The changing face of Montreal churches By Terry Cuthbert "One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: 'Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city'" (Acts 18:9,10, NIV). The Apostle Paul l had an intentional strategy for communicating the gospel to his generation. He targeted the major urban centres of the Roman Empire—ultimately traveling all around the Mediterranean, from Jerusalem to Rome. In the first century, the gospel spread primarily among city dwellers. We can assume that the influence of the gospel then radiated to smaller centres and into the countryside. Like the apostle Paul, we believe God has many people in our city that belong to Him. The island of Montreal is one of our prime mission fields. Although we are assisting with church planting efforts in other parts of the province of Quebec, the need is greatest where the population is the densest. The greater Montreal area has over 3 million people. Of this number, only 0.3% (or 9,000 people) attend Sunday services at an evangelical church. French Fellowship churches are making some progress in the Montreal area. Église Baptiste Évangélique de Rosemont, our flagship church in Montreal, is growing in depth and breadth. The newest daughter work out of this fertile mother church began in January 2007. Look at the photos and read the news item about the multicultural church plant in Côte-des-Neiges, on the inside of this newsletter. A related story is the revitalization of Rosemont’s daughter church in Montréal-Nord. In the east end of the city, two small congregations have merged into a stronger church now called Église Évangélique Baptiste de l’Est de Montréal. In Lachine, following the retirement of Lorne Heron, one of our esteemed pioneers, Cléo and Huguette Leblanc, a French Mission missionary couple, have assumed interim responsibility for this work. The group has consolidated, found adequate meeting space, and is reaching out in order to grow. In Ahuntsic, the congregation has a renewed vision and purpose under the leadership of Sylvain Paradis. Pastors from Montreal churches hold monthly gatherings to plead with God to visit their city in a significant way. All these congregations, large or small, have one thing in common: a growing multicultural component. An increasing number of Montrealers can be divided into one of two linguistic groups: English second language or French second language. Snowdon Baptist Church, a thriving English second language congregation in Montreal with a membership of over 400, consists of people from 40 nationalities, speaking 20 different languages. Our Côte-des-Neiges church plant is striving to reach the French second language people in an overlapping area of the same community. I heard a pastor comment that when he stands on a street corner in this Montreal neighbourhood, the entire world passes before his eyes in the space of 70 minutes. In the past, English-Canadian and American missionaries worked cross-culturally to reach French Canadians—now it’s time for French Canadians to work cross-culturally to reach the growing immigrant population in their midst. All the congregations of the greater Montreal area must face the challenge of a growing multicultural reality that will complicate and enrich their ministry. Pray that God would give wisdom to all the church leaders in Montreal, granting them the vision and know-how to foster unity in the local body of Christ, amid increasing diversity.