prays the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 3:14-19 (ESV), that believers might be, “strengthened with power through his Spirit in [their] inner being” (v. 16b), and “rooted and grounded in love, [that they] may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that [they] may be filled with the fullness of God” (vv. 17b-19b). We pray for new birth, we pray for new disciples who make disciples, and for churches who establish new churches. We pray that the supernatural work of God might reanimate the bones of this valley and then move as a “great army” to the next valley and to the next and the next.

Verse 7 (ESV) notes “there was a sound and behold, a rattling…” Is there a “rattling” going on in Canada? In the Fellowship? Any signs of new life? Are there any places where the Holy Spirit might be “breathing”?

The Fellowship’s church planting story since 2010 is most definitely a sign of “rattling”.

Since 2010, our Fellowship Pacific Region has planted 35 churches. Our Fellowship Prairies Region has planted three churches. Our FEB Central Region has planted 73 churches. Our AEBEQ (Quebec) Region has planted 18 churches, and our Fellowship Atlantic Region has planted three churches. This comes to a total of 132 churches planted in the past 15 years. Previously, between 1990 and 2000 our Fellowship planted another 87 churches. Over the next 25 years, in many ways, we’ll look back on this period of our Fellowship as a time when we returned to our heritage as a church planting movement.

When it comes to church health, we’re hearing some “rattling” as well.

The story of our Fellowship Pacific Region is one of revitalization. After 30 years of a four-percent decline per year, leaders decided together that this was not acceptable, that this could not possibly be God’s desire for their Region. The result was a five-year partnership (completed in 2016), whereby a greater degree of collaboration and interdependence would occur among churches. The outcome is a “turn-around Region” that is no longer experiencing decline, but steady, healthy growth.

And to top this all off, this past year our Fellowship International department deployed nine long-term career missionaries from our churches, and our Chaplaincy department appointed 32 new Fellowship chaplains. These are recruitment records among our churches.

However, I would still contend that this is still the sound of the “rattling”, not the “thunder clap” of a marching army rising from the dry valley. As encouraging as all this fruit might sound, it still is only the “rattling”. The sound of a “reviving wind”, the Spirit of God is looking to envelop our churches with His “breath”. The “sinew, tendons, and muscle” growth has only started to happen—there are still lots of dry bones out there, still plenty of graveyards, and too many “Boneyard Baptist Churches”!