Easter Greeting from the EFC
Friends, it is Holy Week. This week we observe the highest point of the Christian year as we celebrate the passion, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. However you live out Holy Week in your tradition, may you be reminded afresh of the unmerited grace of God our Father, the great price paid by Jesus our Saviour and the blessed gift of eternal life given us by the Spirit of resurrection. From the EFC to you and your family and churches, we wish you a blessed Easter!
New Love Is Moving App
The EFC’s youth movement, Love Is Moving, has just launched the Love Is Moving app. It facilitates interaction with the print magazine and offers practical challenges for students and leaders to put their faith into action.
The app is a free download at the Google Play Store for Android devices and available for iOS (Apple devices) at LoveIsMoving.me. Try it out and share your review in the Play Store.
Send Your Pastor to Dinner Contest: Final Week
Our "Send Your Pastor to Dinner" contest ends this Saturday, March 31! We’ve received 55 entries to this Canada-wide contest so far. If you appreciate all your pastor has done for your church and community, there’s still time to enter them in our draw to win a gift card for a dinner out. Our Mar/Apr Faith Today cover story The Healing Plate inspired us to create this contest to send some Canadian pastors out for dinner. Email us the name of your pastor by March 31, tell us what their ministry means to you and your community, and we’ll enter them in our draw for $50 dinner gift cards, one for a pastor in every province and territory.
New Audio Podcasts: Growing Your Spiritual Life as a Couple; Food Ministry; Science and Faith
Are you looking for ways to grow your spiritual life as a couple? "It doesn’t need to be only long prayers and joint Bible study." Listen to our new audio podcast or read the original Sheila Wray Gregoire article.
Two other new podcasts include a panel discussion on How to Create a Great Food Ministry and an interview with Janet Warren, president of the Canadian Scientific and Christian Affiliation on Science and Faith in Canada.
Listeners can listen to individual episodes of The EFC Podcast or subscribe to download each new episode automatically at Google Play, iTunes, SoundCloud, and RSS (Feedburner). You can find a full list of recent episodes here.
Human Trafficking in Canada: Sign up for Our April Webinar
What is the latest on human trafficking in Canada? Who are the victims? What can individuals and Canadian churches do to help with this overwhelming problem? On April 26 at noon EST, join us for our webinar on this issue. Julia Beazley, director of public policy for the EFC, will update us and share the EFC recommendations made to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights that is currently studying this issue. Register now.
EFC Leaders Coming to Winnipeg and Toronto
EFC President Bruce Clemenger is meeting with affiliate denominational leaders April 3-4 in Toronto. Pray for a time of refreshing and strategic conversation about the church's effectiveness in mission to our country and our world.
Later in April, Clemenger will speak on the challenges of freedom of religion in the Canadian context and the benefits of networking as evangelicals as one of several speakers at an event in Vaughan, Ont., called Thriving in Babylon: Christian Living in a Secular World. This multi-denominational conference, April 20-21, is organized by Presbyterians Standing for Apostolic Love and Truth and The Renewal Fellowship Within The Presbyterian Church in Canada. Other speakers include Warwick Cooper, Lee Beach, Gary Stagg, William Webb, John G. Stackhouse Jr., David Haskell, Wes Chang, Peter Bush, and Carmen Laberge.
Don McNiven, the EFC’s Director of Affiliate and Donor Relations, will be in the Winnipeg, Winkler, Steinbach and Morden areas the week of April 16-20. Contact his assistant Bonnie Knoll to RSVP or to set up a personal visit.
Three Understandings of State Neutrality
Religious freedom issues have been making headlines in Canada in recent months. Often, the government has justified what religious groups say is unfair treatment with the argument that a secular state must be religiously neutral. EFC President Bruce Clemenger explains, “The historic Canadian approach is that neutrality means being non-sectarian or fair – the government does not play favourites and treats all the same.” That interpretation is now giving way to a new interpretation of neutrality, called selective neutrality or sectarian neutrality –which results in selective benefiting of some religious organizations. Clemenger calls for Canadians to "re-embrace the fairness model of state neutrality.” The article is free online, but you can also receive it and future articles in our print magazine by subscribing at FaithToday.ca/subscription.
Power Made Perfect in Weakness
In the Mar/Apr Love Is Moving, Beka Ermel writes about learning what it means for God’s power to be made perfect in her weakness, especially as she lives out her calling as a nurse. “As I walked home that night after work, I cried. My heart was so broken but so full for them; wanting more than anything to take away the pain and uncertainty they were experiencing. I loved this family, though I had just met them. “Break my heart for what breaks yours” are words I often pray. God was bringing that prayer into reality as I allowed him to fill my heart with a deep compassion for the people around me.”
Publicize your event for free.
→ Freshwind Youth Conference, Toronto, Mar. 29-31
→ Passion Play 2018, Scarborough, Mar. 30
→ Seminary & Theological Grad School Virtual Fair, online, Mar. 29
→ Be Ready Apologetics Conference, Calgary, Apr. 6-7
→ Ottawa Christian Writers’ Conference, Ottawa, Apr. 7
→ Expanding the Ekklesia Vortex, Toronto, Apr. 7
→ Empowered to Connect: Conference on Adoption and Connection, various Canadian locations (simulcast from Oswego, Illinois), Apr. 13-14
→ Iron Sharpens Iron Men’s Equipping Conference, Coquitlam, Apr. 14
→ Passionnés pour notre mariage/Passionate About Our Marriage, Laval, Apr. 14
→ Responding to the World Refugee Crisis One Family at a Time, Waterloo, Apr. 14
→ Promise Keepers Canada Legacy Equipping Conference, Cambridge, Apr. 14
→ Thriving in Babylon: Christians Living in a Secular World, Thornhill, Apr. 20-21
→ Promise Keepers Canada Legacy Equipping Conference, Chatham, Apr. 21
→ Dwell Here for a While in Holy Week
→ The Profound Beauty of Foot-Washing
→ Words Matter. To Life and to Faith.
In Case You Missed It
→ Your Voice is Being Heard About the Canada Summer Jobs Attestation
→ Audio Podcast: Canada Summer Jobs Grant Controversy: Calvary Temple, How a Maritime Church is Pushing Back
→ How Fort Langley Evangelical Free Church Is Coping With Canada Summer Jobs Grant Situation
→ Toronto City Mission Forges Ahead, Despite Lack of Canada Summer Jobs Grant Funding
→ Leadership Lessons from the Life of Jesus (Preston Manning edited book excerpt in Faith Today)
→ Trusting God in the Face of Acne (Love Is Moving)