Canada
• Population: 33.7 million
• Canadian National Baptist Convention congregations: 272
• CNBC congregation to population ratio: 1 to 123,971
• Number of non-evangelical: 30 million or 90% of population
• Least churched (CNBC) provinces: Newfoundland/Labrador, Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, Nova Scotia
• Largest Metro Area: Toronto
Sources: Statistics Canada, Canadian National Baptist Convention


The McGibbon’s son Liam has fully recovered from two surgeries that removed a tumor growing inside his brain. The McGibbons discovered the need for a church in Hamilton, Ontario, during their son’s surgeries at a local children’s hospital and decided to move the family there to reach the city. ABOVE RIGHT: Jason and Kimberley McGibbon, their son Liam (on snare) and friend Mike Harvey (on the fiddle) play music for the shoppers on Locke Street in downtown Hamilton. Busking is a common occurrence in the urban/ arts community.


 


Hamilton is a Toronto-area city on the west side of Lake Ontario. More than 500,000 people live there. More than 100,000 are immigrants. The McGibbons live in a section of Hamilton frequented by artists and musicians, just the type of people Jason, a musician, wants to reach.


So they moved. But first they prayed.


“Hudson Taylor once wrote ‘If you should enter that province you must go forward on your knees,’” says Jason. “Once we found our neighborhood and found every street in that neighborhood, we signed people up from our church to prayer walk every street in our neighborhood.”


Jason and Kimberley are planting The Hamilton Fellowships, a third-generation plant of The Sanctuary Church Oakville, which planted The Sanctuary Church Milton.


In the early days, planting in Hamilton has centered on building relationships with neighbors and with people on the street, inviting people over for meals and Bible study.


24 Spring 2012 • onmission.com

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