Fishing In A Small Pond

'Come follow me, and I will make you fishers of men' - Jesus.

Here's my response: let's play. Let's fish for men. Let's bring the Gospel to those who really can use it. Let's put out into deep water, let the nets down, and catch us some fish!

Jesus said these words to experienced professional fishermen who had caught nothing, nothing at all, all night long. He comes along, a carpenter, and tells them they're doing it all wrong. 'Drop your nets on the OTHER SIDE of the boat' he says. Oh, the other side! Of course! What were we thinking! Stupid us, we thought just as many fish would be on one side as the other! OK Christ, I'll do what you say... What the...
'I know how fishing works, and I know how men are. I'll show you how to fish for men.'

So I have followed Jesus, followed His leading to Aldergrove. I've said before that if I'd gone to plant a church in Vancouver, I might have a number of families with me from the start. But Aldergrove? Such a small town! Such a small pond! I've said before that Aldergrove has people who need the Gospel too. But how many are open to receiving it? We've said we're not necessarily here for everybody in Aldergrove, but for those who 'could really use' the Gospel, ie. those who are open to it. Is it feasible to start a church in Aldergrove, or should I be content with starting a Bible Study?
In Aldergrove, we currently have 3 families (and some) involved with Access Church. 7 adults, 5 kids. 12 people in a town of 12,000. Translate that to the city of Vancouver, and Access Church is a bustling 578 souls in a city of 578,041. But is that bad math? Does that even really matter? Sadly, not when the bills come due. NO, I am NOT in this for the money. But I am increasingly aware as my family grows (along with my responsibility to them) that I can't continue to fish in small ponds and keep food on the table.

So what? Do we throw our nets over to the other side of the boat? What does that even mean? Do we abandon our nets and our boat to follow Jesus somewhere else? Do we continue to lean on Him and learn from Him how to fish for men? Am I a bad leader for not being able to inspire more people to follow, or am I in the wrong place, or will it just take more time?

The conflicted thoughts of a church planter. Please post if you have any wisdom or thoughts on this.

Access Community...

In July 2010 we started our prime Access Community. It happened almost by accident, and it was the life saver that we needed at that point in our church planting journey.
Up till that time, we had previously attempted an 'attractional strategy', aimed at holding services and building a following through monthly gatherings. When that didn't work, I went underground, building up awareness of our mission and intention in Aldergrove. To be truthful, I was dissapointed and discouraged at that point of our journey, wondering how we would move forward.  In June I encountered another Aldergrove resident who had the same vision for a church plant here, and we decided that we'd begin meeting regularly, every two weeks, and invite others to come along.
As it turned out, at our first Access Community get-together we had 16 people attend. It seemed that once we got the ball rolling, things started happening. Momentum was building. Out of those 16 people, we held on to two other families (making up three families) to form something of a 'core group'. Five months into it, we're still at three families, and we're still meeting bi-weekly (that is, every other week).
Of course, we decided to change up the schedule for Hallowe'en, believing that it was a good opportunity for all to be involved in our respective communities. We said that we would meet the following week instead. As it happened, 4/5 of my family was sick, another family was away, and so we decided once again to call off our get-together.  Now here we are, not having met together for a month.
It has become apparent that meeting bi-weekly doesn't foster the kind of community that is required to maintain our momentum. We know one another to an extent, but not deeply enough to really 'be with' one another, trusting each other with our spiritual or life journeys.  Yes, there have been other factors in this loss of momentum - such as the birth of our youngest son in October and the lead-up to that, the reality and dynamics of family life with small children (for us and for another family in our core), and the pressures and timelines of work, as well as the transitory nature of Aldergrove.
What this has all taught me, however, is that we need to step up our collective commitment to our Access Community. This means going weekly with our meeting together, as well as making intentional effort to get together on an unscheduled/casual/friendly basis throughout the week, and of course times of corporate prayer and worship.
A church will not be planted by disconnected core.  The next step in the journey is to connect those in the core socially, spiritually, and physically.

Two Steps Forward...

What's going on with Access? That's a question I am asked quite often lately. We've been living in Aldergrove for 1 year now, which seems like a long time, but it's gone by in a flash! Taralyn has been busy with our two boys, and growing our third child as well! I have been juggling a few different jobs, as well as taking care of and spending time with my family and, of course, church planting.
Whoever said that this would be easy?

We moved here last September 15, armed with a monthly commitment from our district (www.lpd-efcc.ca), a part-time job at Dead Frog Brewery, another part-time job as a care worker for my brother Ryan, and a fail-proof strategy for planting Access Church by Easter.
At this point, I'm still with Ryan, for more hours per week than before. I'm no longer at Dead Frog. And I'm facilitating workshops with people on Income Assistance, meeting a ton of great people in Chilliwack, Port Coquitlam, and Maple Ridge (all three of which communities, by the way, really need church plants!). We haven't 'planted' Access yet either, but we are 'two steps ahead'.

After taking a long, hard look at our dream dying, we spend a couple of months trying to rebuild our confidence. We attended Bootcamp with the EFCC, and also Oasis Retreat. But the big break came in July, when we made plans with David and Linda Williaume to get together every other Sunday evening for dinner, and we'd see who else would turn up.

As it turned out, we had 16 people at our first dinner, including 6 kids! The numbers have fluctuated since then, but a year into church planting in Aldergrove, there are three couples committed to the journey, rather than just one. We are truly two steps ahead. The Eddys, the Williaumes, and the Deyettes have grouped together to make Jesus and His Gospel known in Aldergrove. We're meeting together regularly, building up our relationships with one another, and strategizing how we'll continue to minister to the others God has brought around us. There's a couple living close to the Deyettes that I'm also connected to from the past. There are other families from previous churches that have been at least peripherally interested in being involved, and there are untold numbers of people connected to our three families.

They say that 'luck' happens when opportunity meets preparation. God is doing something here in Aldergrove, most notably He's preparing us, the Access Core, for when opportunity strikes, to share His Gospel in this town on a larger scale. Until that happens, we continue to plod along. We're starting a series on Timothy Keller's "The Prodigal God" this Sunday, which will take us into December. We're thinking maybe of doing Francis Chan's "Crazy Love" after that. And we continue inviting our neighbours into our homes, and to our dinners together as well, to experience The Prodigal God's Crazy Love.

We're also holding a fundraising dinner on November 27 at Abbotsford Evangelical Free Church. Tickets will be $20, for more information email me chad@accesschurch.ca.

Please continue to pray for us. We really need to expand our core, and to become effective at ministering to one another, so that we will be prepared to minister to many in Aldergrove.

Update...

It has been about two months since my last post, "Recap". Let me bring you up to speed.

Access Church is still moving forward, albiet in a slightly different direction (by degrees) than it was a few months ago. As I told you in the Recap, we have altered our Strategy from 'launching' an attractional BIG EVENT weekly service on April 4. But what have we altered it to? Well that's a little difficult to explain...

First, we will NOT be 'Launching' on April 4. I am terribly sorry if that's a big disappointment to you. It was, in fact, a big disappointment to me at first. It seemed that our Launch was what we were working toward, what we were working for even. And if our Launch didn't happen, well then what is this all about? Should we simply cancel and fold? Still, for the reasons I stated in the last post, it didn't seem like Launching was really what God had on our hearts.

Because our church planting has to be about more than the Launch (despite what Nelson Searcy might say). First of all, it has to be about Jesus and His glory. Secondly, it's gotta be about the people in Aldergrove (not in New York). It has to be about building community - Gospel Community. So if we fail to launch but we see Jesus' glory and the Gospel being lived out in community, then we've achieved what we're aiming for. Funny, then, that I felt like such a failure for pulling the plug on launching. Just goes to show where my idolatries lie.

So we've canceled the Launch. Now what? Well, it's going back to developing community. What does that mean? It's interesting that since we've put the Launch to death, seeds of new things have started sprouting. One thing that happened is that at work (I work at Dead Frog Brewery) I asked for more shifts, more hours, more responsibility (more pay). As I was working one night, one of the guys asked me to tell him about Christianity. I asked, 'what do you want to know?' and he asked some questions, but as the hours went by he simply said, 'tell me anything you want to tell me about your religion'.

Now, you've got to understand, I was thrown for a loop by this request. This is the type of openness that I've mocked Christians for believing someone would one day present to them. Just short of "what must I do to be saved", this is the opportunity every XN with a little bit of an evangelist's heart waits and yearns for. And I had nothing! Well, not really... I have the Holy Spirit and I prayed and asked God to fill me with His inspiration. So we talked about hope, that which Jesus offers to the world. We talked about the purpose of life and the glory of God, about salvation and hell and heaven and new creation, about God's love and justice, mercy and holiness. Mostly we talked about hope. I told him that I was meeting with a few guys to discuss the Bible at a local Bar and Grill, and he said he'd love to join us. That's happening this Tuesday.

The guys I'm meeting with are two guys I feel called to 'disciple'. One is my buddy Dan. We were friends in high school, lost touch for 10 years, and then through facebook reconnected just before he asked his girlfriend to marry him. I got to officiate the ceremony, which means that I got to meet together with Dan and Monica over the next year and a half for premarital prep. Over that time, Taralyn and I presented the Gospel to them. When we were planning to plant this church I told them what we were about and they were thrilled to 'help get it going'. Unfortunately, Monica has had to work each Sunday but Dan has been at almost each 'prelaunch service'. I've carefully explained the Gospel at these, and laid out how we might receive Jesus' salvation ourselves. Later, I asked Dan where he's at, and he confirmed he's a believer and a Christian! Clearly, God is directing me to disciple this good friend of mine.

The other guy is Lucas. He's been a Christian for years. In fact, Lucas was on the missions trip that was so foundational to my own journey and desire to plant churches 14 years ago. Then, he was a teenager. Now, he's grown up and married with a son, but not really connected to a discipling church. We haven't connected deeply yet, but I feel a deep compulsion to disciple him.

I'm looking forward to getting together with these guys and others at what we're calling "Beer and Bible" on Tuesday nights. I'm also looking forward to connecting with them and their wives, seeing our families interact, and building Gospel Community with them together. THAT'S my focus right now.

There are others in this town who God has called me to bring together, people who are Christians looking for community. We're getting together tonight for a social time of games and snacks, and we'll see where it goes from there. My vision now is to build this Gospel Community, and to inspire the others to do the same. As we move forward, we'll call these Communities together and form something of a structure for discipleship and worship, outreach, and connecting (Faith, Mission, Community). Maybe at that time we can start our Access Gatherings again, but gathering together communities rather than individuals.

That's the way it looks right now. We're living in the midst of it, we can't really see the forest with our nose up against the bark, but we're trusting Divine guidance! Thanks for your prayers, support and encouragement!

Recap

I thought I'd take some time and recap my church planting experiences here:

In June of last year my time of ministry at Langley Evangelical Free Church came to an end, and so did seven years of paid youth ministry. It was time, after over 12 years of dreaming, hoping and waiting, for me to start preparing to plant a church. I checked and double-checked with my wife Taralyn - are you sure we're ready to do this? She responded with a hesitant 'yes', which was much further than she was able to go two years prior when we had broached the subject previously. In 2007 I was between jobs, wondering if that was the time to strike out and plant a church. Taralyn assured me it was not. I thought she wasn't ready, but as it turned out she was discerning enough to identify that really, WE weren't ready. Now, in 2009, we were ready. To plant a church? Maybe. To have the faith to step out? That's more the case.
Taralyn and I started to think, dream, and strategize about the church. Two things we did first: 1. we identified the place and people we were called to - Aldergrove, BC. 2. we developed a strategy for starting up, including planning a launch date, enlisting a team of supporters, moving to the area, planning a series of pre-launch preview services, etc.
In hindsight, what we didn't do was develop a MISSIONAL strategy. We didn't, at that point, identify many ways to make inroads in the community, other than finding a job and hoping to get a membership at a fitness club. We're still playing catch-up with that.
So, let's talk about some things that, so far, have 'worked':
- we moved to Aldergrove on September 15. Taralyn found an amazing little house for rent on Craigslist and set up an appointment to see it. It was the first place we looked at, and we were the first to see it. Two days later, we were invited to rent it. That was a step of faith, because rent is a little more than what we were paying previously, and we had no income as of the end of September. But, we figured, to pay ANY rent would be a step of faith - we might as well get this place which we see is 'perfect' for our family and our mission. It's part of a family-oriented neighbourhood - a playground is a 2-minute walk away, kids are always playing in the street... there's plenty of opportunity for ministry here. Plus, it's a house - 2 stories, 3 bedrooms, laundry room, an office/toy room, and the real 'must' - a dishwasher!
- We've developed a good network of prayer support, and started to build a financial support base. We still have a way to go on this, but God has stirred peoples' hearts to give to this mission. I took Ministry Partner Development with Power to Change in September, where I learned how conversations go with prospective donors. I've met with a number of people, sent letters out, and have seen God respond with peoples' generosity.
- I got a job at Dead Frog Brewery. I prayed that God would open up opportunity for work at a place where I could shine the light of Christ brightly, and that place ended up being Dead Frog. I've met some great people there, and had some really good and interesting conversations. I continue to work at Dead Frog one day a week.
- Monthly Pre-Launch services. We have a team of people from North Delta and Langley Evangelical Free Churches who come and help us once a month to put on our pre-launch services. These have been moderately well-attended, and very successful, but not in the ways that we were hoping/planning. The people who have come have been able to hear the Gospel, and engage in dialogue, as well as start to develop relationships with one another.

Okay, now the things that haven't worked as we had expected.
- First, with the Pre-Launch Preview services. Apparently, Field of Dreams is a lie. 'If you build it...' they still might not come. It takes more these days than inviting people to a service to build a church. Although I've been consistently inviting people personally to COME TO us, and attend our preview services, they don't (for the most part). Yes, people are very interested in what we're doing, but no, they don't make coming to us a priority. What might be a better idea? Probably finding ways to GO TO them. That sounds like what we have come to call "being missional" and it's much different, much more difficult in some ways, much less program-oriented, than putting on services.
- Secondly, our whole strategy that we worked out for building our church centered on the gathering, the prelaunch service and the 'church launch'. I see this now as a mistake. In fact, I wish I could take back out 'launch date' and develop a strategy instead of building relationships. I say "I wish", and I probably can, but at this point I'm playing catch-up. I HAVE BEEN building relationships, but that needs to be my first priority, even over starting services. Yes, I still think that gathering is important for a church, but not at the expense of relationships; rather as a conduit for relationships. If the gathering isn't achieving that goal (which it is, and isn't) then things need to be adjusted, for now.
- Third, support-raising. It's tough! And people saying 'no' or not following through isn't a great motivation to keep going on. I haven't met with anyone for a while, but I will be getting back on the phone in the next week.

On January 10, we held our fourth pre-launch service, but this time we diverted from our plan slightly. Instead of keeping with our series "Journey to Hope in Aldergrove", we diverted and gave our 'vision spiel'. Our plan is to discover who else is in Aldergrove, who God is calling to partner with us in this. We've come to realize that we can't do this on our own, we need what they call a 'core team' to build this church together with. As missional as we want to be, we need others to do it with us, to encourage us, to connect with people in their own spheres. So we invited everyone we know in Aldergrove, even those who go to other churches. If they hear what we're about, God may call them to join us. It's not about stealing sheep either, as one Aldergrove pastor told me; they're not "my" sheep or "your" sheep anyway, they belong to the Shepherd, Jesus. It's the enemy, Satan, who steals. If God calls one of His sheep to join another flock then so be it. Still, it's been hard for me because I don't want to build a church from 'transfer' growth, but rather through conversion growth. But I need Christians involved as well.
So we gave our 'vision spiel'. It's for a church with three pillars: FAITH, MISSION, COMMUNITY. You can read about that here. Or you can hear it here.

Over 20 people showed up, more than ever FROM ALDERGROVE, and we gained some momentum. The next steps are to gather those people to do some acts of service in the community, and make ourselves known as being as much for Aldergrove as we are for ourselves. We're calling people together for mission, for community, and in faith. That brings us up to date.

I'm working with the Temporary Access Leadership Team on Access Strategy 2.0, and we'll roll it out to you as soon as it's prepared! This is an interesting journey, and we're learning tons along the way. Please keep checking in to http://candteddy.blogspot.com to join our journey!

Chad.

Missional : Kindness?

I was recently asked, "when you say 'missional', do you really mean 'servant evangelism'?"

Now, I'm no stranger to servant evangelism. Steve Sjogren, the grand poo-bah of that stuff is as familiar a name to me as any treasured Christian writer. I've been following his work for over a decade. I was introduced to "Conspiracy of Kindness" back in 1998, when Pat Bjurling, the youth pastor at Christian Life Assembly where I was the youth intern, took out our youth group under the influence of Sjogren (I always thought there was a connection in their names; Bjurling and Sjogren) to one of the communities near our church to hand out packets of seeds, and to tell our neighbours that we were simply "showing God's love (for them) in a practical way".

Textbook Servant Evangelism.

I loved it. For me, it took off. At my first official post as youth pastor in Winnipeg, I took kids out at Hallowe'en to give out lightbulbs, showing that Jesus is the Light of the World (but what we said is, "to show God's love in a practical way" - don't want to divert from excellence!). Later, when my ministry took us to North Delta, I started a festival called "Explosion", which was termed "an Explosion of Kindness" in the local paper. The whole premise was a week of worship and servant evangelism (or simply, 'worship and service in our community'). Explosion grew 100% in year two, bringing in 25 youth to take part, and it hasn't stopped in the six years since I left North Delta.

Yes, when I think of missionality, I do tend to think 'servant evangelism'. But yes, I know that there's more to being missional than handing out seeds and light bulbs, painting houses and picking litter.

'Missional', I think, is more of an attitude. It's an awareness that just like those sent to the Philippines or Samoa (or even somewhere less exotic), those of us who live 'normal' lives here in Canada can and (if we're Christian) SHOULD be intentional about our mission, which is Jesus' mission: to seek and save the lost.

Living missionally means intentionality in relationships. Yes, we need to be careful here that relationships aren't JUST about conversions. The way I see it, Jesus was intentional about His relationships - who He spent time with, and why. Yet not everyone He spent time with chose to follow Him. Neither will those He brings into our lives. Our job is to love them, to care for them, to show them God's love in practical, and intangible, ways.

Missional living ALSO means intentional action. This gets a lot of criticism, even from people I admire. They say that if missional living becomes a service event, then it ceases to be a lifestyle. Well, I guess you could say that the same threat exists for worship. Worship, like missionality, is meant to be a 24-7, everyday life attitude, yet most Christians say that worship is an event, what happens before the sermon on Sundays. Sad, yes. But I'm not sure many would argue that we need to stop 'worshiping' on Sundays so that a worship lifestyle could be cultivated (note: Soul Survivor kind of did this for a season and it seemed to work out for Matt Redman...). Social Kindness events can be a conduit through which missionality is practiced, exercised, and encouraged, but no it isn't the be-all and end-all of what missional living is. That is, however, an important distinction to make.

Yes, a week of servant evangelism/social kindness/whatever is coming up with Access Church. Please stay tuned for more information. If you're into missionality but not into a week of serving others, by all means stay home. But if you want to bless the community of Aldergrove by showing God's love in practical ways, then we invite you to be involved with us.

We've received so much, so freely; that's why we're giving it away freely.

Vision:Access

Faith | Mission | Community

This past Sunday, we 'launched' or 'unveiled' (or whatever other word you want to use) our vision for Access Church. The idea was that we would gather a group who might be somewhat interested in joining us, cast the vision, and see who sticks around. Our hope was to gain a greater 'core' of Aldergrove residents to join in the vision and mission of Access with us. Did it work? To a degree, yes. But I think that the real 'results' of the vision spiel (as I like to put it) will be seen in the lives of those who heard and were inspired, whether or not they join us at Access Church. To that end, I would like to make our vision spiel available to you, our faithful blog reader, to inspire you whether or not you ever enter into community with Access Church.

Our vision for what our church will become rests on the three pillars of faith, mission and community.

Faith is what comes first. A church that doesn't start with that isn't a church - it can be a service organization or a social club, but it's not a church. Our faith is more than a few creeds listed on the wall - it's a living faith which directs and reflects all that we do. Our faith is more than scripture memorization, a love for Old Testament stories, and a belief in a god. Rather, it's rooted in the Gospel of Jesus - and we see all of Scripture through the lens of that Gospel, as pointing to that Gospel, as telling the story of that Gospel. In the vision for Access Church, faith isn't separate from mission and community; rather, it gives structure and purpose to those other pillars. Our faith is in a God who stepped out of heaven to come to earth, in order to seek and save the lost (mission) and to bring reconciliation between God and man, man and man, man and himself, and man and creation (community).

Mission is essential to any church. A church without mission is nothing but a relic, a castle, a fortress for the faith. Sure, it defends its creed, but at the expense of living what it claims to believe - to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. Mission is about going into the world, living in the world, being involved in the world. What's the big deal? You ask? Aren't we all in the world? Yes, but there's a tendency for Christians to try their best to stay away from the world, to build up the fortresses and protect themselves and their loved ones from the big, dark world. But instead, Jesus told us that we ARE the light of the world. Our job is to take the light of Jesus into the dark world. We can no longer blame the darkness for being dark - we can only look at ourselves and ask why the light hasn't gone into those dark places. So the vision for Access Church is to be involved in our world, our neighbourhoods, our community, Aldergrove. It's not easy, especially in a culture where individuality and self-reliance are high values. We need to be bridge-builders between people, builders of community, not just between culture and the Gospel, but between people and people. We need to show God's love in practical ways intentionally. We need to give freely as we've received freely, to live generously.

Community has received a lot of lip service in a lot of places. Already I've mentioned it here. But a church that isn't a community isn't a church. This is the attractional piece to what it means to BE church - and attractional isn't bad when it's balanced with mission. How can we do mission together, if we don't have community with one another? What are we calling people to in inviting them to the Gospel when community doesn't exist? The vision for Access is that it will be a Gospel Community - one that involves Christians and non-Christians, one that's a movement, on a journey, one that's intentional and enjoyable and life-giving. Friendships between men, between women, and between men and women need to be central and purposeful. Somebody has said that friendships are the building blocks of spirituality - where relationships are stunted, friendship with God and spirituality is stunted. But Gospel Community goes beyond friendships. Somebody else has said that community is where your least favorite person lives. This kind of community takes commitment, and this kind of intentional commitment to community is what will mark Access Church as much as what we believe and how we live it out.

I dream of a community of restoration, of reconciliation. I dream of transformation in Aldergrove - economic, relational... people caring about their neighbourhoods in new and radical ways. I dream of recovery, of hope, of vision and purpose. I dream of Aldergrove in the nation's news as a community turned around, a source of light for all of Canada. This can happen as we embrace Faith, Mission and Community.

I dream of people swarming to the heart of downtown Aldergrove, the corner of 272 and Fraser, now known for violent acts and exploitation, and lifting up unshakled hands and voices in praise to Jesus, who has set them free from the oppression of sin, both in their personal lives and in their community.

Join us in dreaming and visioning a new future for Aldergrove, for what will happen when the Gospel impacts this town, as we live out our faith, mission, and community.

(to hear the Vision Spiel audio, click the title link or click here)

Pre-Launch Service #1 is behind us!

After years of dreaming, months of planning, and frankly weeks of stressing, we have begun our journey - the "Journey to Hope in Aldergrove", as we're calling our Access Church pre-launch series. Last Sunday, October 4 2009, we held our first pre-launch 'preview' service for Access Church at the Kinsmen Community Centre in Aldergrove. There were about 15 people in attendance; some of those were family, some part of the 'Access Mission Team' from other churches, and some were interested in becoming participants in our new community. Others were there just to check it out.

I preached a sermon called "Journey to Go

d" examining what a god is, how in some way we all have 'gods' that we serve, that we trust in to save us from what we consider to be personal hell. Then we looked at the God of the Bible, and that He is The legitimate God, not made in our image but we in His, not predictable or tame but just as we'd expect of the King of the Universe, on His mission, His agenda, ruling by His own wisdom not ours. You can listen to the sermon here - yes, we're already podcasting on iTunes!

We had plenty of refreshments - coffee and cookies and fruit and juice and water. "Access Kids" took care of our two little guys, Caleb and Carter. We offered the Lords Table to believers - Welch's grape juice in plastic shot glasses and bread cut from a loaf. Darrin Climie lent his carpentry expertise to making a cross for our use. We were lent a sound system and rented some microphones. Dan Stewart did a great job of leading us skillfully in worship. There was great community through conversation that happened. All in all, it was 'church'.

We arrived at 9am to start setting up (a

ctually, I think we got there at 9:10), but we began with prayer. We were finished the service by 12:05 and out of there by 1:00 when the dog obedience class showed up! The Kinsmen Centre was a fantastic place to hold the service, though there are a few lighting and space issues we need to re-think.

Thank you to all of you who participated. Thank you also, to those of you who have prayed with us for this. It's just the beginning. Our hope is that many of the people there on Sunday will return next month with someone else. At Alcoholics Anonymous, there's a policy that once you join you start actively looking for someone you can sponsor - we want something of that same spirit at Access - to be actively pursuing others you can bring along in the journey.

The next Access Pre-Launch Service is November 1 at 10:30 at the Aldergrove Kinsmen Community Centre, 26770 29 Avenue.