Launch 2010 Humber Embassy

September 20th was the Fall Launch of The Embassy at Humber College http://www.embassyhumber.com/. Trevor and the leadership teams' hard work paid off with a great gathering of students for worship and teaching.

Trevor was straightforward and humorous. Referring to The Embassy's strategy of giving away thousands of bags of popcorn, he talked to the group about being people of generosity. Generosity is far more than a growth strategy. It actually reflects the nature of the One they follow.

He mentioned that there were many people who had difficulty getting their minds around the notion of something being given for free. They simply didn't know how to receive a free gift. One of the reasons was due to the modern belief that 'there must be a catch'. For good reason ( Trevor gave some funny personal examples ) there is a general air of suspicion that nobody could be giving things away without an agenda.

 Another key point, Trevor raised was the old adage..."Actions speak louder than words…". He gave numerous examples of how people will give more substance to nonverbal or paraverbal communcation than they will to the actual words.

It was good food for thought. Once he finished, the group broke up for discussion in smaller groups with refreshments.

It was a good evening....

University Chaplaincy Dr. Ken

I just met with Dr Ken Stupak who is the longest standing chaplain at the UofM and a veritable fixture in the organizational life of the University. Ken runs what I describe as a ‘responsive’ chaplaincy , where he makes himself available to the need and timetables of his students. This means that his days are often unpredictable because he is never sure what is going to come up.

When I asked him what energizes him in what he does, he immediately answered “The students”. He has build long term relationships with many of them. Many of the students have since been dispersed around the world where no doubt they are sharing some of the fruit of Ken’s work in their lives.

Ken was happy that their first Chewy Chewsday,(a monthly event run by the combined chaplaincies where students can come, make a club sandwich and connect), was a tremendous success. It was overflowing. Ken has tremendous repoire with his fellow chaplains.

From my perspective, having been a pastor, chaplain and the founder of campus club groups, I can see how each of these models of ministry can complement each other. Ken, as a chaplain, falls under the Student Services - which is part of the U adminstration. While they do not pay his salary and dictate his work, they do make room for him at the Table to be a voice and to represent the faith perspective in the student services programming.  He gave me several examples of how this has worked in the past. He is able to influence the institution as a whole.

Tammy, in starting up a campus group has another level of ministry. As a student herself, she relates to UMSU which is the student union and connects to students at more of a peer level. This too has wonderful strengths. Having balanced chaplaincy and campus group hats at the same time on my large head, I can see with some clarity how each type of ministry can augment the other.

In fact, it works that way with Seth Greenham at Simon Fraser University and with Matt Glombick at the U of Alberta, to name a couple. I am excited to see the possibilities of what can happen at the U of Manitoba. The way we work at Campus Mission Canada is in the realm of Complementarity rather than Competitiveness. It is just so, well, biblical....

Starting Segue.... The University of Manitoba

I am out in Winnipeg right now, meeting with Mission Canada's own Tammy Junghans who is launching a new student group at the U of Manitoba called Segue. It really plays to Tammy’s strengths. I may have said elsewhere that if we were to use a movie plot as an indicator, Tammy would be the ‘cool aunt’ in the life of the young adult. She has experience, wisdom and sensitivity. She has a huge heart for young people. In fact, she just loves people.



It is exciting for her to be on campus this year as a student. She loves taking in that part of the campus experience and networking with people of all kinds of backgrounds – not as a religious professional but as a student. So Segue has that feel about it. It is not about events or programming. It is all about networking, relationships and a desire to act in ways that are helpful and relevant to the university community. She is developing a relationship with Tom’s Shoes in order to help provide shoes for the countless people in other lands who do not have the opportunity to own any.


I had the privilege of hanging out with some of the students she was meeting with during the noon hour. You will see Tammy ( in the sunglasses ) along with Melissa and Vanessa. Others came and went during our time in the warm September sun. It was a killer day. The weather later changed for the (much) worse.

U of M has enormous potential. Tammy has worked very hard at building bridges with other Christian leaders on campus, some of whom have been extraordinarily helpful and encouraging. She has a sincere desire to complement what others are doing and to bring the love of Christ into the UofM in ways that flow out of her passions and personality. It has been a privilege to be part of the process of seeing her  released to do it....

The Embassy at The Turret WLU 2010

Out for the September launch of The Embassy. Again overwhelming…. Special thanks to Joe and to Katie, Ev and Hannah for remembering Dave to me.…..



This year The Embassy is meeting at Wilfrid Laurier University, across the street from the University of Waterloo. They are meeting in the totally renovated Turret Nightclub on the fourth floor of the Student Centre. What a great venue.

After typically dynamic Embassy worship, the Embassy pastor,Joe Wahba, opened his series on the book of Acts where he began by talking about the truth of the Resurrection. Joe waded right into the heart of the matter, isolating key issues. If the ‘resurrection’ seems strange, it tells us as much about ourselves as it does about resurrection.

Joe Wahba

The core issue was not if it seems true ( worldview) but whether or not it actually is true. Did it happen? Borrowing heavily from one of CMC’s 'patron saints', N.T. Wright he challenged students to change the way they approached the entire issue. It was intelligent and engaging... Good stuff... Solid.


Afterwards, there was Pizza along with opportunities to sign up for Red Frogs or involvement in small groups etc. The turret had all sorts of cool side rooms that were perfect for hospitality. It was a great start to what looks like a great year.

Lift Launch 2010

On Sunday evening, Sept `12th I enjoyed the privilege of taking in the September launch service of Lift Church, at McMaster University, Hamilton ON. Living nearby,I have the opportunity to serve in an adjunct capacity on their leadership team this year and we are looking forward to what this coming year is going to bring. Check out   http://www.liftchurch.ca/ 


With founding pastor Dave Slater moving up the road to Parkview Church in Guelph, Lift has been working through a pastoral search process throughout the summer. Since the successful candidate has not yet been announced, I cannot quite go public on him yet, but there is a great deal of anticipation in the ranks regarding the announcement.

What the shift in leadership has caused is the student leadership has stepped up its involvement a notch or two. This is nowhere more apparent than in the leadership involvement of Robin Wallar, who is now a graduate student in the faculty of Engineering Physics and a shining product of the first four years of ministry of Lift.

At their first service, they had a fine worship set led by my young friend, John Balt, and a mingling time where they could grab refreshments. Seeing as it is set in the Student Pub, it is a great venue for mixing and mingling with food. Dozens of first year students signed up for ‘Simple Church’, which is the small group dimension of Lift. Each group has a specific focus. It could be organized around the study of a book or fellowship or whatever, but they each have a different flavor and emphasis.

Then the teaching began. Robin taught on ‘What are we here for..” Great stuff. He spoke to the students right at their level. Total relevance. He was brilliant by just being himself. I think that the students hung on pretty well every word he said because he lived in the same world they did.

Then Lift did what they do so well…. Hospitality. It was time for hotdogs, chips and drinks. People hung around and feasted. Lift happened. It is going to be an exciting year.

If you read my Lift Blog at the same time last year, you would understand why this evening was a bit hard for me. Some of my sweetest memories are from a year ago , seeing my son Dave’s big body abandoned in worship. Jon Balt told me that for him, as a worship leader, seeing Dave engage in worship was the equivalent of ‘about thirty people’. If you knew him, you would know what we mean.

Dave loved the fellowship and worship at Lift. It was important to him. It is certainly important to me.....

It's Raining Red Frogs

OK, we are back in the thick of it. For anyone who has anything to do with the school calendar, September is the real new year. This is no more true than for campus ministry.

Let me bring you up to speed..... I have a bit of ground to cover!

I have had several meetings with Roy Olende, the Canadian director of the Australian campus phenomena Red Frogs. http://www.redfrogs.com.au/universities/canada  Just over a year ago, Roy ( a site pastor of Central Church, St. Catharines, hailing from Kenya via South Africa) launched Red Frogs at Brock University and has a fistful of amazing stories to tell. They have not only built an incredible rapport with the university, but they have become quite literally, the "Life of the Party".

It would take too long to tell its history and all of that right here.

Roy Olende

Here are some notes I scribbled about what I heard at the first meeting…

I am not going to make an effort to make them coherent. Roy speaks with a blast of contagious enthusiasm. I was just trying to capture a few of the highlights of how he made it work at Brock. It's like using a teacup to capture a firehose. If you want more and better information, email him directly at royolende@centralcommunitychurch.ca . I hope this serves as a bit of a primer.

It opens doors because:

• It is servant hearted.

• It is respectful.

• It is bridge building

• It’s FUN

Red Frogs.

• Starts through a local church. The ultimate goal is connections.

• It has built up momentum quickly.

• Low key connection with the church but it is solid. ( The association is not announced but it often comes up in conversations )

Began with about 15 people. They run a training session. Looking for relational students.

Have to be able to build bridges with non Christians. Need to know how to connect. Do not bring the sheltered people to be the front line people.

But we do need people who are servant oriented to help out behind the scenes. They enable others to have the conversations.

It needs both kinds of people. The front line servants and those who support them behind the scenes…

Biggest expense is getting the stuff to share with people. They use the Red Frog candy ( it is a popular Australian candy )at the beginning. It is very very popular. Looking provide them here. As it is, Timbits are the deal over here….

Frosh week big push

• Arrive at residences and villages in order to clean dorms.

• Show up with a six pack of Donuts

Random acts of donuts

• Random acts of cleaning
• Random acts of pancakes.

Provide support for events that residences put on. Be helpful...
 
Eg speed dating event at the residence. Can spice up the events. Help people throw it. Stay and talk and build relationships.

• Roy speaks at the Student Union and brings a dozen donuts or two.

• Serving and building relationships. Food, Fun and Free.

They approached the right people. Set up a meeting with Student Services.

They were clear and forthright regarding who they were and what they wanted to do in serving the student community. They have made continual efforts to ensure that communication lines are kept open.

They worked with the Residence Life Director. The RLD was appreciative of the donuts and the services provided by RF to the Residences.

RF shows up at parties and creates Alcohol free zones with refreshments and people to talk to. They are called Hydration Stations.

RF helps other groups put on events….

In June,George Werner and I met with Roy’s lead pastor, Bill Markham to talk about how we can synergize the efforts of Red Frogs and Campus Mission Canada. It has great promise. It matches what we are about and is a dynamic way of putting feet and hands to our vision for “irresistible loving service”. In fact, Red Frogs is “hospitality on steroids”.

At the end of August, I met with Roy, Joe Wahba of The Embassy and the associate director of RF , Brandon, who was in the area as part of a globetrotting tour to tell the RF story and help equip churches to replicate it on their own soil. Roy’s success on Brock is a brilliant example of a Church Based campus ministry and proof that RF is able to work in various countries. Joe is implementing RF this year at The Embassy and is really pumped about the energy and focus that it is bringing to their outreach at the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University. RF is a big part of their outreach this year…

More to come...