Emerging Montreal

This was posted on the e-mail discussion list for Resonate by David Brazzeal. It made my heart sing a bit and I thought I would post it here. Montreal is one of the least reached areas in North America but there are some really cool things emerging out in Montreal.

For those who are interested, there ARE several emerging things happening in Québec and Montréal in specific.

1) Nick Brotherwood started a new Anglican church (English) for young adults called Emerge about 18 months ago. Their website is http://www.emergemontreal.com

2) Chantal Vallée, a women's basketball coach at Vanier College, started a new churched called Agapé (français) about a year ago. Chantal also has hosted for 2 years now an excellent summer project for students who want spend about 5 weeks in the postmodern waters of Montreal. Besides a giving lot of insight into Québec culture, Chantal encourages students to find their niche in the city and simply ask God to make things happen.

3) Guy Rocheleau, former director of Le Roc, started a church called l'Eglise Urbaine (français) which meets at UQUM (University de Québec à Montréal). Guy should have a website up in a few days.

4) Dave and Heidi Gray are starting a new church called Journey Fellowship of Montreal (English) www.journeymontreal.ca

5) Pierre LeBel, the Montreal director of YWAM is also very much a part of the conversation. His French Bible study for intellectuals will be starting again in the fall.

6) Christian Direction, www.direction.ca plays a role in this emerging conversation in Montreal, especially through their arts ministry called Innovation
http://www.direction.ca
http://www.direction.ca/EN/innovation.htm (there's more info and pictures on the French version.

7) River's Edge Church (English) http://www.riversedgeonline.ca lead by Lorenzo della Foresta in another new church in Montreal.

8) Ron Melanson has been a pastor to street people in downtown Montreal for about 12 years now. He's one of my heroes of the faith because in many ways Ron was on the streets doing "postmodern" ministry before it became cool.

9) Then there is Curieux, I'm the leader of this experimental community of faith that has been meeting for about 2 years now. Our site is www.curieux.ca

10) Also there is a once a month meeting called La Cohorte / The Cohort. It is for leaders who are trying to navigate these postmodern waters. We meet in a coffee shop on a certain Wednesday morning of each month.

11) Oh, and don't forget Québec City. There are indications that the conversation is beginning to surface up there as well. Richard Klopp and Jean-Yves Cossette among others are very interested in the emerging church.

If you would like more information about any of the above people or groups, I would be glad to give you their "coordonnés"

Keep praying for Québec. Personally one of the things that really excites me about this emerging conversation, is that it fits Québec much better that other models and religious systems that have been thrust upon it in the past. I could go into details but I've already written too much.

How cool is that? I get excited everytime I read it.