We are often asked who are you reaching and how. Right now we are having our greatest growth ever. Long ago we concluded that we must reach out to the entire community, using every available method to reach every available person. This flies in the face of what the church growth gurus of that time said would bring growth. They taught that the church had to be homogeneous. We didn't believe we could have that luxury in such a small city and in light of such widespread needs. However, the small groups could be homogeneous. So we are reaching wide-cross sections of our community – the young and old, rich and poor - educated and uneducated, French and English - black and white. However, having said that we recognize it is necessary to particularly focus on children, youth and younger adults. The church never evolves into getting younger; consequently, we have to be deliberate and intentional in keeping our average age from taking the natural course of getting older.

Last year very thorough goals and strategies were "hammered out" amongst the pastoral team that God has honoured. As a result our children's attendance is around 75 over last year, and the youth has increased by more than 130. Our children's ministry has gone with a high tech/high touch philosophy and we are seeing hundreds of children and young families coming into the church because of it.

We first seek to wow parents and children with relevant themes and interactive "television-like" sets that help children quickly discover, this church is their church, not just their parents church. Parents feel like they are providing their child with the absolute best in Christian education... and their kids drag them to church rather than the old paradigm of parents dragging kids.

The Nursery and Castleland are introducing the youngest members of our church to the love of Jesus Christ, and they are loving it! The Castleland is a large room where three to five year olds gather for a portion of the morning and interact with puppets, see Bible stories unfold in front of them, and sing their little lungs out! It's an exciting place to be. Children and parents alike are wowed by the huge castle built right inside the room, and the painted murals throughout the room. It's a royal treat for everyone! The remainder of the morning involves crafts and stories in smaller groups.

Our Promiseland Park continues to wow elementary kids, and their parents when they walk into the set. The artificial turf, park benches, bright sky, and forest of trees invite children into the sunny set where they are entertained and taught the day's lesson. The lessons are always well packaged inside relevant themes and characters. Sponge Bob Squarepants, popular breakfast cereals, monster trucks and race cars are just a few of the things that "preach" to kids in this church. After the Promiseland Main Event, children gather in small groups known as Campsites. It in these groups that children truly connect with their leaders and with each other, ultimately providing the opportunity to connect with Jesus Christ!

Our high tech emphasis is designed to attract kids, and the high touch philosophy of small groups in children's ministry keeps them coming back. You cannot have one without the other... well, you can, but that is the difference between attracting dozens of kids or hundreds of kids. We must reach EVERY available child, and with all the different kids out there we need to use a lot of different methods.

KIX 5/6 is our Grade 5 & 6 preteen ministry. We realized the need for a group that was tired of being treated like kids, but they were not yet ready to move into our Xtreme youth ministry. KIX 5/6 was born out of the realization that we had a unique group on our hands, and when we pulled this group out and went after meeting their needs we INSTANTLY TRIPLED the size of the group! It's more like Youth Ministry, but with a smaller age range so that no one is intimidated... or babied.

Our youth is experiencing explosive growth! Teens from every background are coming together both on Sunday mornings for what is called Growth Groups and Tuesday evenings for their big event, Xtreme Youth. Sunday evenings aren't just for the old folks, over a hundred teens are present every week at that service as well.

We are reaching more than 260 teens every Tuesday evening now, and consistently growing. Last week there were 270 in attendance. After looking through the list of students who come Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Tuesday nights, we are no doubt reaching more than 300 different teens every week! I attribute this growth to a number of things, first and foremost is leadership and long term planning.

It is interesting to note that the group that has been slowly growing for the past three years. Yet it is during this fourth year of similar ministry emphasis that things are now truly exploding and multiplying!

Too often, Youth Pastor's move on to their next church before ever getting to this point. They cheat both their church and personal ministries from ever experiencing the lasting growth that only comes from a long term plan with a long term commitment!

Our initial vision was called VISION 240. Simply put, we knew we needed 24 excellent small group leaders with each small group hosting a maximum of 10 teens. We knew we needed to WOW the students in the large group setting, but that the teens also needed to be noticed and cared for in these small groups. We recognized the power found in the "both-and" relationship rather than the "choose or lose" philosophy. You do not have to choose one narrow approach, small groups or big event. The synergy effect of "both-and" is far more powerful than most people realize.

We are moving well beyond this VISION 240 now, but it took a while to first develop the vision and then we still needed to cast the vision so that we would have the opportunity to develop the people needed to bring this vision into reality. It's a long process, which brings me to my next point.

We all must be is leading for lasting growth by building the infrastructure needed to maintain whatever the growth experienced and anticipated. The place he spends most of his time, talent, and resources is on the development of his student and adult leaders.

Leaders are given high expectations, are trained continuously, and are held accountable without exception. These expectations create a tight team, and you can tell from the results.

Adult leaders are cared for, encouraged, and each and every one are receiving ongoing training. It's all part of the agreement to ever get the opportunity to work with teens. Adults are first interviewed, carefully placed, and given clear expectations long before they are ever considered part of the team. If you are going to be a small group leader, you will clearly be told that you need to truly lead your small group. You will need to be present regularly, you'll call your teens, you'll go out with the teens, and you'll "be there" for your teens.

Student leaders form THE CORE. A small group of the brightest and best compete to fill the select number of seats available. When chosen they lead and learn to lead. They jump through hoops and have high expectations. I believe these students will be prize leaders in churches all over North America and around the world someday... and they are learning the ropes in youth!

One of these Student leaders for example leads a ministry known as the "Here 4 U Crew." She makes sure that her team makes every student feel welcome. From the "too cool for words" teen to the "too far gone loner," this group of students works the entire crowd. They place hundreds of calls to friends, bake cookies, and wait for people in the lobby. They go off all alone to other Youth Groups to experience what is like to show up somewhere and not know anyone. They then make sure that their lonely experience never happens here.

There are seven or eight other student led initiatives, each a powerhouse in growing this ministry for the long haul.

Finally, the youth ministry here is attracting teens from the entire student body of every school in our area. The jocks, the brains, the beauties, the loners, the popular kid, the winners and the losers are all welcomed and gone after.

The Church is to be a place of love and acceptance and forgiveness. Everybody is to be welcome. Last year's graduating group from our Youth ministry was a "who's who" list of provincial achievers! Miss Teen New Brunswick, the big name football players, the Drama award winners, the aspiring chiefs, the super achievers, the dreamers and the not-yet noticed are all welcome and as sought after in this youth ministry as they are in the Kingdom of God.

Our youth ministry is a perfect example of our church wide philosophy to reach EVERY available person. While the experts continue to say that you need to carve out a narrow niche, we have gone the path that a few of North America's largest churches are beginning to articulate.

While many still hold to the old adage that the people who try to be all things to all people often end up being nothing. We continue to offer an alternative philosophy that grows out of the biblical belief that Jesus died for all, that none should perish, and that it is not up to us to pick and choose who our demographic audience should be.

While others fine tune their niche, we're welcoming hundreds that don't yet fit elsewhere into the Kingdom of God.

A complete redefinition of church on Sunday nights has generated record crowds with an increase of more than 150 over last year. For example, Sunday night has become more like a production. Nothing is ever the same for Sunday night to Sunday night. All tradition is abandoned and anything goes that is not sinful. The service always concludes with a very, very strong spiritual challenge and opportunity to make a spiritual decision.

Another major factor that has helped our growth has been to broaden our appeal by developing three distinct services on Sundays, the contemporary, classic and creative. When we first started two services on Sunday mornings several years ago, having two distinct services hindered the growth of the first service. No matter how hard we tried we only had a handful at 9:30. Now 9:30 is larger than 11:00! However, as time has passed and we have sought to be more contemporary, the people who were ministered to by the more familiar music felt somewhat alienated. With three distinct services, we now have the best of both worlds and everyone is being blessed by what best ministers to them. Consequently, everyone is happier, and the moral is higher, and Adult attendance on Sunday morning has grown by over 100!

All of this has presented major space challenges. Several groups meet off campus on Sunday. All of our space including my office is multi use and this poses for some frustration and tension. We constantly challenge our people to give up selfish agendas (what I like makes me comfortable, etc. ) for an unselfish agenda (what will help us to reach the most for Christ whether I approve or not). This is a constant challenge but the majority have responded favourably.

We believe that keeping new people is our biggest challenge. Our approach again is very deliberate and intentional, our theme being "come & connect". This is done by connecting them spiritually, getting them saved, connecting by involvement in ministry and by participating in a small group. New people are invited to our guest centre after each morning service. Refreshments are served, detailed information about the ministries are given, questions are answered and guided tours of the church offered. We ask our people to always introduce themselves to new people and never walk away from them without having introduced them to someone else. This makes everyone feel valued, appreciated and accepted. Consequently, they are far more open to the message and ministry to their needs.

People do not want the "same old, same old". Because of the impact of television, internet, etc. multimedia people have different and higher expectations about the quality of ministry in the message presentation. Consequently, we use PowerPoint, video clips, drama, etc.

We believe God has called us to saturate our city with the gospel message - a tall order. We also feel called to be an encouragement to the entire church especially in this Atlantic region. If we can ever be helpful or an encouragement in any way, our pastors are available.