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| Current
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On October 1, 1993, Gilles became pastor at Chateauguay. This church is in a growing community on the south shore of Montreal and holds great growth potential. The congregation has a burden to reach their area for Christ.
In February 1996, God allowed the young church to buy a small but well-located building on a large lot. In the years that followed, the building was enlarged to accommodate the growing congregation.
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| Family: |
Gilles and Michelle have four children: Jean-Michel, Pierre-Paul, Émilie, and Renaud.
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| Spiritual
Background: |
Jeremiah 29:13 resonates in a particular way for Gilles: "And you shall seek me, and find me, when thou search for me with all your heart." Gilles searched for God since his childhood days. He did not meet God in the Roman Catholic Church of his youth, nor in the two years he spent with the Brothers of the Sacred Heart. He then sought God in the "peace and love" movement, nature worship, Buddhism, etc. He searched, but he was "blown about by every wind of doctrine."
Ten years passed in futile searches until a friend at work presented Jesus Christ as the only way. After listening to messages by an evangelist and asking many questions, Gilles accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Saviour in Quesnel, BC. On his profession of faith he was baptized and was then asked if he would like to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, as this was a Pentecostal church. However, after listening to many people praying and seeking this baptism, he left the church because he saw this as a form of mass hypnotism.
Gilles was truly born again but remained without further spiritual nourishment. For a time he fell back into the world, but one year later, desiring to have fellowship with God, he moved to the Gaspé Peninsula. There he met some traveling "Christians" who invited him to become part of their group. Lacking discernment, he joined them. The group rapidly became more extreme. Finally they took refuge on a mountaintop and predicted that Christ would return in February 1979.
Gilles left this group in June 1979 and returned to Saint-Hyacinthe, his hometown. In His grace, God led him to meet young people from the French Baptist church in Saint-Hyacinthe who were working on a college campus. Although he was wary of "Christians" because of his previous experience, in time he grew in the knowledge of God's Word, and gradually learned to serve the Lord in the campus ministry, and other areas of evangelism.
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| Ministry
Experience: |
The first time Pastor Richard Houle asked him to become a servant-in-training he refused because he felt incapable of such a task. God worked in his heart and in October 1981 he became a servant-in-training. Isaiah 42:1-6 was particularly encouraging for him at that time: "Behold my servant whom I uphold… I will hold thine hand." He began theological training with SEMBEQ.
Following their marriage, Michelle and Gilles worked in the Verdun/Lachine area before returning to Saint-Hyacinthe. He went back to secular work for a period of time, but was actively involved in ministry at the Saint-Hyacinthe church. He then answered a call to pastor a small country church at Sainte-Aurélie, Quebec, where he served for five years.
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