Sidewalk Skyline Podcast: Recent Episodes
Kevin Rogers
A spiritual exploration of urban centres in Canada. Host Kevin Rogers interviews and provides noteworthy content to see how Christian faith is being expressed on city streets from coast to coast.
Charles Hermelink brought this message at the Our City Windsor 2025 conference. In it he looks at how God is at work with the movement of people around the world and especially the relevance for us in Canada.
Charles serves as the New Worker On-boarding and Development Specialist, and Coordinator for Mission Canada’s Cultural Language Groups. His focus is to mobilize new workers and strategically see them positioned to reach newcomers to Canada, refugees, and those with various cultural backgrounds and worldviews.
At 87 years of age, Maury continues to be filled with light and hope. From recounting the horrible child abuse he suffered to the overflowing joy of his journey with Jesus, we leaned forward to soak up the wisdom.
Maury continues to have daily conversations with people in his community to tell them about his hope.
Today I am having a conversation with Richard Magnussen who last year released his memoir ‘Going Big: Lessons On Success In Business, Life And Faith.’
From the early years growing up in an immigrant family and building a productive life in Kitchener to becoming one of Canada’s big business success stories, Richard was able to remain focused on what was most important. His stories are worth hearing.
Former Member of Parliament Harold Albrecht from Kitchener-Conestoga wrote on the flyleaf, “Richard’s story is one of hard work, incredible perseverance, and deep faith in Jesus. Powerful evidence of the difference that Jesus makes in the life of a family. Great leadership principles based on the wisdom of God’s Word!’
Kevin Mast has served as pastor of Hope City Church in Barrie, Ontario for all of its 12 years. It has grown to a family of ministries making a difference for the street-affiliated and marginalized of their city.
Kevin and I reminisce about my visit a few years ago and how urban ministry always involves shifts and upheavals.
As we approach Canada’s federal election with political fever running high, I interviewed Tim Schindel to talk about the spiritual realities we hold onto, regardless of how the country votes.
Tim Schindel is a visionary leader and strategic influencer dedicated to equipping and supporting leaders in Canada’s political and business communities. As the Founder and National Director of Leading Influence, he has built a nationwide network providing chaplaincy, mentorship, and faith-based leadership support to elected officials across Canada. Since launching the organization in 2006, Tim has expanded its reach, fostering a culture of integrity, encouragement, and service among political leaders. With nearly 40 years of experience in ministry, leadership development, and executive coaching, Tim is known for his ability to cast vision, build high-impact teams, and drive meaningful change.
Diversity, equity and inclusion are all Christian virtues, but they can be disguised as PCIE - Pressured Conformity, Inequity and Exclusion. That can happen easily inside or outside of the Church, but the Church cannot afford to conflate virtue with political pragmatism. The prophetic Church does the quiet work of diversity, equity and inclusion without press releases.
On today’s episode I have a conversation with Harold Gutierrez, who is from Langley BC where he works as the Intercultural and Indigenous Ministries director for the British Columbia and Yukon District of the PAOC. He has pastored in Florida, North Carolina and BC and currently working on a PhD. Today we want to talk about cross cultural communication, discipleship, pluralism and the ways that we can grow in working together across the cultural divides.
Today I am having a conversation with Peter Ochs and Steve Fox. We are going to have a conversation about Peter’s creative response to helping prisoners get established in a new life.
Peter Ochs is a lifelong faith-driven entrepreneur. His 30-year journey has been dedicated to building prosperous businesses God’s way. Pete’s life mission is to inspire and equip business leaders worldwide to live with a purpose greater than themselves, leveraging their businesses to make a Christ-centered impact on the world. He is author of High Impact LIFE and High Impact Business.
Peter is a friend of a friend. Steve Fox is my friend and a 30-year veteran of the church I pastor in Windsor. Steve was initially invited to join me as a core member for this new church plant that became New Song Church. His six-month trial turned into thirty years where he served in many capacities.
In Elizabeth Oldfield’s book ‘Fully Alive’, she wrote, “For most of the week, my value is in what I produce and what I consume. If I’m not careful my main goal in a day becomes impressive and competent, subtly signalling my status with the things I buy, say and post. Sabbath is the opposite. It is a line in the sand. Today I am just a person, and a person is beyond price. Sabbath is about valuing, fighting for and fiercely guarding rest.” [1]
What are the things that demand our attention and distract us from being fully alive in Christ? My guests on this episode are Rick Hiemstra and Andy Gabruch.
Rick is the director of The Centre For Research On Church And Faith at The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada.
Andy is the author of Infobesity: How To Be Followers Of Jesus in an Information Overload World.
[1] Elizabeth Oldfield, ‘Fully Alive’ p. 110.
Michael Difazio and Lisa Shurrock were two young, successful entrepreneurs in Windsor Ontario. As they fell in love, they did not realize how God would appear in their lives to disrupt business as usual and surprise them with miracles.
Here’s my interview as they share the lessons they’re learning about trusting God with everything.
After a couple years working in Mission Canada with Street Level Advocacy (Peterborough), Leigh-Ann Davidson felt the call to launch new initiatives in Cobourg, Ontario. Along the way, her biggest supporter (who happened to be her husband Thomas) joined in her efforts in reaching out to the street-affiliated and homeless population in the small city of Cobourg.
Together they are ‘Hope And Light Urban Outreach’ making a difference in a place of intensifying need.
Joe Ritchie grew up with a history of trauma and abuse that nearly killed him. At age fifteen he was in a car accident that left him quadriplegic and without hope. After three times of dying and being resuscitated, it would be a vision of Jesus that would change his life trajectory.
Today Joe serves as part of the pastoral team at Windsor’s New Song Church. Listen as he shares transparently about his struggles with addiction and the journey to freedom.
Alan Roxburgh is a pastor, teacher, writer and podcaster with more than thirty years’ experience in church leadership, consulting and seminary education. I first heard of him through my friend Karen Reed who will be co-hosting our conversation today. Karen has been a past guest on the podcast and is very much entrenched in a life of loving her neighbours, a true example of intentional community building.
Today, I’m talking with Doctor Meera Grover who works in Calgary, Alberta extensively in the field of addiction medicine.
Working in Vancouver’s notorious downtown eastside to pay for her theological education at Regent College, Meera Grover was faced with questions about whether or not providing people who use drugs with sterile supplies and a place to inject contravened her faith. She knew she wanted to care for people with addiction but did not know how to do so in a way that fit with her own moral code.
She wrestled with these questions over the years and through her transition, from nursing to becoming a fully licensed physician who specializes in addiction medicine.[1]
Meera has written a book entitled “Why I Help People Take Drugs”. In this interview we delve into the often contested practice of harm reduction and the importance of the human connection in addressing addiction issues.
Bob Gal has been an iconic figure in my life for 40 years. From my first recollections of his speaking at youth retreats and leading street ministry outreaches, he has been a man that has followed the cloud by day and fire by night.
He and his lifelong sweetheart Karen live in Edmonton, Alberta where he serves as our oldest Mission Canada urban worker at the age of 74. Today I want to hear Bob’s reflections as we review his relationship with Jesus and the nuanced perspective shifts for each decade.
Tim Fletcher is the Founder and President of RE/ACT (Recovery Education for Addictions and Complex Trauma). He used his skills as a pastor and counsellor to develop a program to help the people he cared for overcome addiction. He realized the need for individuals to first become equipped with tools, and then put those tools into practice in a healthy, safe and loving environment - and herein lies his unique skill.
During his early years, he learned that everyone has a loved one who struggles with addiction, and many people struggled with unrealized addictions and unhealthy coping techniques. He found that 97% of addicts also struggled from Complex Trauma (C-PTSD) - corroborating the research of Dr. Gabor Maté. After researching C-PTSD which was identified as, “A series of events that occur where a victim feels unsafe, and as such, develops mental disorders which inhibit them from coping in stressful or harmful circumstances”, he concluded that research was showing that there is a physical difference between the brains of those who grew up in loving and nurturing homes and those who didn’t – before any addiction became prevalent.
Timothy Meisenheimer has spent decades on the streets with beatitude vision, first in Ottawa and now in Windsor, Ontario. This was his session at the Our City Windsor 2024 conference. Tim takes seriously the path of Jesus in his sidewalk vision of the Kingdom of God.
12 The word of God is alive and active. It is sharper than any sword that has two edges. It cuts deep enough to separate soul from spirit. It can separate bones from joints. It judges the thoughts and purposes of the heart. 13 Nothing God created is hidden from him. His eyes see everything. He will hold us responsible for everything we do.
How receptive are Canadians to the Christian message?
Brian Egert is the director of Mission Canada, an agency that has over 50 workers across Canada to reach beyond the church walls. This episode features a plenary session at the Our City Windsor conference in March 2024.
This is part two of my interview with Maury Blair as we revisit his traumatized childhood in Paris Ontario and the journey to wholeness through coming to faith in Christ.
Years ago I read Maury Blair’s autobiography ‘Child Of Woe’. I was shocked at the severity of the child abuse he suffered from his step-father. How could a man be so filled with contempt for an innocent child and more miraculously, how could a child of violence grow up to be so compassionate and well-balanced?
In this episode I visited Maury at his kitchen table in Cambridge, Ontario as we revisited his faith journey and ministry. We walked on the streets of Paris, Ontario to see the old homestead, the church and the streets he lived on.
This is part one of two episodes.
(Recorded at Our City Windsor 2024)
No one is exempt from the impacts of grief and loss. When serving others in community it is imperative that we learn to recognize when and how their grief is showing up. However, it is just as important to learn how our own grief impacts our ability to serve others. Kim Court and her husband Mike Morency help participants better understand grief and provide tips on how they can help others, and themselves.
For the past 25 years, Kim Court (M.S.W., R.S.W.) has provided a safe place for individuals and families to reflect and experience personal growth. She values the uniqueness of each individual’s journey, and supports people of all ages as they become empowered to reach their goals.
As a Christian counsellor, Kim is experienced in helping people with struggles related to trauma, separation/divorce, anxiety, depression, attachment, parent-child, and family conflict, all through the lens of evidence-based practice and the Gospel. She is a certified Grief Educator, and is trained in, Brief Solution Focused Therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, and Collaborative Problem Solving.
Alongside her husband, and on her own, Kim provides engaging workshops and lectures on a wide array of topics.
Mike is Executive Director of Matthew House Refugee Centre which provides temporary shelter and settlement services for Refugee Claimants. He is a team pastor at New Song Church and a frequent speaker at conferences and retreats. Mike is passionate about helping the people of God find ways to “live out” Christ in the world.
He is also Lead Strategist for Synergistic Solution Groups where he assists churches and community charities develop effective strategies to increase their impact.
Bobby Reaume is the lead operator with Feeding Windsor-Essex’s Soup Shack. Every night from 7-9 pm he ensures that up to 140 people are served with food, snacks, clothing and personal care items. The food is prepared in the kitchens of Feeding Windsor-Essex, a charitable department of New Song Church.
This interview at the Our City Windsor 2024 Conference is filled with stories of hope and the continuing miracle of Bobby’s journey to recovery.
As an update, Bobby and some interested parties are attempting to start a charity of their own to provide a greater platform of services to Windsor’s homeless and street-affiliated population. The Soup Shack would be enhanced by a building where more than food would be served.
In the meantime, donations to help fund current operations can be sent to Feeding Windsor-Essex. Find out how at admin@feedingwindsoressex.ca
Connie Jakab is planting a church at a new housing initiative in the Ogden neighbourhood of Calgary. As a long time community energizer, Connie has built an enduring presence in Calgary through her work within the arts community, mental health and business sector.
Now her attention has turned to the neighbourhood she lives and grew up in. Ogden Church meets in the common room of a housing development created by The Mustard Seed, a faith-based organization that exists to eliminate homelessness and reduce poverty.
Ogden Church values breaking bread together around a table rather than sitting in rows as passive listeners.
John Longhurst's journalistic reflections provoke thought and questions about faith, inviting readers to think beyond their own religions, theologies, and denominations. Why do people believe what they do? What might we learn from each other's acts of faith? John Longhurst is the recipient of the 2021 Lieutenant-Governor's Award for the Advancement of Inter-religious Understanding in Manitoba. He has served as the director of communications for several international relief and development organizations and continues to write for the Winnipeg Free Press and many other publications.
His most recent book is a collection of writing from his Free Press column and is entitled, “Can Robots Love God And Be Saved?’
Karen Stiller is the senior editor for Faith Today magazine and has written for Reader’s Digest, Ekstasis, The Walrus and Christianity Today. She is the author of The Minister’s Wife and co-author on other books.
She also lives in downtown Ottawa where life has shaped the writing of her most recent book entitled ‘Holiness Here: Searching For God in the Ordinary Events of Everyday Life’.
For 10 years, New Song Church has been alongside one of Windsor’s more challenging neighbourhoods of social housing. What we affectionately call the Glengarry neighbourhood is a series of four high rise apartments, several rows of townhouses and an assisted living facility. It experiences the most tragic of life experiences as well as a quieter majority that are just trying to survive.
Through collaboration initially with The Downtown Windsor Community Collaborative and partnership with Windsor Essex Community Housing Corporation, we run a 4 day per week drop in centre, a community garden, the cafeteria contract in the assisted living facility along with a weekly Bible study and prayer meeting for residents with spiritual desire.
In this episode, Kevin Rogers interviews Kevin and Paula Saunders as well as Elizabeth Anderson.
One of our podcast regulars, Ejay Tupe brought this message ‘Let Nothing Be Wasted’ at the Our City Windsor - Signs Of Hope conference.
His years of experience in urban ministry are informed by his reading of the Scriptures.
Ejay is an urban worker in downtown Toronto.
Brian Egert brought this opening message at the Our City Windsor ‘Signs Of Hope’ conference in March 2024. One hundred people gathered at New Song Church in Windsor Ontario to reflect on the hope that Canadian churches can bring to their cities.
Brian is the Director of Mission Canada, an agency committed to raising up workers with a heart of hope for the nation of Canada.
With almost 30 years of ministry experience, Cal and Chrissy Krahn have often been drawn to those outside of the church walls. As urban workers with Mission Canada, based in Montreal, Quebec, they care for those around them who are lonely, hurting, or in need of a friend. This can be through involvement at the local food bank, sharing a meal or a coffee with someone, connecting newcomers to Canada with helpful resources, or simply giving a granola bar to a person who’s hungry.
In the words of Loren Cunningham, founder of Youth With A Mission (YWAM), "When you take up residence among them, you have an opportunity to do things for transforming that community and those people not only spiritually, but it will change their lives economically, socially, and educationally, and all the things that follow. YOU can make a difference in the world.”
In a province where less than 1% of the population attend an evangelical service on a Sunday morning, and where many do not trust religion or have been hurt, Cal and Chrissy desire to embody "the Jesus way" by living their lives based on the example of Christ - full of generosity, hospitality, and love.
Years ago, I worked as a federal chaplain at a halfway house. I learned so much about the value of faith-based community friendships for men and women returning to the community.
Alan Campbell has devoted his adult life to Jesus-inspired care for people being released from jail. He is humble and virtuous in his approach and remains focused on the mission. l am grateful to know ‘Refuge Ministries Canada’ and to serve them when I can.
Alan shares his story of conversion from incarceration for his involvement with the Toronto Mafia, God’s call to help prisoners and the role of suffering in his ongoing transformation.
Today I’m talking with my friend Jessica Disabatino. Jess and her husband Dave co-lead Journey Church in Calgary. Our connection goes back to the early 2000’s when they were pastoring Lakeshore Church in Toronto. We began dreaming together with Braeside Camp to launch Camp Inner Change, a week of summer camp for inner city children and youth. Eventually Dave and Jess moved to Calgary to lead Journey Church. Jess also worked for a season in the lead team of Mission Canada. She has also been a podcaster and a frequent speaker at conferences.
In 1955, a Dutch Christian named Andrew van der Bijl began smuggling Bibles into Communist Poland. Through successive years he would enter Communist countries at every occasion to secretly bring God’s Word to places where Christianity was illegal. Brother Andrew began an organization named ‘Open Doors’, a ministry that tells the story of persecuted Christians around the world.
The Canadian director of Open Doors is Rev. Gary Stagg. In this interview we talk about the harsh reality of 365 million Christians being persecuted, imprisoned, tortured and even executed for their allegiance to Jesus, the Prince of Peace.
The Living Room Church is a family of Jesus followers serving the neighbourhoods. One of their co-pastors is Bernard Tam.
Bernard resides in Midtown Toronto with his wife Susan and their two fun-loving and silly boys, Jeddie and Joshua. Learning to live in the urban center has been quite the journey for the Tams, but they are learning daily to see the beauty of the urban jungle. Bernard is passionate about connecting with people and (re)imaging possibilities while wrestling with faith and culture. He is also currently working part-time with The Alliance as a New Ventures Implementor, seeing new churches and new leaders in Toronto. Bernard is also a host of the Canadian Asian Missional Podcast. In the neighbourhood, you can often find Bernard hanging out in coffee shops where his passion for community and coffee intersects. Susan often likens the coffee shops to the show Cheers for Bernard.
Braden Brodeur is a youth worker at Marketplace Chapel at the West Edmonton Mall. The chapel is staffed by Christians and provides spiritual and religious care to shoppers, employees, and wanderers. He is in process to become a Mission Canada urban worker.
The West Edmonton Mall is the 2nd largest mall in North America at 5.3 million square feet.
West Edmonton Mall has over 800 stores and services including nine attractions, two hotels and over 100 dining venues in the complex, and parking for more than 20,000 vehicles. More than 24,000 people are employed at the property. The mall receives about 32 million visitors per year; it attracts between 90,000 and 200,000 shoppers daily, depending on the day and season.
Braden currently interacts with 100 youth on a weekly basis.
On any given night in Toronto, there are about 9000 men, women and children that have no place to stay. Brad Sider spoke at the Our City Scarborough conference on the topic of homelessness his city.
As a veteran shelter and street population worker, Brad is currently a director with the Maxwell Meighen Centre, one of several Salvation Army shelters.
Previously he worked with the Mennonite Central Committee with men coming from prison and reintegrating into the community.
As a follower of Jesus, Brad brings insight into how the gospel interfaces with people on the streets.
David Wells is the General Superintendent of the Pentecostal Assemblies Of Canada and an avid devotee to urban ministry in Canada. This is one of his plenary sessions at the Our City Scarborough Conference held at Global Kingdom Ministries in November 2023.
In this session he speaks on ‘The New Humanity - In The City’. This is a call to reveal God’s character and light by exhibiting His peace (Shalom).
Julie Hunter is the executive director for Windsor Life Centre, a residential, faith-based treatment centre for women recovering from drug and alcohol addictions. The Centre began 10 years ago on the property of Windsor Christian Fellowship under the vision and leadership of Cathy Ciaramitaro.
Windsor Life Centre aims to provide healing to the whole person, giving them tools to live out lasting recovery.
Grounded in compassion, we are designed to empower every woman to reach lifelong sobriety. We help women with their physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and social wellbeing so they can live healthier lifestyles after graduating from the program.
Windsor Life Centre understands addiction is complicated and unique for each individual. We provide customized treatment plans as a key feature of our program by examining each woman’s strengths, treatment needs, and coping abilities. Upon admission to Windsor Life Centre and throughout the treatment stay, our team evaluates their progress and adjusts the treatment plan as necessary. We also offer 12 step facilitation, social activities, life skills training, and multiple forms of therapy.
At sixteen years of age, Nelly Latchman was on a youth group mission trip to New Song Church. The days in Windsor were an opportunity to experience God at work in an urban context outside of her own neighbourhood. That initial experience would eventually culminate in moving to Windsor after graduating from Tyndale Seminary.
Today, Nelly serves as part of the national Serve Campus Network with her focus on the University of Windsor. She also serves a young adult pastor at Parkwood Gospel Church.
Our guests on this episode are Ejay Tupe, director of Toronto Urban Mission Hub in downtown Toronto and Mike Morency, executive director of Matthew House – Windsor.
We will be talking about a story that began unfolding this past summer when over 200 refugee claimants from African nations found themselves sleeping on the streets. Many were outside a homeless support centre at 129 Peter St. in downtown Toronto. There seemed to initially be a funding stalemate between levels of government.
Into the crisis, three churches got involved directly by opening up their buildings to provide shelter, food, and support.
· Revivaltime Tabernacle
· Pilgrim Feast Tabernacle
· Dominion Church International
This story eventually leads to some of the asylum seekers ending up served by Matthew House in Windsor.
Today on the podcast we are taking a virtual walk on the sidewalks of Vancouver’s Downtown East Side and having a conversation with Aaron White.
Aaron is a pastor, justice worker and prayer instigator in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver for the past 20 years, where he lives with his wife and four children in a community home. He’s part of the team at Jacob’s Well, an ecumenical Christian centre of hospitality where his job description is resident theologian.
He is the co-author of Revolution and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Kingdom of God; co-creator of The Creative Way Down discipleship resource; and author of his newest book Recovering: From Brokenness and Addiction to Blessedness and Community.
Along with one of my previous guests Dave Carrol (Captain Kindness), he co-hosts the Two Wise Fools podcast, a light-hearted and sometimes emphatically, truthful conversation about all things sacred and profane.
For thirty years, The Extreme Tour have partnered with community groups and clubs, civic organizations, churches, schools, government agencies and municipalities that are working charitably to meet the needs of the disenfranchised.
Collectively they have been in hundreds of communities scattered throughout 20 countries bringing music, art, spoken word, etc. They are musicians on mission and people that want to serve.
In mid-September they spent a week in Windsor, Ontario assisting New Song Church and Feeding Windsor-Essex. This is our round table conversation about who they are and the unique work that they are called to.
Three years ago, Bobby Reaume walked into my office and said, “Hey remember me?” It took me awhile before I would remember that he and his wife Grace attended the church briefly a few years prior. When Bobby walked in, he had been released from prison, returned to addiction, and was living in tent city. He came to see me with John Button the founder of Launch Pad Recovery Centre as he was entering into a Christian recovery program.
Today Bobby is working full-time, sober, spirit-filled and serving the homeless population in our city of Windsor with the Soup Shack, a trailer set up to distribute food and basic supplies to people on the street.
In the fall of 2022, three Leamington entrepreneurs came together to establish the Leamington Community Hope Centre at the old Knox Presbyterian Church located in the downtown core. Their goal was to secure a community space where necessary resources would be available to people in need to help ensure their physical, mental, social, and spiritual health was prioritized.
The Centre is taking shape quickly with a surge of community volunteers getting involved, many from area churches. Jennifer Hyde is the executive director of a new organization known as the Leamington Community Hope Centre.
When it comes to medical conditions and healing, Christians hold a range of views from the intervention of doctors and medicine, alternative practices and healing that comes from God. I am not a doctor, so I would never give medical advice but would always encourage people to take a threefold approach to getting help.
First, we ask God for help in all things. Secondly, we investigate and utilize good medicine and thirdly we look at alternative methods when the first two are not yielding a result. Some will try alternative before mainstream and that’s their choice.
I bring this up today as we consider that the spiritual life of a person may be affected by physical and mental conditions. I believe that God heals, and today’s guest passes the test in my mind for a verifiable miracle from God.
Josh Tamblyn was healed of schizophrenia. We’re going to hear his story and also learn about his present involvement in ministry.
Dave Carrol is the lead pastor of Freedom House, a community minded church in Brantford, Ontario. Through many years of working closely with civic leaders, the church has gained a reputation for serving with a great attitude.
There’s a good story here about the day that David donned leotards and a red cape and became Captain Kindness. The Kindness Project was launched to make Brantford the kindest city in Canada. Perhaps podcast listeners will be inspired to release their own inner superheroes.
I met today’s guest Doctor Jon Massimi when we were both presenting at the Anchor Ministerial Fellowship conference in Cambridge. Jon and his family live in the Kitchener/Waterloo area presently and has worked and ministered extensively in the community space.
Jon is an Anglican priest and has developed his thesis on the relationship between Asset Based Community Development and the Faith Base.
What are the things that urban churches need to be thinking about? Pastor Duane Henry from Portico Church in Mississauga hosts a conversation at Our City Toronto 2023 with four urban pastors that are on the forefront of strategy and mission.
Olu Jegede is a return guest on Sidewalk Skyline Podcast and continues to pastor at Christian Centre Church.
Jessie Knight is an assistant pastor with Olu with a focus on student ministries.
Godfrey Adderley pastors at Stone Church in downtown Toronto.
Joel Spiridigliozzi is a regional director for Western Ontario District working with pastors and ministries in the Toronto region.
Sath Arulvarathan is a Registered Social Worker who has experience working in community and hospital mental health organizations. He is also involved in church planting.
Sath is skilled in supporting individuals experiencing anxiety, depression, substance use, trauma, life transitions and relationship breakdown.
He believes that the relationship between the therapist and client is the foundation for any intervention to be effective, and works from a trauma-informed, strengths-based, and anti-oppressive perspective. A firm believer in the benefits of short-term counselling, Sath aims to support clients to develop the skills and self-understanding they need to live better.
Jesse Sudirgo is the Assistant Professor of Contextual Ministry at Tyndale Seminary. He has a diverse breadth of experience in multiple disciplines of ministry in both the church and non-profit sectors. He is the former Director of Street-Involved Services at the Yonge Street Mission Evergreen Centre and continues to consult with churches in their engagement with poverty in the city. He brings to his work a conviction for interdisciplinary theological reflection that considers those most marginalized in society. His background in church planting in Boston Massachusetts has shaped his interests in missional lay leadership, community development, and urban poverty.
This session was recorded at Our City Toronto 2023.
Ejay Tupe has served as an urban worker in downtown Toronto for sixteen years. In this session he shares stories and ideas about listening to the city. What can we learn by listening to the people, the values and the culture?
Rev. Sileen Phillips is the children’s minister at The Church of St. Peter and St. Simon The Apostle Anglican Church in Toronto. In this session at ‘Our City Toronto 2023’ she brings her insights from working with the vulnerable sector in government institutions and the community.
Dagma Koyi is a visionary woman with an unconditional love and passion for people. She has an overwhelming desire to see all people live enriched and thriving lives and has become known as a social innovator, humanitarian, Minister, impactful teacher, leader, coach, author, and an entrepreneur.
Her passion for social innovation has led her to pioneering several remarkable ventures including REST Centre, a non-profit charity that takes a holistic approach to invest in homeless youth, and prepares them to face the challenges of adolescence and adulthood through structured interventions. Today REST has become a strong community support for hundreds of BIPOC youth in the Peel Region.
More than meeting Practical needs, ordained minister Rev. Dagma Koyi has a great desire to see lives transformed by the power of God's word and prayer. She is the founder Heart-2-Heart Global Ministry, an empowerment program that equips women to live out their faith audaciously. The ministry provides a community encouraging sisterhood and a platform where they can heal and receive transformation through the sound teaching of God's word. Her weekly teaching ministry reaches women across Canada, the USA and the Caribbean.
After pastoring for 21 years at a large city church, Karen took the risk 12 years ago to live on raised funds as an urban worker, joining with what God is doing in East Vancouver, one of the most unchurched neighbourhoods in Canada. She lives a shared life intentionally in a 100 year old, six bedroom house, as a base to seek the flourishing of her community and extend generous hospitality to neighbour and stranger.
Karen has experienced many 'conversions' in herself as she has rooted into her place, leaning into sustainable living practices, urban gardening, valuing the ordinary and simple and moved away from a busy and fragmented life (since you can't be busy and be present to others). After replacing her car with a bike, she now lives 90% of her life within walking distance. She has forged a slow lifestyle of radical hospitality to strangers and neighbours (vs entertaining friends and family) and her home - called Parker House - has become the primary gathering space for neighbourhood Soup Nights, House Concerts, etc. After living alone for most of her life, Karen wanted to live more deeply into her faith, intentionally living with others inter-generationally (over 200 people have lived in her home in the last decade). She organized her neighbourhood to sponsor Syrian refugees 7 years ago (who lived with her for a year), and seeks to join with anyone in the community seeking the common good.
It has been a wild and wonderful ride - and she is having a blast at this stage of life. Convinced that the Spirit always works in the particular and in place, Karen will share a bit of her story and wisdom from seeking to love God by loving neighbour...and enjoying neighbour as a way to enjoy God....and listening to our community as a way to listen to God.
Our conversation today is going to focus primarily on Christians that were born in Africa and are now living in Canada. What strikes me demographically is that the African continent has a higher percentage of the population identifying as Christian than we do in Canada.
Prior to 1960, black Africans comprised a very small, scattered and almost unknown group of newcomers to Canada, although Africans of European and Asian ancestry had a clearer presence. According to the 2016 census, 1,067,925 Canadians reported being of African origin.[1]
Rev. Isaac De-Graft Takyi is the pastor of Living Word Assembly of God in Toronto. One of his recent accomplishments was authoring a book entitled, ‘The Story of Ghana Assemblies of God Church In Canada.’ This historical document gives a first-hand account of Ghanian Christians starting Ghanian churches in Canada and some of the controversies and successes they have experienced thus far.
Sammy Molloy works at Matthew House, a refugee resettlement service and residence in Windsor, Ontario. They have about 70 beds in the residence and are serving refugee claimants in the hundreds across our city. He is also a worker with African Inland Mission where he organizes summer camps across Canada for children and youth of African origins.
Kirubel Masresha (Nahum) is a student born in Ethiopia but has lived in Windsor from a young age. He lives with Pastors Wodaje Tekeste and Nardi Abraha, on staff at New Song Church and former pastors of the Emmanuel Ethiopian Church. He works at Serenity Coffee House.
Charles and I work together with Mission Canada, a Christian ‘mission agency to reach Canada with the gospel in unique ways. There are many contexts where there is a gap; campuses, people groups, regions, and communities where Jesus is inadequately represented. Mission Canada is committed to identify and equip those who will pursue their calling to fill these gaps.’[1]
I am the urban ministry consultant and Charles is the Cultural Ministries consultant. As part of that role, he gives leadership to Neighbours & Newcomers Network National.
[1] https://paoc.org/canada/about
From her childhood in Guyana to a life of ministry in Canada, Denise Munroe has had a fascinating journey. Currently she serves as the Family Life Pastor at The Embassy Church in Oshawa, Ontario.
She is in regular contact with people in the community that seek assistance from the church.
We talk about being a newcomer, experiences of racism and the societal needs of Canadian born citizens.
Rob Good is the founding pastor of Promise Church in Bradford, Ontario. They describe themselves as ‘A community united to show God with us, making all things right.’
Pastor Rob has found innovative ways to do community service, empowered the congregation to initiate good things in their city and interactive technology to assist in their discipleship journey.
Bradford is a bedroom community north of Toronto.
Ben and Emma Narayanan moved their young family from Australia to plant churches in the Vancouver area. Avant Life Church lives by the mantra:
Remain Helpful
Remain Humble
Remain Hopeful
Remain His.
They are now located in North Vancouver, Squamish, and Surrey with a desire to see a movement of church planting in smaller BC communities.
Wendy Burton has had a lifetime working in corporate settings and ministry experience in churches, but in recent years her focus turned to her community. Prompted by the Spirit, she began to make herself available at a local coffee chain to meet people, build friendships and enter into a life of community pastoring.
David W. Fisher has been an organizer since his teen years when he ran a neighbourhood racing car fan club, the Eliminators Car Club. He later organized Couriers for Christ, in which young people helped run weekend crusades. He ran a local bookstore and helped start the Kawartha Church Slo-Pitch League. He founded the Epistle Sports Ministries, a charitable organization which over thirty years or so provided chaplaincy services to the Toronto Blue Jays, the Peterborough Petes, and other sports organizations.
From a childhood in Nigeria to his education in Germany to a life in Canada, David Ibhaluobe has had a path filled with signs and wonders of God’s leading. More recently, he has moved to Peterborough with a desire to plant a church among the homeless.
Listen in to his fascinating story.
Bill Reilly and I shadow the team of Street Level Advocacy in Peterborough, Ontario. Scott Couper, Leigh-Ann Davidson, Chris and a growing number of people are spending their days on the streets, in the Overflow tent city, shelters and agencies that work with street affiliated people.
You will meet Joe, the Aboriginal man run over by a snow plow and Will the bicycle recycler. Join us as we find God at work in desperate places.
On this episode I travelled to McCrary Park in Peterborough and sat by Little Lake to meet a new friend. Todd Carlton is host of The Toddcast where he interviews a wide range of people about their journey to faith. His own story bears repeating.
Todd is connected to a movement called ‘Disciple A City’ with an emphasis on equipping believers to share their faith on the streets, in parks and in the context of their everyday lives.
Graham Gibson is the Director of Cultural Engagement Studies at Master’s College and Seminary in Peterborough, Ontario. He and his wife Linda have a life centred in students and mission.
In this interview we talked about seeing Canada as a mission field for the Gospel and the importance of cultural engagement.
Bill Reilly is the video producer for Sidewalk Skyline Podcast. In this episode we are on a road trip to Peterborough, Ontario where we will record several people involved in urban ministry.
As the voice and face of the podcast, I am always aware of the guy standing a few feet away behind the camera. Bill’s experience and ability to tell stories make him a great accomplice with pursuing the story and entertaining the guests.
Our times together often are filled with conversations about Christ and his work in our lives.
Today we turn the camera around and interview Bill Reilly.
Andrea Chang works part-time for the Tyndale Intercultural Ministries Centre (TIM Centre) as an Assistant Leadership Consultant where her role includes research, grant writing and an intercultural development facilitator. Andrea also works for Anchor and Serenity where she is a Spiritual Director and consultant.
She has assisted churches and organizations in navigating the grant writing for their respective projects. Considering the value of resources in Community work, her experience and expertise is incredibly valuable.
Link:
https://www.tyndale.ca/tim
Brian Yu has been with the Tyndale Intercultural Ministries Centre for more than five years, where he serves as a Qualified Administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI®). He coaches and facilitates intercultural learning for individuals, teams, and organizations.
Brian has been serving as a pastor for over 14 years and is currently one of the lead pastors of The Change Community Church in Scarborough.
He's also the Executive Director of Flow Ministries, a faith-based charitable organization serving a subsidized community housing neighbourhood in York Region.
Heskias Mandefro has been serving in pastoral ministry for over 17 years at the Ethiopian Evangelical Church in Toronto. As the English pastor in an Amharic language church, he finds himself functioning as a cultural translator between generations.
Heskias strives to lead with ideas that are well thought through biblically, and culturally. He is passionate to engage ethnic churches in reaching their city.
Ejay and Cheryl live above a coffee shop on Queen Street in Toronto. As parents of a toddler, they exemplify urban disciples of Jesus living on mission in their neighbourhood.
In this session from the Our City Toronto conference (2022) they share life lessons and guiding principles on the power of collaborative relationship. They depend on each other and rely on other community members in accomplishing good work for their city and neighbourhood.
Bill Ryan started his ministry in Toronto after graduating from Ontario Bible College in 1982. This led to his work at Yonge Street Mission where he served for over 25 years in numerous roles first serving as Program Co-ordinator at Evergreen, Pastor of Church on the Street, Director of the Christian Community Centre, Director of Staff care and Interim Program Officer. He later served as Director of Men’s Ministry with Scott Mission until 2021. He is a seasoned Urban Ministry practitioner for the past 30 years and teaches from his vast experience in ministry. He is a spiritual director and passionate Social Justice advocate. Bill's ministry life has been grounded by being a husband to Lillian and father to Jordan and Caitlin.
Erinn Oxford was born and raised in Toronto, a city that she loves. She has been working in Parkdale, a neighbourhood in the city’s west end since 2007. In 2012 she was invited into her current role as Executive Director and Pastor. Tasked with re-visioning the work, Erinn sought the feedback of the community and proposed a full reboot, one that would include giving up a building, spilling into the streets, creating a nomadic routine, and becoming The Dale Ministries. She longs for and pursues the building of community in which all people are welcome and those who experience poverty are placed at the core, seeking to nurture relationships where we can understand and learn from one anothers’ histories, experiences and hopes. Erinn is a Christ-follower, caregiver and advocate, mother to Cate, partner to Dion, a musician and lover of the arts, a self-confessed klutz, and an aspiring friend to many.
Pastor Vir Mateo and his daughter Rhema Annett started the Good Measure Foodbank out of their church. Listen to their story as to how they saw a need in their community, responded to serve and found critical partnerships to feed their hungry neighbours in Mississauga. This session was recorded at Our City Toronto Conference 2022.
My guests today are ‘Patmos People’, a term I coined to describe people that remind me of John the Revelator. From their embedded history in a city, they are uniquely poised to hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church in their location.
Just as Jesus expressed his love through John to the Seven Churches of Asia Minor, these Patmos People are living messages of Jesus’ love for Montreal.
Patti Miller is the lead pastor of Evangel Church, a historic Pentecostal church in the heart of downtown Montreal. Their church is presently developing a multi-story building around the corner that will provide main floor retail, upper church and community spaces and housing units available across the socio-economic spectrum.
Cal and Chrissy Krahn are involved in French language training for ministry and are Mission Canada urban workers.
Jenna Smith is the Innovation Youth Director for Christian Direction, an agency that works at the intersection of faith, community and urban development.
This is part 2 of my conversation with John Engels, Kelly Johnson, Jazelle Johnson and David Ritz. We talk about the effects of deconstructing faith and how university campus leaders are engaging in meaningful conversations. Many students are experiencing an awakening of conscience and sorting through what to believe about right and wrong.
It is no secret that public education finds its roots in the Christian faith. Study the roots of any historic university and you will find that clergy and prominent Christian community builders believed that education held the keys to greater wisdom and understanding. Christian faith is built on curiosity and wonder about all of Creation and unveiling its mysteries.
But today if you walk onto the campuses of Canadian universities, you may need to look harder to find a place for Christian faith.
Building on a history of campus chaplaincy, Christian outreach, and discipleship groups we are seeing a resurgence of gospel witness and Christian community emerging as Heaven’s counterculture in the midst of an often-hostile environment.
My continuing conversation with Levi Samson Beardy and Dan Collado as we talk about the gospel at work in First Nations, Metis and Inuit. With 50% of the Canadian indigenous population living in urban centres, there is a greater opportunity to build bridges and engage in reconciliation.
Dan Collado, has been serving the Lord in full-time ministry since 1993. He initially took a step of faith and went to live and pastor in small isolated fly-in Indigenous communities in northern Ontario, and later in Nunavut. After some 15 years of pastoral ministry, while continuing to feel the burden for Indigenous initiatives, Dan accepted the role as Academic Director of Aboriginal Bible Academy (ABA) in 2009. Dan is part of the Mohawk nation and resides in Napanee, ON.
Jim Thunder is Director of Economic Development at Norway House Cree Nation and lives in Winnipeg, MB. He is an adjunct professor of Indigenous Economic Leadership at University of Manitoba.
Levi Samson Beardy is the Oji-Cree pastor of Aboriginal Believers’ Church in Toronto.
With hundreds of beautiful, historic church buildings slated to close across Canada, Trinity Centres Foundation is on a quest to keep the footprints of faith in the urban core. Although congregations may have aged out and unable to create the next chapter for their property, TCF brings together the faith community with a mix of investors, community partners and developers to work on strategies that prevent buildings from being lost the community forever.
In part two of our conversation with Graham Singh, we continue the much needed conversation to help mainline churches and entrepreneurs work together in making our cities better.
In today’s episode we discuss Graham’s journey to Montreal and St. Jax’s as a unique model of urban ministry.
Graham Singh is Founder and Executive Director of the Trinity Centres Foundation, a new Canadian charity established to transform 100 historic city centre church buildings into community hubs. TCF’s team of 50+ advisors from the social innovation, property finance, urbanism and faith sectors are currently developing what may become one of Canada’s most significant social purpose real estate investment offerings.
Over the past 12 years, Graham has led four historic building and community renewal projects in the United Kingdom and Canada, including in his current role as Rector of the Anglican Diocese of Montreal’ recent church plant, St Jax Montreal.
Graham also acts as a consultant in the area of social impact investing, in the private wealth management sector. He is a graduate of the London School of Economics, Cambridge University (Ridley Hall / St Mellitus College), the University of Western Ontario and Asbury Theological Seminary. He is currently enrolled in Oxford University’s Saïd Business School Impact Innovations Programme.
Brian Egert is the director of Mission Canada, and co-hosts the interview.
Paul Sharrow has been my friend for 35 years. Little did we know when we first met where our lives would lead us and where they would intersect.
To summarize his work life from then until now is a rabbit trail of God’s unfolding grace.
We met in Exeter Ontario when he was working for Compassion Canada travelling with music artists and speakers all over North America. Then he moved to Paris Ontario and worked for a short time with Crossroads Communications.
As I left my ministry post in Exeter and moved to Windsor, our friendship remained intact. After some time, Paul and his family joined us in Windsor. At that time, there was a strong leaning to establish missionary efforts in Bulgaria and the hope was that we would be his home church and sending body.
But then, Bulgaria began to fade and an urban vision for Windsor emerged. Paul found work with St. Leonard’s House helping men from prison find housing in the community. Then, Paul helped Antioch Christian Ministries establish an urban church called The Lazarus Commission.
Then came a season of clinical pastoral education leading to hospital chaplaincy in downtown Detroit and then Windsor. A few years were spent as chaplain at Hospice.
So, from hanging out with Christian rock bands to caring for people in crisis, Paul’s life has been filled with pastoral care.
My guest today is Susan Wells with the newly released little book entitled ‘A Place at My Table: Creating Space to Belong.’ Over the years, we have crossed paths and even shared some group meals at restaurants across the country. She and her husband David Wells currently reside in the Greater Toronto Area city Burlington. David is the General Superintendent of the Pentecostal Assemblies Of Canada.
In her book Susan says, ‘In some circles a philosophy evolved that the only reason for making a friend outside the church was to convert them. When I was a teen, we were encouraged to share our faith with our friends but not truly be friends with them… This dichotomy can result in Christians never developing a genuine camaraderie with people who don’t hold the same beliefs. They end up praying for souls without befriending the people that embody the souls.’
Susan is a woman of depth and insight. We cover a lot of ground here on the path to the table.
Montreal is the gateway to Quebec for much of English speaking Canada. One of its citizens Gary Connors talks with Kevin Rogers about ways that God is at work in Montreal, the cities of Quebec and Francophone Canada.
Gary Connors is the coordinator for Quebec and Francophone Canada, a missional priority of Mission Canada and FIT4M (French Intensive Training for Ministry), a national initiative.
Gary has pastored in Quebec for numerous years and has served as Assistant to the Superintendent of the Eastern Ontario and Quebec District and the District Superintendent for the District of Quebec.
Gary and his wife Gwen live in Hudson Quebec.
Kevin Wiebe is a pastor that grew up below the poverty line, with his mother hunting for change in the couch to buy food for the baby. Pastor Kevin now pastors a low resource church of mostly immigrants—a congregation that transcends definitions of the helper and the helped and that doesn’t fit neatly into any stereotype of poverty.
A few years ago he developed Pov.ology, a small-group curriculum on poverty and the church.
Most recently he has authored a new book entitled ‘Faithful In Small Things: How to serve the needy when you’re one of them.’
The book shows readers that writing big cheques isn’t the only—or even the best—way to alleviate poverty. It’s small acts of love that change the world, and a vital aspect of following Jesus.
Jesus ministered to the poor, even though Jesus was poor. If both are true of our Saviour, both can be true of us too.
The population of street-affiliated people in Peterborough, Ontario has sky-rocketed. Many are homeless, unemployed and without hope. As a Mission Canada worker, Scott has responded to God’s call to go. With 30 years of pastoral ministry in PAOC churches, Scott has stepped into a new season and calling as a “Street Level Advocate” in Peterborough’s city core, where a population of over 80,000 reports more than 300 homeless individuals (Peterborough Social Services, July 2021). Unemployment, food insecurity and inadequate housing are all serious issues which are often compounded by mental health challenges, addictive behaviours, loneliness, and lack of purpose in life.
Scott is intentionally present among individuals who need to see God’s love demonstrated toward them. He knows that it is through kindness expressed in non-judgmental ways, that hope can be realized (Romans 2:4) and the love of Christ experienced. Utilizing his many connections with church leaders, social services and local police, Scott builds relationships and connects individuals to helpful services and resources. His deepest desire, however, is to be a human bridge, seeing people restored to right relationship with a Heavenly Father who loves them and has a good plan for their lives.
Part 2 of my conversation with Timothy Meisenheimer from Ottawa. In this episode we discuss some of the challenges for the poor brought on by pandemic restrictions.
Also, the spiritual formation that can take place when people experience grief and loss.
Timothy Meisenheimer is a lover of Jesus in each person he meets on the street. For more than twenty-two years God’s grace and mercy has given him wisdom as an Urban Missionary.
As the founding director of Capital City Mission in Ottawa and more recently as the Senior Manager of Chaplaincy Services at Ottawa Mission, Tim is a heart with ears walking in the path of Jesus.
In this interview segment we talk about some of the heart-wrenching realities in the lives of street affiliated people.
Cathy Tollefson is the executive director of Global Family Canada, an organization with chapters in eight countries. Today we are again looking at human trafficking in Canada with a goal of educating and inspiring our listeners to get involved in strategies that make a difference.
When we think about the hidden magnitude of human trafficking, it can be overwhelming. But if we start to look at the ones being freed from slavery, we have a better story to tell.
I’ve entitled this episode ‘Finding The Lost Daughter’ because that is at the heart of the gospel, finding lost sons and daughters and bringing them home.
Kevin Rogers sits down with his longtime friend, 2fish band mate and co-pastor Kevin Saunders. On October 1st their 2 urban congregations in Windsor Ontario merged together to become more effective through multiple locations of ministry.
Hear their collective experiences and gained wisdom from being in urban ministry for the long haul.
Toque Evans?
Two Kevins’.
Cory Kostyra is the pastor of Bradford Community Church and is making great inroads into his small city. Bradford is a bedroom community north of Toronto that is described as the primary country urban area of Bradford, West Gwillimbury, Ontario. This small city overlooks a farming community known as The Holland Marsh, located on the Holland River that flows into Lake Simcoe.
We have never featured a country urban area on the podcast, but apparently that is a thing.
In his other occupation he is part of the Ontario Provincial Police Traffic Support Unit that cleans up after highway accidents. Both highways 400 and 404 are major, multi-lane arteries flowing in and out of the Greater Toronto Area and often dealing with injuries and fatalities along their routes.
Unfortunately, Cory suffers from PTSD and has a story that will help us understand what many in police, EMS and healthcare are facing. So, we want to talk about that, but we also want to hear about some of the open doors in community since Cory entered pastoral ministry.
My guest today has something to say about praying for leadership. I’m talking to Tim Schindel from Victoria, British Columbia. I met Tim several years ago as his vision for chaplaincy was in its early stages. The last time we were together in 2018, we had lunch and a tour of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia along with Jason Goertzen, the chaplain there.
Seeing the need and an opportunity to serve, Tim founded Leading Influence in 2006 to fulfill the vision of providing excellence in pastoral care to politicians across Canada. Under his leadership, Leading Influence has grown to a national ministry with a chaplain team that reaches from Victoria, BC to Quebec City. Tim serves as the National Director for Leading Influence and serves as the Ottawa chaplain
Earlier this summer I hosted a webinar with Steve Pike entitled ‘The Great Reset of Mission in the City’. Canadian urban leaders attended as we talked about 21st century realities of making disciples in our urban context.
Steve Pike has been at the forefront of church planting for thirty years. He served as founding director of Church Multiplication Network (CMN) for the Assemblies of God (USA) denomination.
Seeing a need for more church plants in cities, he founded Urban Islands Project, which exists to “increase the presence of the Church in the Urban O.”
He’s released a book entitled ‘Next Wave: Discovering the 21st Century Church’.
This is part 2 of my interview with Kelly Tallon Franklin.
As a young Torontonian living in an upscale neighbourhood, Kelly lived with the secrecy of sexual abuse. Fuelled by her insecurities she took to the street with a vengeance. Her associations would eventually lead to her being trafficked.
Today Kelly leads 'Courage For Freedom', an organization committed to ending trafficking in Canada and helping its victims find a new life of healing and recovery.
As a young Torontonian living in an upscale neighbourhood, Kelly lived with the secrecy of sexual abuse. Fueled by her insecurities she took to the street with a vengeance. Her associations would eventually lead to her being trafficked.
Today Kelly Franklin leads Courage For Freedom, an organization committed to ending trafficking in Canada and helping its victims find a new life of healing and recovery.
Robert D. Lupton wrote a book entitled ‘Toxic Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help’. In the book he has this intriguing quote:
“Giving to those in need what they could be gaining from their own initiative may well be the kindest way to destroy people. We mean well, our motives are good, but we have neglected to conduct care-full due diligence to determine emotional, economic, and cultural outcomes on the receiving end of our charity. Why do we miss this crucial aspect in evaluating our charitable work? Because, as compassionate people, we have been evaluating our charity by the rewards we receive through service, rather than the benefits received by the served. We have failed to adequately calculate the effects of our service on the lives of those reduced to objects of our pity and patronage.”
So, what do you think? How do we move from creating dependency on services to supporting initiative in the people you are helping? And how do we promote the vision of the organization in ways that dignify the people that we are committed to serve?
Today we are going to meet the transformers. No, not Optimus Prime and company, but men and women that are just as heroic in their own real -world context.
Kevin Coghill is a pastor and staff member at Royal City Mission in downtown Guelph.
When I was a youth pastor in Exeter, I would bring some of my youth and our musicians to help at Ark Aid Street Mission in downtown London. That was a place that had a great influence on my later decision to move to Windsor and start New Song Church. Ark Aid Mission outgrow the little storefront and moved into larger quarters in later years. One of its directors was the recently retired Doug Whitelaw and the one replacing him was Sarah Campbell.
After I moved to Windsor to begin New Song Church, I became acquainted with Mike Morency. He would leave his youth pastorate in Kitchener and move back to his hometown of Windsor and join as part of the pastoral team in our first few years as a new church.
Eventually he would return to University of Windsor and get his degree in social work. After working in the field, he returned to a faith-based organization named Matthew House, a residence that assists refugee claimants as they integrate into Canadian society. Mike then led them from a three-bedroom bungalow to a complex that can house many more.
Our very first podcast in season 1 was with Rodger Fordham, director of Feeding Windsor. What started with a handful of people at a downtown Presbyterian church then migrated over to New Song Church where I pastor, once the starting church closed for good. Together we have witnessed the growth of Feeding Windsor.
In the second part of the Sidewalk Pastors interview, we talk about the stereotypes around poverty and the spiritual formation that is grossly neglected in the field of social work. We will hear more amazing stories about real life people and their courageous struggles.
Our guests are great examples of Street Ministry Workers (letter “S” in our QUEST acronym).
If you have not listened, to part 1 please go back and listen to that first to get a proper introduction to our guests Bob Gal, Anna Morgante and Ejay Tupe.
Links:
Mission Canada
https://paoc.org/canada
Bob Gal
https://paoc.org/canada/workers/bobgal
Anna Morgante
https://paoc.org/canada/workers/annamorgante
Ejay Tupe
https://paoc.org/canada/workers/ejaytupe
In the acronym QUEST describing models of engagement for Canadian urban ministry, the letter ‘S’ stands for Street Ministry Workers. Often, the role is pastoral in nature so we have sidewalk pastors.
You will enjoy my conversation with Bob Gal (Edmonton,Alberta), Anna Morgante (Winnipeg, Manitoba) and Ejay Tupe (Toronto, Ontario).
What happens if you intentionally hang around with people on the streets looking for ways to befriend, show hospitality and nurture their spiritual formation? Instead of a formal office with a sign on the door, the office is a backpack, a vehicle or a cell phone.
Street ministry workers find themselves visiting in jails, shelters and hospital wards. They go where they see an opportunity to be the sidewalk pastor of the unchurched. And miracles happen there.
Today we are featuring the letter ‘E’ which stands for Energizers. What does it look like to be people that bring God’s energy to bear on the culture and sub-cultures they belong to? Energizers bring Spirit to culture.
So let’s meet our guests. And we’ve included friends from south of the border in our Canadian conversation. Glenn Kaiser, Danny Brooks, Connie Jakab and Ryan Stockert.
Steve Pike has been at the forefront of church planting for thirty years. He served as founding director of Church Multiplication Network (CMN) for the Assemblies of God (USA) denomination.
Seeing a need for more church plants in cities, he founded Urban Islands Project, which exists to “increase the presence of the Church in the Urban O.” We’ll ask Steve to tell us about the Urban O.
He’s released a book entitled ‘Next Wave: Discovering the 21st Century Church’.
I’ve invited a couple friends into the conversation with Steve Pike.
Brian Egert is the director of Mission Canada, a Spirit-led agency of workers that reach into the gaps of Canadian culture where the church needs to go.
Paul Fraser is the director of the Multiply Network for the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, with a focus on encouraging a movement of church planters in Canada.
This is part 2 of our QUEST Conversation ‘Urban Churches in Canada’. Guests are Simon Gau (Vancouver), Debbie Kunst (Edmonton), Bruce Martin (Winnipeg), Olu Jegede (Toronto), Kyvenz Amadee (Montreal) and Chad Nickerson (St. John NB). See part 1 of conversation for links to our guests.
Today is brought to you by the letter ‘U’ and that stands for Urban Church.
So what do we mean by the term ‘urban church’? Our working definition of urban includes High Density (population), High Diversity and High Disparity.
Each of our guests today are pastors in urban churches from coast to coast.
Each urban centre is so different from the other, but we are finding lots of common ground in what it means to be an urban congregation.
Part 2 of my conversation with Karen Reed (Parker House - Vancouver), Bob Cameron & special guest Hughie Carpenter (Downtown Windsor Community Collaborative) and Paula Castrucci (Move In Toronto).
Join us as we explore themes related to intentional Christian community in the urban core.
(Listen to part 1 for a full introduction of our guests and to find links to their respective ministries.
There are pockets of Christians across Canada cities that view life in the neighbourhood as a sacred calling.
On today’s episode, you are going to meet three people I respect and admire for their commitment to live intentionally within their postal code.
Karen Reed lives in Parker House, a beautiful house in the Commercial Drive district of East Vancouver.
Bob Cameron lives on my street in Windsor, Ontario and is the founder and visionary of the Downtown Windsor Community Collaborative.
And returning podcast guest Paula Castrucci shares from her time of intentional community with Move In Toronto.
Aaron Mix Ross is the new pastor at Richmond Pentecostal Church in British Columbia. Prior to that he served on staff at Heartland Church in Mississauga and before that he was part of the pastoral team at Toronto’s Stone Church.
Aaron is an urban pastor with great insights into city life.
During his years at Stone Church he completed his PhD in theology at the University of Toronto's Wycliffe College. The title of his thesis was "The Heavens Have Become a Highway" The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada Northland Mission and the Indigenous Principle.
With one half living in major urban centres and two-thirds of the Metis living in cities, it’s a worthy exploration for every Canadian.
James Craig is the archivist for Pentecostal Assemblies Of Canada. He runs a state of the art archive with documents and artifacts related to the history of the Pentecostal movement in Canada. We will learn some intriguing details about data storage and the value of looking back.
Part of this interview explores the early Pentecostal history of ministry engagement in urban centres.
Jim is also the executive director of The Lifestream Initiative.
The Lifestream Initiative exists to discover, disseminate and facilitate new opportunities for churches to love their neighbours. Current areas of focus include the mental health needs of First Responders and their families, mental health education for faith leaders, and assisting churches to become more engaged in their communities. With a primary emphasis on Mississauga, Ontario, Canada's sixth largest city, the initiative serves to bring Christian leaders together and make new connections between and among those engaged in a variety of ministries.
Paula Castrucci has lots to say about living as a single person involved in urban ministry. This session was recorded at the Our City Toronto 2019 conference.
Combining her two passions of working with youth and with the homeless, she has found a way to blend these in her work for Youth Unlimited Toronto. Part of this work is with Light Patrol, an initiative helping homeless youth.
Churches can become strategic community centres in the fight against poverty. From the book of Acts and the history of ancient Israel, God’s people have shared a responsibility to love their neighbour in practical ways.
As CEO of ‘Christians Against Poverty Canada’ Mark Griffin shares some great insights from a life of ministry in various parts of Canada and the world. We talk about the particular challenges of urban poverty and hopeful ways that we can be part of seeing change come to our communities.
An inside look at the theme music of Sidewalk Skyline Podcast featuring the band 2fish.
Dr. Michael Krause has a broad range of ministerial experience in an urban context in churches, social service agencies and educational institutions. He was the director of Evergreen, Yonge Street Mission’s outreach to street-involved youth, supervising 20 staff overseeing a thriving menu of programs including health care, housing support, employment training, drop-in and meal programs, and a broad range of advocacy support.
He was the youth pastor at Flemingdon Park Church, the assistant pastor at the Stone Church in downtown Toronto and the senior pastor at Church on the Street, an experimental church reaching out to street youth in the urban core. He has been active as a church planter in other contexts, pioneering Hills Church, an innovative, house church network based in Thornhill.
Before joining the faculty of Tyndale in 2014, he functioned as the Staff Care director at Yonge Street Mission where he provided leadership development, ministry coaching and counselling to staff members working with the urban poor. He has been teaching courses with the TIM Centre Diploma program since its inception in 2010. He also has a private practice as a leadership coach and church consultant. Michael is ordained with the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. (description from Tyndale faculty page)
In this session from the Our City Conference (2019) in Toronto, he shares principles of longevity. How do you prepare and maintain a ministry life for the long haul?
In this episode we look at the need in culture for tables of conversation where we can listen intelligently to two sides of an issue. The urban Christian can be a lightning rod that is able to disperse potentially destructive power and ground it in peacemaking.
In this two part series, Kevin Rogers interviews Chris Chase.
Part one discusses his early years as a kid in Montreal and his journey to adulthood. We joked about how there are six degrees of separation from David Wells, the General Superintendent of the Pentecostal Assemblies Of Canada; but, it’s just as likely that there are six degree of separation from Chris Chase.
Much of his adult life has revolved around the Greater Toronto Area as a student, pastor, Bible College faculty and family man.
Part two will take us into a deeper discussion on race, theology and urban ministry but this episode tells us his story thus far. When we recorded earlier this year he was between things and has since landed as the lead pastor of The Meeting House in Newmarket.
Catch more of Chris Chase on his YouTube series ‘The House Of Common Show’.
Adam White grew up in small town Ontario and at the age of 12 hitchhiked his way to downtown London where he lived on the streets for the next two weeks. His worried parents contacted the police and an Amber Alert was sent out listing him as a missing child.
Today he works as an inner city youth pastor and a chaplain at the Salvation Army Centre Of Hope in Windsor, Ontario. He is part a new generation of emerging urban leaders that understand the importance of the bridge between the church and the streets.
This is the story of a troubled small town kid finding Jesus and helping people with troubled stories of their own.
In this interview, Kevin Rogers talks to Rielly McLaren about his work as a federal chaplain working with men coming out of prison. Highlights include the Women of Offenders Support Group and his therapeutic work with sex offenders.
Debbie Kunst pastors an inspiring church in downtown Edmonton. Father’s House is a great example of how urban churches can be missional and parish-focused with a strong sense of being Spirit led. There is a great need for spiritual mothers and fathers in the urban core. For some the ‘family’ gathering will be the greatest sense of ‘home’ that they will experience on a daily basis.
David Burke is a Mission Canada campus worker to Ryerson University, situated in the core of downtown Toronto. Ryerson is home to over 43,000 students, the majority of whom do not know Christ as their Saviour. David, along with his wife, Krysten, launched a ministry on campus called "LifeLine" to help fill this spiritual need. LifeLine exists to be a vibrant faith community that is actively introducing people to Jesus Christ, and discipling and mentoring those who do know Him.
As the national mission agency of the PAOC, Mission Canada seeks to place uniquely skilled workers into gaps in our nation where the gospel message must be taken. It also exists to network leaders across the nation who are passionate about reaching various people groups. Mission Canada prioritizes five challenges for mission, and has Guiding Groups that strategize together, resourcing one another and our local churches. As the Mission Canada Director, Brian is responsible for working with our districts and churches to identify and release workers who will go to the missional gaps in Canada. He is passionate to see individuals released to reach their God-sized dreams, impacting the unreached regions and peoples of the nation.
Kevin Rogers interviews Dr. David Wells, General Superintendent of the Pentecostal Assemblies Of Canada. David gives an overview perspective of things he's seeing take shape in God's Kingdom on Canadian soil.
I first heard of Kevin Makins through my friend Rielly McLaren. He told me about his college friend that was planting a cool church in Hamilton. I next heard of Kevin as a guest on New Leaf Network podcast where he talked about his ‘Holy Shift’ tour, as he and some of his friends cycled to bars to do stand-up comedy, have conversations about Jesus and have one of his friends perform music on a bicycle. I was not surprised when we first met at Eucharist Church and he showed up on a one-wheel motorized skateboard.
So when the opportunity to read his book and interview him for my podcast came up, I knew that this would be time well spent. So, let me share my thoughts on Kevin and his book ‘Why Would Anyone Go To Church?’
First of all, there was no stalling out as I read through 150,000 words. You know how you can get bogged down finishing a read? You keep reading because you hope that something profound or insightful is coming and when it does not, you stick a marker in the page and say, “I’ll come back to it.” This was one of the gems that I could not put down. I did not find my mind wandering to other things or set it aside for a nap.
Secondly, Kevin is a brilliant communicator with a mix of bratty wit and humble confession of his weakness and mistakes. Now, stir in some deeply profound theological reflection and you have a book that gives great insight into a millennial leader that believes in Jesus and the Church he is building.
My third observation is that Kevin is as sincere as he is experimental in hacking liturgy to find relevance and meaning for the urban neighbours he cares deeply for. Anything edgy that Kevin does is deeply rooted in a theological sweet spot. Ten years ago he planted Eucharist Church in downtown Hamilton and the book chronicles how a 23-year-old wrestled through the dynamic tensions of his Lutheran (Missouri Synod) childhood, youth group conversion and choice to become church in one of Hamilton’s toughest neighbourhoods.
Possibly I was riveted to his story because of my own youthful church planting experience and the reckless sincerity that took me there in the first place.
Finally, the book asks a really great question and draws the reader into the possibility that being part of Jesus’ church may be exactly what our world is missing.
"Book has been provided courtesy of Graf-Martin Communications and Baker Books in exchange for an honest review. Available through major book sources."
I was involved in a local conversation shortly after the death of George Floyd under the knee of officer Derek Chauvin. Christopher Cobbler and I gathered a mixed-race panel of pastors from Windsor and Detroit to talk about the black-white divide.
Because Windsor is a border city to Detroit, we likely have an enhanced perspective on America’s history of oppression against black slaves. Border cities are also part of the Underground Railroad where American slaves escaped. Harriet Tubman called Canada ‘The Promised Land’ and at that time, it was an escape from slavery’s tyranny.
That does not mean that Canada has not had its own struggles with racial tension; that is an unfortunate part of human nature that surfaces in every nation and every generation.
This is part two of that conversation with Chris Cobbler, Nelly Latchman, Kellen Brooks, Josh Bowers and myself. If you have not yet heard part one, why don’t you go back and download that first.
It's very likely that we have all discriminated and pre-judged others based on ethnicity, social standing, lifestyle or religion. To have a true understanding of the mission of God, we need to understand God’s love for all people of the world. If we are to be about the mission of God, we must also be cleansed of our prejudice. On today’s episode we are going to start a conversation with a party of five. Joining me today is Chris Cobbler, Nelly Latchman, Kellen Brooks and Joshua Bowers. We are all involved in ministry in the border cities of Windsor and Detroit. This was our small way to talk about race relations and the difference that we are called to make.
Mark Goring is the pastor of Church In Regent Park, a Toronto neighbourhood once known as Cabbagetown. For decades it was a pocket of poverty, addiction and violence. For the last couple years, the poor are being displaced and development is erasing what once was there. The church has emerged from Church In The City, another urban church with a rich history of intersection with the poor. Part of Mark’s journey involved ministry in the Malvern neighbourhood where pressure from a gang led to death threats and Mark moving out of the city. But the urban cry never left Mark’s soul and so he re-emerged a few years later to the ministry he now leads.
Today I am talking with Ejay Tupe, an urban missionary in downtown Toronto. I have had many conversations with my friend Ejay and heard about his pimp exit strategies, interaction with gang-affiliated youth and the pastoral care he provides to people in crisis all the time.
Well, as we promised we are bringing you part two of my interview with Dr. Anthony Hutchinson, or Dr. Hutch as some of his students call him.
If this is your first time listening, I would recommend that you go back and listen to part one of this interview or go back two episodes to hear all the content so far in this chapter called Gangland Preachers.
Tony Hutchinson is literally in demand across the nation as a leading expert on gang psychology and intervention. Here’s my conversation with him at the Mission Canada office in Mississauga.
Today we are going to hear part one of an interview with Dr. Anthony Hutchinson. We’re going to hear about his early formation as a gangbanger in Vancouver. His story is truly remarkable as he journeyed out of those early years into a life of incredible purpose.
Welcome to Episode 8 of Sidewalk Skyline Podcast. Today we are starting a series that I call Gangland Preachers. In this and upcoming episodes we are going to hear from some people that have firsthand experience when it comes to gangs and their effect on the community. Most of our discussions will focus on the Toronto area.
Today’s guest is Olu Jegede who pastors Christian Centre Church in Toronto.
Hey, do you get those Amber Alerts on your smart phone? More than once I’ve been awakened in the night by that disturbing ring tone to report that a minor has been abducted or has gone missing.
I remember in early March of this year getting the alert about a 14-year-old boy that was missing from the Jane and Finch neighbourhood of Toronto. He had been abducted over a $4 million drug debt that his stepbrother had owed from last summer.
Well that young man was a recent example of someone that Christian Centre Church knows and cares about. He was recovered by police and returned home. These kind of stories are very real and personal for people like Pastor Olu Jegede.
In 2007 Jordan Manners was killed by gun violence inside his high school. This was one of the many young men that Olu has mentored over the years.
Like Nehemiah of old, God calls some people into urban centers to build community and faith in places that have lost both. This session was a presentation that Olu gave at Our City Toronto 2019.
Chad Nickerson is pastor of Calvary Temple, a historic urban church caring for its city in creative ways.
After a scan of existing ministries, the acronym QUEST was developed to help distinguish the variety of urban ministry lanes within the PAOC family.
Q - Qualitative Neighbours: The mission is to love my neighbours in Jesus’ name in ways that engender hospitality, community building and home centered spiritual practices more than church-centered organizational practices. Finding what God is doing among the neighbours and joining to that.
Examples: Parker House, Parish Collective, Move-In, Downtown Windsor Community Collaborative.
U - Urban Church: Geographically located in city urban core. Congregation reflect sensitivity to the culture and values of the neighbourhood they find themselves in.A mix of parish and destination or drive-in attenders, with ministries that are narrow to their neighbourhood needs.
Examples: Church in the City, Danforth Community, City Centre Church (Jane/Finch), Calvary Temple - Winnipeg, Father’s House (Edmonton).
E- Energizers: Gospel Influencers who bring light and energy to subcultures
Arts, politics, business community, education, etc.
Examples: Light in Film workers (Ryan Stockert and Jamie Rauch), Leading Influence Ministries (Tim Schindel), Jim Craig (Mississauga), Connie Jakab (Calgary).
S – Street-Level Workers: Mix of community chaplaincy and pastoral care to street population. Often their office is their backpack or their car, they are in tune to the communities.
Examples: Ejay Tupe (Toronto), Bob Gal (Edmonton), John Marc Nicolas (Pasteur de Rue-Montreal).
T – Transformers: Bringing hospitality and resource to at-risk populations. Street missions, after school programs, housing initiatives, etc.
Examples: Father’s House (Debbie Kunst), Feeding Windsor, Metro Kids Society (Mike Brownlee).
Cheryl Walsh works for Bible League Canada where part of her job is to study and share trends happening across the land. This is not just textbook and data details, but also her own experience as an urban missionary with her husband Ejay Tupe and daughter Jemma. Cheryl spoke at the Our City Toronto conference in September 2019. We were there and recorded audio of her session.
Hey, how many times have you seen a street preacher downtown in a major city? God bless them for their courage, but sometimes you wonder if they are helping or hindering the proclamation of the gospel. There are some that a wonderful job of capturing interest and leading people to encounter Jesus in a beautiful way. Bob Gal is an old friend from Edmonton who gives street ministry legitimacy. There should be a reality TV show called Brother Bob. I guarantee you wouldn’t take your eyes away as you followed him around on his adventures.
Lynn & Mike Brownlee (Metro Kids - Surrey BC)
Here is an interview with Mike Brownlee, who is now 26 years deep in working with Metro Kids in Surrey, BC.
I have great respect for Mike and Lynn for their endurance. People like these often have a deep sense of what the Spirit is saying to the church in their community.
Mike is part of the Mission Canada urban guiding group that I belong to. This interview was held at our first-time meeting together. We recorded in the archives at Pentecostal Assemblies Of Canada back in March 2019. I hope to see him again this year and get an update on what’s happening in Surrey.
www.metrokids.ca
Lynn Brownlee’s book ‘Every Child Deserves To Know’
https://wordcom.paoc.org/products/books/missions-outreach/every-child-deserves-to-know-by-lynn-brownlee
Darryl Dash is a church planter in a Toronto neighbourhood made up of high rise condos. How do you crack the code of community in a neighbourhood that is so private and transient?