Gangland Preacher - Olu Jegede

Welcome to Episode 8 of Sidewalk Skyline Podcast. Today we are starting a series that I call Gangland Preachers. In this and upcoming episodes we are going to hear from some people that have firsthand experience when it comes to gangs and their effect on the community. Most of our discussions will focus on the Toronto area. 

Today’s guest is Olu Jegede who pastors Christian Centre Church in Toronto.

Hey, do you get those Amber Alerts on your smart phone? More than once I’ve been awakened in the night by that disturbing ring tone to report that a minor has been abducted or has gone missing.

I remember in early March of this year getting the alert about a 14-year-old boy that was missing from the Jane and Finch neighbourhood of Toronto. He had been abducted over a $4 million drug debt that his stepbrother had owed from last summer.

Well that young man was a recent example of someone that Christian Centre Church knows and cares about. He was recovered by police and returned home. These kind of stories are very real and personal for people like Pastor Olu Jegede.

In 2007 Jordan Manners was killed by gun violence inside his high school. This was one of the many young men that Olu has mentored over the years. 

Like Nehemiah of old, God calls some people into urban centers to build community and faith in places that have lost both. This session was a presentation that Olu gave at Our City Toronto 2019.

Links:

https://ccctoronto.com/

https://innercityoutreach.ca/

Jennifer and Olu Jegede

Jordan Manners’ funeral

Saint Chad in Saint John (Chad Nickerson interview)

So how are you doing in the midst of the Corona Crisis? The novelty of a lifestyle shift brought about by a novel virus has us all wondering what’s next.  Those who have lived sacrificially in service to others are suddenly disconnected and looking for new patterns of meaningful connection.

The city I live in (Windsor Ontario) has a long history of economic climb and descent. As home to automotive manufacturers, large layoffs and rising unemployment rates have come and gone many times. At various intervals people have asked me how our church is affected by whatever the latest layoff announcement was.

I have often replied to that question by saying that the poor in our congregation are experiencing business as usual. When you are already unemployed and living without money, you are not as affected by social downturns in the same way.

Churches that serve the poor will certainly be feeling the same pinch as the rest of the middle class as our donor base shrinks, mortgage payments get deferred and staff positions get cut. But perhaps the greatest loss to the marginalized will not be economic (since it’s not there in the first place). The greatest loss for churches that care will be the loss of social connection and hospitality. That in fact may be our greatest wealth and the burden we bear to remain connected with the people we are so invested in.

It’s as if the whole world is in a minimum-security jail right now. We are learning to live with increased limitation and that grates against our freedom and mobility. Let’s pray that none are lost and that our incarceration becomes very fruitful. It certainly was profitable for the Apostle Paul to be in jail and lose his public freedom. It led to his writing of the New Testament books that may not have been written if he had kept busy with his boots on the ground.

One reason I started Sidewalk Skyline podcast was to share the incredible, eternal wealth that is generated in urban churches. Limitation and heavy burdens are useful when God’s people face the challenge boldly.

Now for today’s episode we will meet Saint Chad from Saint John, New Brunswick. Chad Nickerson is pastor of Calvary Temple, a historic urban church caring for its city in creative ways. Let’s go now to my interview from 2019 with Chad Nickerson.

Link:

https://www.calvarytemplesj.com/

Multiplying The Urban QUEST

Paul Fraser is the director of Multiply Network, a national agency of PAOC that focuses on church planting in Canada. He is a fellow podcaster with the Multiply Network Podcast. One of his interviews last year was with Kevin Rogers.

After a scan of existing ministries, the acronym QUEST was developed to help distinguish the variety of urban ministry lanes within the PAOC family.

Q - Qualitative Neighbours:   The mission is to love my neighbours in Jesus’ name in ways that engender hospitality, community building and home centered spiritual practices more than church-centered organizational practices. Finding what God is doing among the neighbours and joining to that.

 Examples: Parker House, Parish Collective, Move-In, Downtown Windsor Community Collaborative.

U - Urban Church:   Geographically located in city urban core. Congregation reflect sensitivity to the culture and values of the neighbourhood they find themselves in. A mix of parish and destination or drive-in attenders, with ministries that are narrow to their neighbourhood needs.

Examples: Church in the City, Danforth Community, City Centre Church (Jane/Finch), Calvary Temple - Winnipeg, Father’s House (Edmonton).

E- Energizers:   Gospel Influencers who bring light and energy to subcultures

Arts, politics, business community, education, etc.

Examples: Light in Film workers (Ryan Stockert and Jamie Rauch), Leading Influence Ministries (Tim Schindel), Jim Craig (Mississauga), Connie Jakab (Calgary).

S – Street-Level Workers:   Mix of community chaplaincy and pastoral care to street population. Often their office is their backpack or their car, they are in tune to the communities.

 Examples: Ejay Tupe (Toronto), Bob Gal (Edmonton), John Marc Nicolas (Pasteur de Rue-Montreal).

T – Transformers:   Bringing hospitality and resource to at-risk populations. Street missions, after school programs, housing initiatives, etc.  

Examples: Father’s House (Debbie Kunst), Feeding Windsor, Metro Kids Society (Mike Brownlee).

Multiply Network

https://paoc.org/multiplynetwork

https://www.iwanttoplantachurch.ca/

Double Bumper Hummer Prayer Station (Bob Gal interview)

Hey, how many times have you seen a street preacher downtown in a major city? God bless them for their courage, but sometimes you wonder if they are helping or hindering the proclamation of the gospel.

There are some that a wonderful job of capturing interest and leading people to encounter Jesus in a beautiful way.

Bob Gal is an old friend from Edmonton who gives street ministry legitimacy. There should be a reality TV show called Brother Bob. I guarantee you wouldn’t take your eyes away as you followed him around on his adventures.

This is an interview I recorded in the spring of 2019 when he was visiting us in Windsor.

LInks:

brotherbobg@gmail.com

https://www.brotherbob.com/

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

https://weca.com/weca-chapel/

Hummer Prayer Station

Baptismal Hearse

Chapel at West Edmonton Mall

Saving Surrey Kids (Mike Brownlee interview)

Here is an interview with Mike Brownlee, who is now 26 years deep in working with Metro Kids in Surrey, BC.

I have great respect for Mike and Lynn for their endurance. People like these often have a deep sense of what the Spirit is saying to the church in their community.

Mike is part of the Mission Canada urban guiding group that I belong to. This interview was held at our first-time meeting together. We recorded in the archives at Pentecostal Assemblies Of Canada back in March 2019. I hope to see him again this year and get an update on what’s happening in Surrey.

www.metrokids.ca

Lynn Brownlee’s book ‘Every Child Deserves To Know’

https://wordcom.paoc.org/products/books/missions-outreach/every-child-deserves-to-know-by-lynn-brownlee

Windsor's Little Church With A Big Kitchen

Welcome to the first ever episode of Sidewalk Skyline. I’m your host Kevin Rogers and I have lived most of my life in Canadian cities, well… at least in Ontario cities. In this podcast we are going to feature men and women from across Canada doing some extraordinary work in the places they live.

So where am I from? I live in Windsor, Ontario where the church I planted is celebrating 26 years of loving our neighbours, especially those living on the margins of society.

Today’s pilot episode is an interview with Rodger Fordham, director of Feeding Windsor. If I didn’t have the privilege of working alongside Rodger, I would still think this a great place to start our investigation of what God is up to in Canadian cities.

In 5 years, this outreach has had a meteoric rise to 200,000 meal servings for this upcoming year. You are going to hear how a small church can partner with others to make a large dent in the city through hospitality.

Links:

www.feedingwindsor.ca

  http://newsongwindsor.blogspot.com/

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

https://paoc.org/canada/about/staff/lists/mc-staff/urban-coordinator

Feeding Windsor is an outreach agency of New Song Church focused on providing a table in food deserts, hospitality in neighbourhoods and strategies of food empowerment in our city. More details are on our website at www.feedingwindsor.ca

What is Sidewalk Skyline? →

Isn’t it amazing how you can drive 120 kilometres per hour on a multi-lane highway until you reach the city at rush hour? Suddenly, you are parked and inching forward with feelings of dismay at being delayed.

While everyone talks about the fast pace of city life, the truth is that those who live in the city core are learning how to live slowly on foot, bicycle and mass transit. Those who settle into the rhythms of city life are finding ways to slow down and experience their environment in ways that might puzzle their country cousins. Could it be that many suburbanites are living more hectic than the ones who live and work downtown?

The jazz legend Hoagy Carmichael had a song ‘Big Town Blues’.  A phrase he sang paints a vivid picture.

‘I’m in a bargain basement with a sidewalk skyline’

The song talks about coming to the city with dreams of living in a penthouse and instead living in a basement apartment.

So what is the view of the city like from there? That is what we want to explore in our new podcast ‘Sidewalk Skyline’.

Come on a cross-country journey with me and meet people on the ground in urban centres that have a particular view that comes from being there. Listen to the insights of people who have one ear to God and the other to the ground in their city.

Get an insiders look at how Christians are navigating city life.