Southlake Churches Discover Their God-Inspired Vision

Steve Klassen, Partnership Coordinator for TrueCity Southlake (TCS), says that the purpose of the new International Teams initiative is to help the existing churches in the Newmarket, Ontario area to truly thrive. "That can only happen through individuals within our local congregations getting their own God-inspired vision and deciding to follow it. God says ‘I want you to do this' and we do whatever we can to help make that happen."

A program called Clean Sweep, one of their first ministries, mobilizes volunteers from multiple churches to enter the homes of local families in need and take care of cleaning, repairs, painting, general maintenance, lawncare, and anything else that the family might want or need help with. Steve says that the first woman that was helped by the program was so overwhelmed by the help she was getting, she had to leave the home numerous times while the volunteers worked on her home. "Fifteen people from a small church of sixty came to help. That is a rather significant percentage of the congregation! It brought enthusiasm, purpose, and excitement to the church."

TCS has assisted in launching Next Step Family Counselling, a counselling network that provides professional, affordable Christian counselling. They have also recently worked with program developer Rick Ward to start various prayer ministries, including the inaugural Mayor's Prayer Breakfast attended by over 700 people.

Their latest initiative is an ESL program designed to help immigrant families become part of the church community in Newmarket, where many new neighbourhoods are 90-100% ethnic minorities. Steve believes that the language instruction will help the immigrant families achieve their goal of being truly integrated into a North American community.

"Many immigrant families consider themselves to be members of community here if they are enough in relationship to be invited for dinner or for an evening in a North American home, but most never achieve this. The ESL program will provide the bridges to start bringing them into community."

Kent Neilson, one of TCS's key volunteers, asks for prayer for the fifteen local pastors that meet together every week. "We would love for each pastor at our table to receive a specific vision directly from God, and that we as a collective group would be able to fulfill that vision. We want to be one truly unified church out in mission in the area."

To support the vision of TrueCity Southlake, visit www.iteams.ca/truecitysouthlake and click Give.