A few months into the launch of Village Church, way back in 2010, I stood up in front of a hundred or so people and told them that God had called us to not just be a local church. As amazing as being a local church was and is, He had also called us to be a church that could be national – meaning this ragtag bunch of people would somehow come together over the lifetime of our church and plant gospel-centered churches and locations in the great cities across Canada. This was about a legacy we would leave in our nation! A legacy about Jesus!
So, like the apostle Paul, we would give our lives and give our resources to strategically plant the gospel in cities and towns with cultural influence across Canada to see them transformed (the modern day Canadian equivalents to Ephesus, Corinth, Rome, etc). This is the way to change not only individuals but whole nations. Reaching doctors, lawyers, artists, stay at home moms and dads, teachers, nurses, etc.
I told them I didn’t know when this would begin, but if God wanted it to happen (and the idea didn’t just come from eating some bad pizza one night), it would be a momentous day for Canada. It would set a new vision for churches, maybe inspiring leaders and local congregations that they could do the same, and thus the next 50 years of church planting and expansion could look different in our amazing country; a country that desperately needs Jesus from coast to coast.
Well, that day is here, and Village Church Calgary, the beginning of that cross-Canada movement, is about to launch on September 17. Jesus is moving in the great city of Calgary in amazing ways. A few years ago He called a great couple, Vinh and Laura Doan, to plant a church there with a big vision (that’s what he does)! Over the last year, they have put together an amazing team that loves Jesus, loves the gospel, and loves the city of Calgary. This church carries all the heart, vision, philosophy and values of Village Church and applies them uniquely to Calgary as a city. It is an expression of the Village family in another part of our country. Vinh is a pastor at Village Church, and he and his teams carry in their bones the culture and vision of our church.
The teaching ministry will be shared preaching between myself (video sermons – as with all of our services) and Vinh preaching live in Calgary. Beyond Sundays, God has amazingly provided us with a ministry centre right in the heart of Calgary that will start to be utilized right away for leadership development, training, midweek ministry, etc.
We are launching this church with a sermon series based on answering eight challenges skeptics wage against Christianity. The series, The Problem of God, is a great way to start as we are a church that does whatever it can to reach post-Christian, skeptical Canadian culture in everything we do.
We are excited to launch this church and see what God does in the coming months and years ahead in one of the great cities of Canada.
-Pastor Mark Clark