I get excited knowing that church planting is one of the milestones of our Vision 2025 as a denomination. (Milestone 4: share the gospel, live it missionally, and plant new churches in our neighborhoods as we discover how to connect with our local and global ministry contexts.”) It is wonderful to know that as we work together we can multiply and help grow Heaven.

But as we plan for church multiplication and the spread of the gospel, are we aware of our expectations for how new churches may look? Do we want them to look like clones of our established congregations, or like a new expression of the faith we hold dear?

When I think about my grandchildren, I think about my hopes for church planting in my region...

Read these inspiring stories about church plants in Eastern Canada. 

Village Church: A church that inspired a movement

When Michael Collins started the Village Church in Thorold, Ontario in 2007, the vision to multiply was already being permanently programmed into their DNA.

“I never saw us as one church but as a movement of multiplying churches… even when there were just 12 of us in a living-room, we talked about multiplying.” Right from the beginning they set aside funds – initially as low as a $100 a month - to grow a fund to plant the next church… a fund that constantly reminded the members, “We are going to plant another church.”

Living Hope Community Church: An online church that started during the pandemic

What started as an online Bible study from several different countries grew over the course of the pandemic and it became clear to Mark that a dream he had for church planting had already taken place. It just happened to be that his church was online.