Humber Lakeshore: A New Embassy!

I journeyed to nearby Humber College at its Lakeshore Campus. Being familiar with Humber in its main GTA campus, I had never been to its other, newer expression. I was impressed to see a place bustling with expansion and growth. Indeed, its attendance is already well over 6,000 and it is positioning for future growth. I met with Josh Hageman, the pastor to young adults at Queensway Church. Josh already runs a successful young adults ministry which he plans to use to  help begin a fresh initiative at Humber Lakeshore.  He has been in talks with Brandon Malo, Joe Wahba and Trevor Gingerich about starting an Embassy at Lakeshore. In taking on the name, it means that he understands and brings a particular approach to campus ministry. There is concern that the name is represented well ( branding integrity). From every indication, Josh will do just that.

Did I mention 'growth'..?

We walked through the campus and looked at potential meeting places where he can begin meetings with public profile and presence. There are options...! Having helped out with the Lifeline campus group onsite, it was clear to Josh that there was the need for a larger, more attractive alternative to the bible study model already present on campus. Again, the issue is not to compete with what is going on but to augment and complement it. There are all kinds of opportunities for expansion and growth. He has certainly paid his 'dues' by being involved on campus in the past.

Views of the potential meeting place in the SU Bldg.

In meeting with a Christian faculty member who is a part of Queensway, she reiterated the need for something that would grip students and which she would feel comfortable in referring people towards. When she refers people, she doesn’t do it in her professional capacity but in a ‘non-work’ , personal capacity. She underscored the felt need for a more dynamic presence on campus. As she was describing the sort of person the campus needed, she was actually describing the guy in front of her..

Aforementioned J. Hageman

Anyway, it looks as if the Embassy Lakeshore will launch in the third week of September. There is a lot of work to do beforehand, but it looks  as though they have the right place and the right positioning on campus to make it a reality. Exciting times….

Laurentian University: Sudbury

If you are reading this from the top, this is the last entry of a productive roadtrip from Calgary. So, as you scroll down the various blogs until you get to the Calgary entry.. you will be reading about the roadtrip in reverse.  This blog is about Sudbury which was my last stop before driving home.....

A Laurentian U history lesson

I had the privilege of meeting with Markus and Alina Rukkila. As it turns out, Markus is a graduate of Regent College ( my alma mater) and a former intern with UTown Church, the daughter of Point Grey Community Church which I planted back in BC. We know a wad of the same people and he is familiar with the campus ministry in BC and the model of church that I embraced back when.  Markus is also a Finnish Canadian who is starting an English speaking congregation in conjunction with Siion Church, the Finnish PAOC church in Sudbury. He also has a passion to start a campus ministry at Laurentian University, only a few kilometers away.

Markus with Thornloe in the background..

Markus is now the Dean of Students at Thorneloe University. Thorneloe is an Anglican institution and a  founding member of the Laurentian University Federation in Sudbury. Markus is a former student of its new provost, Dr. Robert Derrenbacker. He will be living on campus and responsible for the 60 students who are part of its residency.  I cannot even begin to describe the upside of this development.  It is becoming increasingly clear to both Markus and Alina that they are intended to be here, and that God in His mysterious and creative way has preceded them all of the way.

Laurentian U from the Rukkilas' apartment in Thorneloe

Markus and I did an extended walk through the campus.

It is yet another campus that is undergoing extensive construction and renovation. It is clear that government and industry is pouring huge bucks into the infrastructure of developing leadership for the future. How about the Church??? 

Anyway, we discussed the various possibilities for campus ministry. I recommended to Markus that he spend time in the prayer and research stage. They go together. If he can enlist people to come onsite and pray, all the better.  There is no substitute for prayer. Prayer is not simply about cause and effect/tangible outcomes but it can change the temperature or spiritual environment of a place. I think of it as a windshift in a football game where the wind is now going with you rather than against you…

Research involves.. what is already going on, here? What needs are there? What opportunities? What is the spirituality of the campus ( there is an interior spirituality to every place)?, relational and church networking, facilities, means of advertising/communication etc, etc, etc....

What I love in walking through LU is the sense of the possibilities that can happen when God has a yielded vessel to work with. Markus is clearly not a 'formulaic' guy. Anybody who can juggle Finnish and Canadian culture as adroitly as he does has the skillset and aptitude to do well in a variety of contexts. He is aware of His need for God and he and Alina are willing to step out in obedience to His call. When that happens, things get exciting.

Onto the Soo...

TBay to SSM is an extraordinarily beautiful drive...

On to Sault Ste Marie. On route I connected with Paul Quesnele, who was previously the director of ONE campus ministry at Algoma University. It was formerly Summit Ministry, but the campus group led by Jeremy Murdoch and which met on campus in the cafeteria/pub ( see pic) had grown into an intergenerational church.

The aforementioned cafeteria/pub

This church chose to re-boot the campus ministry under a new name and with a fresh mandate. For the first year plus of its existence it was led by Paul, even during a nearly fatal mishap on the ski slopes in 2009. Paul was kind enough to share his friends , his parents and his knowledge with me. Thanks to all of you for your amazing hospitality...

Jeremy and Paul

For the past year, due to his work commitments to the University,  Paul has stepped back and some key students have come forward to fill in the gap. A former student, Danielle   , will be helping out onsite at Sault College.

Danielle  

Both Algoma and Sault are surprisingly vibrant institutions. Algoma was once a residential school, and it has owned up to, and actually embraced, this part of its history. As most readers would know, this was a dark paragraph in our national narrative. Originally begun with good intentions: The desire to bring education and knowledge ( and perhaps religion) to the native population, it degenerated into a form of cultural abuse/genocide. Children were ripped out of their homes at the age of six and forced to renounce their language and culture. Some were never to see their family again.

Now Algoma makes a significant point to celebrate its aboriginal culture and to provide support and direction to first nations students who come to study at Algoma.

Sault College is undergoing a relatively massive construction phase. As a result, it will have much more non academic space for clusters and meetings and whatever programming ONE may need.

Jeremy will be onsite in a more official capacity at both institutions. We are praying that he will have the energy and focus to pull it all off. There is so much good stuff going on and there is only so much of him to go around… Further, we are praying that the students will rise up to meet the opportunity and the challenge.  They have a ton of experience and expertise to share with us all....

Thunder Bay: Lakehead University.

In arriving in TBay, I found my way to the home of the pastor of Evangel Church , a PAOC church which is literally next door to Lakehead University. Gary and Sandy Wilson and I go back to BC days, and it was great to get caught up again. The idea of campus ministry was not unfamiliar to Gary and he was motivated to take me along with his assistant , Jed Armstrong, for a tour of the LU facilities.  It was certainly motivational, especially since Gary has had the awareness since he came to TBay over a decade ago that Evangel was strategically placed to reach the campus. Indeed, he has considered a name change that would reflect this reality.

Jed and Gary

The para-curriculum of the campus...

So, let’s talk about this. There are a number of students who go to Evangel, two of whom are the daughters of the pastor.   However, the University itself is almost a world unto itself, and even though the church is a five minute walk from campus, it almost seems as if it were in another world. This is not uncommon. So, the idea is: how about going to where the students actually are – which is on the campus – rather than luring them off the campus.

To embellish the metaphor, this makes good fishing sense. A number of years ago, a prominent TV sportsfishing personality invited my two older boys to accompany him to the Bay of Quinte to do a youth fishing episode. This fellow gave them a top notch time and by talking with him I learned a bit about fishing, myself. The fact is: he knew how to find the fish. He didn’t troll in the middle of the lake and hope that the fish would come to him. He went to where they liked to hang out- to where they actually were. He knew when they would be receptive. And then he knew how to offer them something that they actually wanted to grab. And finally, he knew how to bring them in and land them. That’s why he could run a successful show. He was rarely shut out.

So, back to the narrative. What if Gary and Jed were to work on campus a few days a week, rather than cloistering in the church office.  What if their students were to form a student club and they could provide complementary programming to the single student ministry on campus? What if Gary were to apply for chaplaincy status, in that he has the credentials. He represents a national denomination. He gives spiritual care to a local congregation and he has a Master’s Degree from Regent College. Anyway, all of that and more… there are some intriguing possibilities at Lakehead which we will need to explore soon. 

Winnipeg to Thunder Bay...

The next day, I left first things to begin my trek towards Thunder Bay. 

A few notes. First, I figured I would get on the highway and find a roadside gas station on the way. No such doing. I guess the various towns figure it  competes with their commerce but they don’t do a particulary good job of luring people off the road. And when I approached the sign pointing towards Steinbech, Manitoba I could see a row of trees in the distance to the east. I didn’t fully realize the prairies would come to an abrupt end. There was no ‘transition’ or ‘parkland’ like there is if you drive north in Saskatchewan. One moment you are in prairie and the next minute you are in endless forest. 

Dividing Line..

Within an hour or so, the forest became full on Canadian Shield – Precambrian rock and gnarly, scrubby trees. I bypassed Kenora in the belief that there simply must be a roadside gas station… anyway, I barely made it to beautiful downtown Dryden, Ontario deep in the heart of the shield. That gave me enough gas to get the rest of the way to Thunder Bay. 

Thots by the Assiniboine: Brandon University

On my way to Winnipeg, I passed by and through the city of Brandon, Manitoba on the banks of the now receding Assiniboine River. The site of flooding during the spring, the town is now beginning to approach normality, although there is still abundant evidence of their earlier troubles. The young lady at the Safeway deli told me they had to evacuate their stores for nearly two weeks as the town collectively held its breath while the waters peaked.

That river was up to mischief...

Brandon University is, to all appearances,  a growing school. Compared to  the aging infrastructure of  the University of Manitoba, there are encouraging signs of new construction and renovation activity across the campus.

When I popped into the Administration building, I do what I often do. I asked for promotional material. In otherwords, I was looking for an introductory booklet that would tell me something about the campus. Give me your best pitch. There was no such material. Instead, I was told to talk to the staff. 

new construction / renovations

When I asked about what sort of Christian clubs or resources there might be on campus for a new student , I was referred to the Student Union in the next building.

Outside the Admin and SUB.

Entering the attractive S U building, I asked if there were any Christian student clubs on campus. When asked why I wanted to know, I responded that I am asking as a parent. This is ,in fact, true. I have one boy in University. Another will be within a year. I have two girls coming. Allowance for the spiritual needs of students factors into our family’s decision making when it comes to choosing a post-secondary institution. I look at an institution through family as well as professional eyes. 

Immediately, someone responded by suggesting IVCF ( our very own James Perraux ( UCM@ UBCO) had an instrumental role in this group back in the day).  However, another young lady offered that she thought they were no longer active.  When I asked whether there was a chaplaincy on campus, there was none  they knew about.  If there is one, it is well below the radar. 

It occurred to me, walking away from BU that it doesn’t make sense from a free market (marketing)perspective for a university to not consider the spiritual needs or aptitudes of its students. It is something which their potential clientele would take into consideration in making institutional choices. Especially when it doesn’t cost the institution anything to provide these services. Indeed, if they wanted to counter the inroads ( competition)  of faith connected post-secondary institutions, one would think they would actually want to advertise the fact that spirituality is accommodated, if not  taken seriously. 

A university may claim that it is not 'in the business of religion'. Perhaps.... But  the emerging university also stresses that it should be about doing more than offloading information. It is to be about more than creating spokes  or cogs in a technological wheel. It is about the formation of people:   The development of citizens for whom the creation of a better world actually matters. 

The University of Victoria, several decades ago actually grasped this fact in its facilitation of a robust chaplaincy ( although it appears that this may soon change under the new breed of bureaucrats filling its administration). The University of Calgary would be an excellent example of this synergistic relationship. 

Actually, this last point is the grist for a future blog….  Additionally, for what it is worth… While a university  is also not in the business of coffee or entertainment –it makes room for both in the name of a well rounded post-secondary experience. Last year, when I went on a guided tour of York University, the tour guide announced with pride that the best thing about York was that it had SIX Tim Hortons on campus. Yup… The Best...

Finally....

Moving on from Brandon, , it was fun to spend an evening with our intrepid missionary to the University of Manitoba,   Tammy Junghans and her family.

Tammy is a killer gardener..



Greg cooks a mean medium rare steak and their kids, Rachel, Curtis, Brianne and Steffy, were great company. They were preparing to leave on a Western Canada vacation trip themselves, but not too busy to be gracious and fun hosts. It was a refreshing stay.

Regina bound... back to my roots.

Regina is the town of my birth. In fact, I spent the first five years of my life there and I still have deep memories etched into my heart and mind from that time. But it has been more decades than I wish to admit since I have been back. And I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. On a nice summer evening the town presented well. 

I tell you .. the sky put on a show..

Two lanes  Good highway  It's all good

The distance beckons..

Davidson, Sask.  Not your usual car

My first home.. all grown up.

I went to the home of Doug and Maureen Lancaster. Doug is the assistant Superintendent of the Saskatchewan District and the lead pastor of Avonhurst Pentecostal Church. And as it turns out, he remembered me ( and Point Grey Community Church and UCM ) from our days in BC, some years ago.  This is not a moot point. To me it is an ongoing wonder how the Kingdom network actually works, and how stuff done twenty or thirty years ago has a way of coming into the present.

We had a delightful time with Wes and Jan Dynna. Wes is a PAOC credential holder, presently working with Youth For Christ,  with a deep concern for the university and an interest in exploring the idea of campus ministry at U of Regina.  He is also well read and a deep thinker.  If we are to go forward, it would take people like Wes to help till the ground and provide leadership. This involves research, dreaming and planning. It is a necessary step .  It is sort of like tilling the ground before the planting can happen. Putting the seeds in the ground is the fruit of a lot of hard work that precedes it.

Lancasters and Dynnas 

I must confess, however,  I knew little about the U of R.  In doing my research I found that, since its origins as an offsite campus of the U of S,  it has been growing and has become a significant university in its own right. A walk through tour by my host ( and U of R staff) Maureen Lancaster more than confirmed it. It is a serious, full on university which has been the recipient of tens of millions of dollars of infrastructural  expenditures in the past several decades. It is functional ( essentially a large circle), and not entirely aesthetically displeasing. In otherwords, it has made an effort to avoid the Brutalist architecture ( SFU, U of Waterloo, York U ) of some of its contemporary universities.

a 'softer, friendlier institutional decore'....

From what I understand, it has been  difficult for Christian ministries to thrive on this campus. There are no doubt a number of reasons for this, but it is also apparently  reflects a somewhat militant, though not uncommon,  secularism within the administration and student union. There are different forms of secularism. Some seek to offer religion its diminished place ( demi-status) and others see no place for it whatsoever in an institution of higher learning. The latter simply ignores both the origins of the modern university and even the actual needs of the student. Could you imagine aboriginal studies that ignored the place of spirituality in its culture?  Anyway, that is the grist for another mill – another post. 

I am so glad I had the chance to walk its hallways, even though school was out. I am praying that we will be the dreamers of His dreams for this campus. 

Walking the U of Saskatchewan..

Onto the University.  The size and scale of the U of S is impressive.Even though school was essentially out for the summer, and the hallways and cafeterias were bare, there was still a powerful sense of its vibrancy. And the building and renovation is everywhere!  It is a city within a city.  

In a few weeks this will be jammed with students...

 As I mentioned to John, it is almost painful for me to step onto a campus in September. The sheer weight of the challenge and the potential of the opportunity is simply overwhelming. As Drew guided us through its hallways, and we stood on the sixth floor of a building looking over the campus, we were led to pray. The weight of the opportunity was tangible. The sense of God's Spirit brooding over the campus was real.

Praying over the U of S Campus

There is a lot of work to do. At Campus Mission Canada, we approach the campus in a variety of different ways. Chaplaincy? Student Club? Church Ministry?  What approach, or variety of approaches, would be best? Further, we do not want to either run ahead of God nor to lag behind Him. Our natural tendency is to lag well behind, but regardless we want to get it right. The number one priority at present, and in fact the first item of business would be catalyzing prayer for the campus. Not token prayer, but intentional prevailing prayer.

So, we have specific options. What rights and privileges go with Horizon College’s affiliation with the U of S? How do we go about starting a student group? With whom? How do we sort out the necessary procedural stuff within the District? How do we engage people meaningfully in the project so that we are able to leverage the gifts and abilities of those who are being called to help build a enduring campus ministry. It is honestly difficult to overstate the potential in God for what might happen on and through this campus. 

Running Back to Saskatoon: The Journey is underway

Flat?  Maybe,  but the skies were alive. God was speaking.

 I wasn’t quite sure what He was saying, but He was certainly speaking…

Actually, it was a show. 

The Skies were alive in 360 degrees

Yup... God rays..

It was a show...

The gently undulating topography of the prairie is certainly more subtle than that of other areas but nonetheless beautiful.  Because you can see so much further, the far away changes in vegetation and elevation almost beckon you … it does something inside of me...

I arrived in Saskatoon and met with John Drisner and his intern Drew Chapman. Drew was a grad of U of Guelph and formerly a C4C worker at the U of S. Presently the student president of Horizon College.

John and Drew

John is the Superintendent of the Saskatchewan District,  and in the unusual position of being  both the DS and the lead pastor of his church. I was at the conference where he was upfront ( see May blog), when he let his name stand for the DS elections.  He affirmed that he and his church leadership had prayed about it and that he would run with the clear understanding that he would still maintain (although adapt)  his lead pastoral role at Lawson Heights . At the time, although I was a visitor, it was clear to me that John was going to be ‘the guy’.  I had the opportunity to shake hands with him as the conference came to an end and then chatting with him over a meal, last month,  at our national Mission Canada conference.

He is a strong leader and a solid communicator. In beginning a series on FaceBook Theology, he intersected with various theological discussions occurring online. Affirmative of the fact that people are actually discussing theology over Facebook, he provided the caution that most do not have grids or filters through which to evaluate people’s comments or arguments. He  then made an effort to lay out a primer on postmodernism and how it affects the way people perceive and process the world around them. What could have been a dry academic exercise was made relevant by describing how different generations “think” or “feel” about truth. Moderns  demand logic and sense. Postmoderns want it to “feel right”. While this is no doubt a generalization, it is one that has some connection to reality.

Lawson Heights Pentecostal Assembly is well situated in relation to the University of Saskatchewan. It is less than a ten minute drive, just across the river on the North and West of the city. Further, it has a user friendly feel to it that would appeal to a broad cross section of students. However, the idea behind what we do is not to try to attract students to church but to bring church to students. It is incarnational rather than attractional. One should not have to choose, but the point is: we need to go to where they are. 

Calgary: The journey begins...

I got the chance in Calgary to have breakfast with Kelly Johnson and Glenn Ryland who are our chaplains at the U of Calgary and Mount Royal U, respectively. I was hopeful about checking out the University of Lethbridge with them but it wasn’t going to work out.  I am continually struck with their quality and just how well their universities and faith communities are served by them.  Glenn is actually being hired full time by MRU on its faculty ( they love him that much) and will be able to continue his chaplaincy duties on a part time basis. 

Some random personal things....

I worked through my midlife crisis in four days. The rental company gave me a free upgrade to a Mustang GT 5.0.   It had been a long time since I had heard ( felt)  the roar and throb of a jacked V8.  It turns out that the 2011 GT is Ford’s pride and joy, the car critics' darling, and that it  can go from 0 to the traffic court in mere seconds.  Anyway.. got that out of my system.

Personal stuff. Helping my mom sort through meaningful things as she moves into a seniors' home. Thinking about what to bring back home that would be meaningful for the coming generations – especially for my daughters. China.. carefully packed and brought home. I also inherited Mom's little red car which would bring me back across the country. I took a lot of digital pictures of Mom's pictures....

My family when I was 11

My family when I was 35

Having helped my Mom find a suitable burial plot, we buried my father’s ashes. There had been a variety of complications that prevented this from happening before. .... Hope of resurrection. From dust to dust.  Ashes to ashes. He was a special man. A brother in Christ. Victorious in death. 

I got to meet David’s former boss who made it clear to me how much he thought of the boy and what he stood for. He too had lost a son and we were able to connect at the level of empathy. It is like finding a fellow compatriot in a foreign country. We spoke the same language and understood each other. Thank you, brother.