Church At The Community Table (Connie Jakab Interview)

Connie Jakab is planting a church at a new housing initiative in the Ogden neighbourhood of Calgary. As a long time community energizer, Connie has built an enduring presence in Calgary through her work within the arts community, mental health and business sector.

Now her attention has turned to the neighbourhood she lives and grew up in. Ogden Church meets in the common room of a housing development created by The Mustard Seed, a faith-based organization that exists to eliminate homelessness and reduce poverty.

Ogden Church values breaking bread together around a table rather than sitting in rows as passive listeners.

Links:

Connie’s Website

https://conniejakab.com/

Ogden Church

https://www.ogdenchurch.ca/

Ogden Hub 29

https://muchmorethanahome.ca/

The Mustard Seed

https://theseed.ca/

Lessons From The Living Room Church (Bernard Tam)

The Living Room Church is a family of Jesus followers serving the neighbourhoods. One of their co-pastors is Bernard Tam.

Bernard resides in Midtown Toronto with his wife Susan and their two fun-loving and silly boys, Jeddie and Joshua. Learning to live in the urban center has been quite the journey for the Tams, but they are learning daily to see the beauty of the urban jungle. Bernard is passionate about connecting with people and (re)imaging possibilities while wrestling with faith and culture. He is also currently working part-time with The Alliance as a New Ventures Implementor, seeing new churches and new leaders in Toronto. Bernard is also a host of the Canadian Asian Missional Podcast. In the neighbourhood, you can often find Bernard hanging out in coffee shops where his passion for community and coffee intersects. Susan often likens the coffee shops to the show Cheers for Bernard.

To reach Bernard you can email him at btam@thelivingroomchurch.ca

Links:

The Living Room Church

http://www.thelivingroomchurch.ca/

Christian & Missionary Alliance

https://thealliancecanada.ca/

Canadian Asian Missional Podcast

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/canadian-asian-missional-podcast/id1339528072

Rob Good And Promise Church

Rob Good is the founding pastor of Promise Church in Bradford, Ontario. They describe themselves as ‘A community united to show God with us, making all things right.’

Pastor Rob has found innovative ways to do community service, empowered the congregation to initiate good things in their city and interactive technology to assist in their discipleship journey.

Bradford is a bedroom community north of Toronto.

Link:

https://promisechurch.ca/

From Down Under To North Vancouver

Ben and Emma Narayanan moved their young family from Australia to plant churches in the Vancouver area. Avant Life Church lives by the mantra:

• Remain Helpful

• Remain Humble

• Remain Hopeful

• Remain His.

They are now located in North Vancouver, Squamish, and Surrey with a desire to see a movement of church planting in smaller BC communities.

Link:

https://www.avantlifechurch.com/

Where Is Your Father's House?

From a childhood in Nigeria to his education in Germany to a life in Canada, David Ibhaluobe has had a path filled with signs and wonders of God’s leading. More recently, he has moved to Peterborough with a desire to plant a church among the homeless.

Listen in to his fascinating story.

Sacred Space And Urban Development (Graham Singh part two)

With hundreds of beautiful, historic church buildings slated to close across Canada, Trinity Centres Foundation is on a quest to keep the footprints of faith in the urban core. Although congregations may have aged out and unable to create the next chapter for their property, TCF brings together the faith community with a mix of investors, community partners and developers to work on strategies that prevent buildings from being lost the community forever.

In part two of our conversation with Graham Singh, we continue the much needed conversation to help mainline churches and entrepreneurs work together in making our cities better.

Links:

Part one of Graham Singh interview:

https://www.sidewalkskylinepodcast.com/sidewalkskylinepodcast/graham-singh-and-the-story-of-st-jax

St Jax Church

https://www.stjaxchurch.org/en/home

Trinity Centres Foundation

https://trinitycentres.org/

Canadian Urban Institute

https://canurb.org/

Le Monastère Cabaret de Cirque

https://le-monastere.ca/en/home-en/ 

Church Planting Canada

https://www.churchplantingcanada.ca/welcome

Graham Singh And St Jax Church (part 1)

In today’s episode we discuss Graham’s journey to Montreal and St. Jax’s as a unique model of urban ministry.

Graham Singh is Founder and Executive Director of the Trinity Centres Foundation, a new Canadian charity established to transform 100 historic city centre church buildings into community hubs.  TCF’s team of 50+ advisors from the social innovation, property finance, urbanism and faith sectors are currently developing what may become one of Canada’s most significant social purpose real estate investment offerings.

 Over the past 12 years, Graham has led four historic building and community renewal projects in the United Kingdom and Canada, including in his current role as Rector of the Anglican Diocese of Montreal’ recent church plant, St Jax Montreal.

 Graham also acts as a consultant in the area of social impact investing, in the private wealth management sector. He is a graduate of the London School of Economics, Cambridge University (Ridley Hall / St Mellitus College), the University of Western Ontario and Asbury Theological Seminary.  He is currently enrolled in Oxford University’s Saïd Business School Impact Innovations Programme.

Brian Egert is the director of Mission Canada, and co-hosts the interview.

Links:

St Jax Church

https://www.stjaxchurch.org/en/home

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Trinity Centres Foundation

https://trinitycentres.org/

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Canadian Urban Institute

https://canurb.org/

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Le Monastère Cabaret de Cirque

https://le-monastere.ca/en/home-en/ 

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Church Planting Canada

https://www.churchplantingcanada.ca/welcome