A new, quiet revolution
By Adam Miller
It took about four years before Ron Young could comfortably have a cup of coffee with a resident of Rawdon, Quebec. Six and a half years into a church planting effort in the town of 10,000 an hour northeast of Montreal, the skeptical residents are warming.
“There are over 1,000 cults in Quebec,” says Young, church planter and pastor of Renaissance Bible Church. “People are very slow to trust you because you might be a cult leader or you could just be one of the many religious leaders who’ve come for a few years and left.”
Like much of Canada, the majority of residents in Rawdon identify themselves as Catholic or Anglican but rarely attend services.
The presence of Jehovah’s Witnesses is legion and the name Jesus is a distant word mostly forgotten among the youth.
“I’ll say something about Jesus and I’ll get this look like ‘I know that name from somewhere,’ and they’ll ask ‘Now who is that again?’” says Young. “They just don’t have a clue. Most of them were baptized into the Catholic church but beyond that they don’t believe in anything.”
Still Renaissance Bible Church runs about 35 in Sunday morning life groups, about 65 in Sunday services and French-speaking Bible studies just started up.
“We’re in one of the few bilingual towns in Quebec so we’re able to converse in English,” Young says. “But we realize that to really reach the population we’ve got to raise up French-speaking leaders.”
Only a handful of things allowed the Youngs to break ground in Rawdon: Young’s wife is French Canadian, the Youngs came with no preconceived notions or time limits, and they were willing to love the community through its needs.
For starters they manage to raise $3,000 in school supplies every year for local schools. Some of the students who received these six years ago are among the 17 teenagers learning about Jesus teach them about Christ.”
This lack of belief is the result of the Quiet Revolution, which pulled open the grip the Catholic church had maintained on Quebec for decades.
Now while Catholicism is a cultural mainstay, knowledge of the Bible and of Christ are depleted among those of the last two to three generations of Quebecois.
Young is finally experiencing a warmth that’s been six and a half years in the making.
“I get my hair cut at the same place every month,” says Young. “And this morning the guy who cuts my hair said ‘I’ve been thinking about the conversation we had last week. I think we’ll plan to attend your church in the next week or two.”
“I couldn’t believe it,” he added. “I told him they’ve said that before.”
“Yeah. But this time we’re serious.”
Ron Young (second from right), with French Quebecois wife, Isabelle, has planted Renaissance Bible Church in Rawdon, Quebec, an hour north of Montreal. He leads a prayer and Bible study meeting on Wednesdays and the church meets in a local elementary school. Photo by Adam Miller
ON MISSION • Summer 2011 19
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