For Those With Ears - Entries tagged "Celebrating 10 Years of Harvest in Canada"

I’m enjoying this year of ministry like no other before it.  We set it apart as a year to celebrate “Ten Years of Harvest in Canada” and designated five “Celebration Sundays” to make sure we did it right.

In August of 2000 a small group of people met at Muskoka Bible Centre with leaders from Harvest Bible Chapel in Chicago and a plan was put in place to plant the first Harvest outside of Chicagoland.  Through good times and some pretty tough ones too, the Lord has been with our church and has proven himself to be faithful. 

To date in this celebration year, we have been blessed to have Pastor Ron Zappia, the first Harvest church planter, from Naperville, Illinois and Pastor Joel Anderson, the second church planter from Orlando, Florida join us to celebrate. Both men brought a strong and encouraging message from the Word.

And this weekend we continue on with Pastor Robbie Symons from just down the road at Harvest Oakville. Robbie was the second to plant here in Canada in 2004. Since that time, eight more have been planted in Canada and more than seventy globally.

Our theme verse for this year indicates the one who is behind all this success in planting churches and anything good that has happened here in Barrie,

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.  Ephesians 3:20-21 ESV

Think through those verses as it pertains to the church…to this church. He’s the one who is able to take a church from being just a normal church to one that experiences something more, something supernatural, something unexplainable. It is his power at work and not our own, and it is his glory that shines IN THE CHURCH! And it is forever! That is the work of no mere human.

And so we celebrate again…we celebrate the glory of Jesus Christ and we celebrate it in the church and as the church.

Be sure to be here Sunday. Come ready to have your heart challenged as Pastor Robbie preaches Romans 12:1-2 (read it and pray it before you get here). And give a listen to our worship songs for Sunday. Get your heart prepared for what God’s Holy Spirit will do in you and in us.

See you Sunday,

Todd

My good friend and brother in Christ, Joel Anderson is making the journey from Orlando, Florida with his wife, Jill, to bring God’s Word to us this Sunday. It is going to be a blessing for us to have them here.

Joel was on the pastoral team at Harvest Bible Chapel in Rolling Meadows before any church plants went out. In March 2001 (the same year we planted here), Joel and Jill moved to Crystal Lake, Illinois where they planted the second of what is now more than 70 church plants in our Harvest Bible Fellowship. That church grew and flourished under his leadership.

In 2007, the decision was made to make Crystal Lake a campus of Harvest Rolling Meadows, and the Andersons moved to Orlando to join a core group there and plant again. To date, they are the only ones to plant two churches in our fellowship. That’s something!  Harvest in Orlando has grown incredibly and has a brand new facility where God’s people are growing and lifting high the name of Jesus Christ. Harvest Orlando has become a centre for church planting in that region of the U.S.

And you must know that Joel and Jill have FIVE…count ‘em…FIVE beautiful daughters who sadly, will not be joining them on this trip.

As we continue to celebrate "Ten Years of Harvest in Canada" Joel has been invited to celebrate with us and bring us a message from the Word of God. He will be preaching a message entitled, “Make Most of Him” in Revelation 1:9-20. Don’t you just appreciate messages in the Book of Revelation?!  I’m certain it will be both challenging and encouraging.

Please pray for your own response to the Word as it is preached this Sunday. Take some time to pray through the passage as we were encouraged to do in our study of Transforming Prayer, and listen to the great line up of songs Jordan has planned for us to sing together in worship. Those two things will help you get your heart prepared to be with the church on Sunday.

God has been and continues to be so gracious toward us as his people. We have received so much from his hand. Let’s continue to seek his face in passionate prayer for even more of him in our lives.

See you Sunday.

To him be glory!

Todd