ENGAGING AND IMPACTING THE COMMUNITY
A Church Plant in Montreal by Andy Williams
Church planter Gary Smith is still reaping benefits from a community-wide event sponsored five years ago by Renaissance Church in Montreal.
"We still have people who come to our church for the first time, and they met us four or five years ago at our Fall Festival," Smith said. "It's been amazing to see that continue to happen."
In a spiritually rock-hard city, where years of religious animosity has built up because of oppressive and ineffective churches, Smith and his core team knew it would take something out of the ordinary to grab the attention of the native Quebecois.
"Because of the distrust and even hatred of the church, we had to work hard to build trust," said Smith, who moved his family to eastern Canada in 2001. "We knew the Gospel would flow on the heels of trust."
So Smith and his team hit the streets to wash windows of local businesses, deliver fresh-baked goods and clean up graffiti in the most popular park in the city - a move that proved to be the most strategic of all.
When the Renaissance crew was planning its first Fall Festival, city officials offered them that prime location that is rarely - if ever - available for private events.
"They said, 'Because of what you did for us in cleaning up this park, we want to allow you to use it for your party,'" Smith said. "People were just shaking their heads, wondering how we got permission to use it. Multi-million dollar corporations have tried to use that park, and can't get it."
The Fall Festival - complete with a pumpkin-throwing contest, Quebec folk music and dancing and family photos - was a huge hit. More than 700 people attended the first event. In the second year, more than 100 people volunteered to pull off the Festival for 1,500 guests.
"We are still blown away by what God did there," Smith said. "The biggest impact was on our reputation in those early days. We would mention something about Renaissance, and people would say, 'I've heard of that church.' It became known as a church that cared about our community, and a place people could find healing. It gave us credibility in the community."
Renaissance has continued to reach into the city of Montreal, and church leaders are using lessons learned from those early events to hone their strategy for engaging the community.
The first word of advice they would pass on to other church planters, Smith said, is that bigger is not always better. In the early days, Renaissance used all of its resources to "blitz" the area and get word out on the event, leaving very little time, energy and money for follow-up.
"If 2,000 people show up for an event, but you aren't able to do anything with them after that and you don't have a strategic way to follow up, what have you really accomplished?" Smith said.
With those finding tucked away, Smith said the church's most effective community event now is a series of kid's summer day camps. With Montreal boasting one of the highest rates of dual-income couples in North America, it has been a direct hit for serving people in the community.
Renaissance served about 300 kids this summer. With that being a manageable number, day camp teams are able to get contact information for the families it serves and has extensive follow-up that includes invitations to parties and special events.
"It took us awhile to figure out what we're best at, and what would meet a huge need in the community," Smith said. "The families we serve are telling us we do a better day camp than anybody in the city - at one-half to one-third of the cost. It's another way we're building trust and credibility."
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