Asylum Seekers And Homelessness (Mike Morency & Ejay Tupe interview)

November 01, 2023 by Kevin Rogers in Canada, Christianity, Ejay Tupe, Housing, Immigration, Kevin Rogers, Matthew House Windsor, Mike Morency, Mission Canada, Religion & Spirituality, Street Ministry Worker, Toronto, Urban Ministry, Windsor Ontario

Our guests on this episode are Ejay Tupe, director of Toronto Urban Mission Hub in downtown Toronto and Mike Morency, executive director of Matthew House – Windsor.

We will be talking about a story that began unfolding this past summer when over 200 refugee claimants from African nations found themselves sleeping on the streets. Many were outside a homeless support centre at 129 Peter St. in downtown Toronto. There seemed to initially be a funding stalemate between levels of government.

Into the crisis, three churches got involved directly by opening up their buildings to provide shelter, food, and support.

· Revivaltime Tabernacle

· Pilgrim Feast Tabernacle

· Dominion Church International

This story eventually leads to some of the asylum seekers ending up served by Matthew House in Windsor.

Links:

Ejay Tupe

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

Oct 30th update from Ejay

https://youtu.be/-o4LVpanGmo?si=J11xqAhrKoEd_DPb

Matthew House - Windsor

https://matthewhousewindsor.org/

Our City Scarborough Conference

https://www.ourcitytoronto.ca/

News article:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/church-temporary-emergency-shelter-asylum-seekers-toronto-1.6927489

A Panel Of Urban Pastors

July 01, 2023 by Kevin Rogers in At Risk Youth, Canada, Christianity, Mission Canada, Olu Jegede, PAOC, Religion & Spirituality, Urban Ministry, Toronto, Duane Henry, Jessie Knight, Godfrey Adderley, Joel Spiridigliozzi

What are the things that urban churches need to be thinking about? Pastor Duane Henry from Portico Church in Mississauga hosts a conversation at Our City Toronto 2023 with four urban pastors that are on the forefront of strategy and mission.

Olu Jegede is a return guest on Sidewalk Skyline Podcast and continues to pastor at Christian Centre Church.

Jessie Knight is an assistant pastor with Olu with a focus on student ministries.

Godfrey Adderley pastors at Stone Church in downtown Toronto.

Joel Spiridigliozzi is a regional director for Western Ontario District working with pastors and ministries in the Toronto region.

Links:

Duane Henry - Portico Church

https://www.porticocanada.ca/

Olu Jegede & Jessie Knight - Christian Centre Church

https://ccctoronto.com/

Godfrey Adderley - Stone Church

https://stonechurch.ca/

Joel Spiridigliozzi - Western Ontario District of PAOC

https://wodistrict.org/

Being A Cultural Translator In An Ethnic Church - Heskias Mandefro

August 15, 2022 by Kevin Rogers in At Risk Youth, Canada, Christianity, Immigration, Religion & Spirituality, Urban Ministry, Heskias Mandefro

Heskias Mandefro has been serving in pastoral ministry for over 17 years at the Ethiopian Evangelical Church in Toronto. As the English pastor in an Amharic language church, he finds himself functioning as a cultural translator between generations.

Heskias strives to lead with ideas that are well thought through biblically, and culturally. He is passionate to engage ethnic churches in reaching their city.

First Nations And The Canadian Church (Aaron Mix-Ross interview)

February 15, 2021 by Kevin Rogers in Canada, Christianity, PAOC, Religion & Spirituality, Urban Ministry, First Nations Canada

Aaron Mix Ross is the new pastor at Richmond Pentecostal Church in British Columbia. Prior to that he served on staff at Heartland Church in Mississauga and before that he was part of the pastoral team at Toronto’s Stone Church.

Aaron is an urban pastor with great insights into city life.

During his years at Stone Church he completed his PhD in theology at the University of Toronto's Wycliffe College. The title of his thesis was "The Heavens Have Become a Highway" The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada Northland Mission and the Indigenous Principle.

With one half living in major urban centres and two-thirds of the Metis living in cities, it’s a worthy exploration for every Canadian.

Longevity In Urban Ministry (with Michael Krause)

December 15, 2020 by Kevin Rogers in At Risk Youth, Canada, Christianity, PAOC, Religion & Spirituality, Urban Ministry

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/

Lightning Rod Conversations (with Chris Chase)

December 01, 2020 by Kevin Rogers in Canada, Christianity, PAOC, Religion & Spirituality, Urban Ministry

This is part 2 of Kevin Rogers' interview with Chris Chase. In this episode we look at the need in culture for tables of conversation where we can listen intelligently to two sides of an issue. The urban Christian can be a lightning rod that is able to disperse potentially destructive power and ground it in peace-making.

Gangland Preacher - Mark Goring

June 15, 2020 by Kevin Rogers in At Risk Youth, Canada, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Urban Ministry

Mark Goring is the pastor of Church In Regent Park. For decades it was a pocket of poverty, addiction and violence. For the last couple years, the poor are being displaced and development is erasing what once was there. The church has emerged from Church In The City, another urban church with a rich history of intersection with the poor.

Part of Mark’s journey involved ministry in the Malvern neighbourhood where pressure from a gang led to death threats and Mark moving out of the city. But the urban cry never left Mark’s soul and so he re-emerged a few years later to the ministry he now leads.

Condo Church In Liberty Village (Darryl Dash)

January 20, 2020 by Kevin Rogers in Canada, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Urban Ministry

On today’s episode of Sidewalk Skyline Podcast we hear a workshop presented by Darryl Dash, pastor of a church plant in Toronto’s Liberty Village neighbourhood. How do you crack the code of community in a place made up of high rise condos? Liberty Grace Church is on that journey.