Pastor, Police, PTSD - Cory Kostyra

Cory Kostyra is the pastor of Bradford Community Church and is making great inroads into his small city. Bradford is a bedroom community north of Toronto that is described as the primary country urban area of Bradford, West Gwillimbury, Ontario. This small city overlooks a farming community known as The Holland Marsh, located on the Holland River that flows into Lake Simcoe.

We have never featured a country urban area on the podcast, but apparently that is a thing.

In his other occupation he is part of the Ontario Provincial Police Traffic Support Unit that cleans up after highway accidents. Both highways 400 and 404 are major, multi-lane arteries flowing in and out of the Greater Toronto Area and often dealing with injuries and fatalities along their routes.

Unfortunately, Cory suffers from PTSD and has a story that will help us understand what many in police, EMS and healthcare are facing. So, we want to talk about that, but we also want to hear about some of the open doors in community since Cory entered pastoral ministry.

Links:

Bradford Community Church

https://www.bradfordcommunitychurch.com/

Living with PTSD

https://veterinarian.news/service-dog-refused-entry-into-bradford-restaurant-incident-leads-to-education-around-legislation/

Tim Schindel - Providing Spiritual Care for Politicians

We are 5 days away from a federal election in Canada. I don’t know how political you are, but the Bible does have some things to say about kings, governors and those who hold positions of authority in nations that we live.

Throughout Scripture we see God’s people living under political systems from the elders at the gate of your city, to kings and queens of nations and as conquered people living under slavery. There are examples of God-fearing politicians and of oppressive despots.

Paul was writing his letters to the churches while the Roman government was in power. The same government that would crush, torture, and execute good people like Jesus, the disciples and many in the early church. And yet, we hear a message of another government called the Kingdom of God. It’s a system that grows in seed form globally through all time and it does not go to war against its enemies. It is a government that does not originate in the world as we know it.

In Paul’s pastoral letter to Timothy, he said:

1 Timothy 2:

First, I want you to pray for all people. Ask God to help and bless them. Give thanks for them. 2 Pray for kings. Pray for everyone who is in authority. Pray that we can live peaceful and quiet lives. And pray that we will be godly and holy. 3 This is good, and it pleases God our Savior.

Have you prayed for the politicians of your nation asking God to help and bless them? Have you given thanks for them today?

My guest today has something to say about praying for leadership. I’m talking to Tim Schindel from Victoria, British Columbia. I met Tim several years ago as his vision for chaplaincy was in its early stages. The last time we were together in 2018, we had lunch and a tour of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia along with Jason Goertzen, the chaplain there.

Seeing the need and an opportunity to serve, Tim founded Leading Influence in 2006 to fulfill the vision of providing excellence in pastoral care to politicians across Canada.  Under his leadership, Leading Influence has grown to a national ministry with a chaplain team that reaches from Victoria, BC to Quebec City.  Tim serves as the National Director for Leading Influence and serves as the Ottawa chaplain.[1]

Links:

[1] https://leadinginfluence.com/chaplains/

The Great Reset Of Mission In The City

Earlier this summer I hosted a webinar with Steve Pike entitled ‘The Great Reset of Mission in the City’. Canadian urban leaders attended as we talked about 21st century realities of making disciples in our urban context.

Steve Pike has been at the forefront of church planting for thirty years. He served as founding director of Church Multiplication Network (CMN) for the Assemblies of God (USA) denomination.

Seeing a need for more church plants in cities, he founded Urban Islands Project, which exists to “increase the presence of the Church in the Urban O.”

He’s released a book entitled ‘Next Wave: Discovering the 21st Century Church’.

Links:

Previous interview with Steve Pike:

Season 2, Episode 9:

https://www.sidewalkskylinepodcast.com/sidewalkskylinepodcast/21st-century-urban-churches-with-steve-pike

Steve Pike B: Next Wave website

https://nextwave.community/

Next Wave Book: Discovering the 21st Century Church

https://www.amazon.ca/Next-Wave-Discovering-Century-Church/dp/1736042815/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=next+wave+steve+pike&qid=1619868111&sr=8-1

Urban Islands Project

https://urbanislandsproject.org/

Sex Trafficking and Courage For Freedom (Kelly Franklin part 1)

As a young Torontonian living in an upscale neighbourhood, Kelly lived with the secrecy of sexual abuse. Fuelled by her insecurities she took to the street with a vengeance. Her associations would eventually lead to her being trafficked.

Today Kelly Franklin leads Courage For Freedom, an organization committed to ending trafficking in Canada and helping its victims find a new life of healing and recovery.

Learn more at www.courageforfreedom.org

Kelly is available to speak and can be reached through office@courageforfreedom.org

Sidewalk Pastors - QUEST Conversation (part 2)

In the second part of the Sidewalk Pastors interview, we talk about the stereotypes around poverty and the spiritual formation that is grossly neglected in the field of social work. We will hear more amazing stories about real life people and their courageous struggles.

Our guests are great examples of Street Ministry Workers (letter “S” in our QUEST acronym).

If you have not listened, to part 1 please go back and listen to that first to get a proper introduction to our guests Bob Gal, Anna Morgante and Ejay Tupe.

Links:

Mission Canada

https://paoc.org/canada

Bob Gal

https://paoc.org/canada/workers/bobgal

Anna Morgante

https://paoc.org/canada/workers/annamorgante

Ejay Tupe

https://paoc.org/canada/workers/ejaytupe

Urban Churches in Canada - QUEST Conversations part 1

Tim Keller writes, “Cities, quite literally, have more of the image of God per square inch than any other place on earth. How can we not be drawn to such masses of humanity if we care about the same things that God cares about?” [1] Timothy Keller, Center Church p.143

So what do we mean by the term ‘urban church’? Our working definition of urban includes High Density (population), High Diversity (culture) and High Disparity (socio-economic).

Each of our guests today are pastors in urban churches from coast to coast. Each urban centre is so different from the other, but we are finding lots of common ground in what it means to be an urban congregation.

 Simon Gau is at Broadway Church in Vancouver, BC. He serves as the community pastor and Executive Director of Cityreach.

Debbie Kunst is the pastor of Edmonton’s Father’s House.

Bruce Martin is the pastor of Calvary Temple in Winnipeg, another historic Pentecostal congregation that has remained in the downtown core.

Across the Prairies, let’s land at YYZ. Pearson International Airport in Toronto. We’re renting a car and driving 20 kms NE to the Jane-Finch corridor. Olu Jegede is the senior pastor of Christian Centre Church.

Let’s get back on our private jet and fly to Montreal. Kyvenz Amedee is the pastor of Eglise Gospelvie, a multicultural church located in the heart of Montreal’s South-Central district.

And finally our Maritime urban pastor Chad Nickerson. He is at Calvary Temple in St. John, NB.

Links:

Broadway Church, Vancouver BC

https://www.broadwaychurch.com/

Cityreach

https://www.cityreach.org/

Simon Gau

Broadway Church, Vancouver

Edmonton Father’s House

http://edmontonfathershouse.org/index.html

Debbie Kunst interview from Season 1:

https://www.sidewalkskylinepodcast.com/sidewalkskylinepodcast/spiritual-mother-in-the-fathers-house-debbie-kunst-interview

Video version:

https://youtu.be/FK5ghUOu-EQ

Debbie Kunst

Calvary Temple, Winnipeg

https://www.ctwinnipeg.com/

Bruce Martin

Christian Centre Church, Toronto

https://ccctoronto.com/

Inner City Outreach, Toronto

https://innercityoutreach.ca/

Olu Jegede from Season 1:

https://www.sidewalkskylinepodcast.com/sidewalkskylinepodcast/gangland-preacher-olu-jegede

Olu Jegede

Inner City Outreach

Eglise Gospelvie

https://www.gospelvie.com/

Kyvenz Amadee

Calvary Temple, St. John NB

https://www.calvarytemplesj.com/

Chad Nickerson from Season 1:

https://www.sidewalkskylinepodcast.com/sidewalkskylinepodcast/saint-chad-in-saint-john-chad-nickerson-interview

Video version:

https://youtu.be/i365tAy9duU

Longevity In Urban Ministry (with Michael Krause)

Dr. Michael Krause has a broad range of ministerial experience in an urban context in churches, social service agencies and educational institutions.  He was the director of Evergreen, Yonge Street Mission’s outreach to street-involved youth, supervising 20 staff overseeing a thriving menu of programs including health care, housing support, employment training, drop-in and meal programs, and a broad range of advocacy support.

He was the youth pastor at Flemingdon Park Church, the assistant pastor at the Stone Church in downtown Toronto and the senior pastor at Church on the Street, an experimental church reaching out to street youth in the urban core. He has been active as a church planter in other contexts, pioneering Hills Church, an innovative, house church network based in Thornhill. 

Before joining the faculty of Tyndale in 2014, he functioned as the Staff Care director at Yonge Street Mission where he provided leadership development, ministry coaching and counselling to staff members working with the urban poor. He has been teaching courses with the TIM Centre Diploma program since its inception in 2010. He also has a private practice as a leadership coach and church consultant. Michael is ordained with the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. (description from Tyndale faculty page)

In this session from the Our City Conference (2019) in Toronto, he shares principles of longevity. How do you prepare and maintain a ministry life for the long haul?

Links:

Tyndale University

https://www.tyndale.ca/faculty/michael-krause

Yonge Street Mission

https://www.ysm.ca/

Church On The Street Reunion

Michael & Ejay Tupe

Six Degrees Of Separation From Chris Chase

In this two part series, we have a conversation with Chris Chase.

Part one discusses his early years as a kid in Montreal and his journey to adulthood. We joked about how there are six degrees of separation from David Wells, the General Superintendent of the Pentecostal Assemblies Of Canada; but, it’s just as likely that there are six degree of separation from Chris Chase.

Much of his adult life has revolved around the Greater Toronto Area as a student, pastor, Bible College faculty and family man.

Part two will take us into a deeper discussion on race, theology and urban ministry but this episode tells us his story thus far. When we recorded earlier this year he was between things and has since landed as the lead pastor of The Meeting House in Newmarket.

Catch more of Chris Chase on his YouTube series ‘The House Of Common Show’.

Links:

The House Of Common Show

https://www.youtube.com/c/HouseofCommonShow/videos

That Chris Chase

https://www.thatchrischase.com/

Masters College & Seminary

https://www.mcs.edu/

The Meeting House - Newmarket

https://www.facebook.com/tmhnewmarket

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/thatchrischase/