“Dad, this place really needs Jesus.” As beautiful as Montreal is in August, my daughter understood the spiritual depravity of the city after walking just one block from our hotel to meet up with the rest of BCNet’s Planting Team. She’s perceptive, but to be honest, the lostness in Montreal is hard to miss.  

The group met August 9-11 in order to sit down with church and ministry leaders near and around some of the campuses that made it on the Forgotten50 list. The goal was to confirm the research we had finished, make sure everything was tight before going public, and learn about some of the needs unique to starting ministries in these contexts. Hey, we call them the Forgotten50 for a reason, right?

In meeting with leaders from Power to Change (the Canadian arm of Cru), Groupes Bibliques Universitaires (GBU, the arm of Intervarsity among the Quebecois), Red Frogs Canada, the International Mission Board, Encounter Church, and La Chapelle, we found that these leaders possess a refreshing hope about the work God is doing there.

Even with the Quebecois making up the largest unreached people group in North America (less than 1% Evangelical), they are excited about the advancement of the gospel they are already witnessing. But many of the resources enjoyed elsewhere simply aren’t available to them.  

For example, chances are that the last books you ordered on Amazon to help you learn to be a better leader, or the books you ordered for your small group to study can’t help them because they are only available in English. The French-English barrier is real, and we’re going to have to start doing something about that. That’s just one of the things we learned, and it seems like a simple fix…at least in concept.

God is up to something.

There are more needs, certainly; and many of them will undoubtedly be shared on this blog later. But suffice it to say, we walked away from Montreal with a profound conviction that God is up to something. Let’s figure out what that is, remain grafted into the vine, grow branches deep into the Forgotten50, and anticipate some amazing fruit the mission of God!