President's Blog

Church Planting among Arabic-speaking Canadians

This past Autumn I attended Momentum, Canada’s premier church planting Conference. It was a joy to see over 50 Fellowship church planters attend and gain insight and training for the task. These are exciting days when it comes to church planting in our Fellowship. Our five Regions are currently supporting our churches in the planting of close to 40 church plants. Future projections for future Fellowship church plants is very encouraging.

Our Spring/Summer 2018 edition of Thrive magazine, “Vitality: Sowing Life in Parched Ground”, is all about these church plants and “turn around” churches. You can read these stories online.

Two new Arabic-speaking Church Plants

By 2031, Statistics Canada reports that 30% of the Canadian population will be made up of visible minorities. Statistics Canada also reports that 63% of the population of large metropolitan areas like the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and Vancouver will be made up of visible minorities. To read the whole report, click here.

The 2011 Census found that there are 1.1 million Muslim people living in Canada, with projections to triple in the next 20 years. God is sending the world into our neighbourhoods.

Faith Baptist Church (Oakville, ON) is located in a city that has an Arabic-speaking population of 4,635, or 2.4% of its population according to the 2016 census.

City Centre Baptist Church (Mississauga, ON) is located in a city that has an Arabic-speaking population of 29,900, or 4.1% of its population (2016 census).

Both churches already have congregations made up of people from diverse ethnic groups. This has inspired them to reach out to the growing population of Arabic-speaking immigrants in their cities.

Both City Centre Baptist (Pastor Deric Bartlett) and Faith Baptist (Pastor Les Clemens) want to meet this growing diversity by planting new churches to reach predominantly Muslim people.

Faith Baptist and City Centre Baptist Need Our Support

As a Fellowship family, we have an opportunity to partner with our two sister churches in starting these church plants in the near future.

Between May and August 2018, Fellowship National will be receiving donations for the Establishing New Roots appeal. We are seeking to raise $60,000 ($30,000 for each church plant) to help spread the Gospel to Arabic-speaking peoples in Oakville and Mississauga.

Please consider your part in making these church plants happen. You can learn more here, or prayerfully consider making a gift towards Establishing New Roots.