Posts by Erin Knight
BC Youth Centre Provides a Safe Harbour with Help of NewGround Partnership
Mission Youth House, also known as MY House, in Mission, BC, is a collaborative initiative to provide a place for youth to eat, shower, do laundry, access medical care and other services and receive help from caring adults. Mission Hills Community CRC has been a key partner in providing counseling to staff, prayer support, financial donations and volunteer support. In order to grow the ministry and move more into the spiritual transformational work within the ministry, they knew they needed some help.
Enter NewGround…
NewGround Partnership “Pays Off” for Brampton Church
The CAP Debt Centre has allowed the deacons and members of Crosspoint to cultivate relationships and care for people in Christ-centered and tangible ways, and to celebrate successes as they work together with clients in holistic ways.
Word continues to spread as residents and city organizations continue to contact them for help – help they would have been unable to provide without a NewGround partnership.
Read MoreNewGround Partnership Helps Church Love Refugees
“The refugee crisis desperately needs churches to show up in ways that further hope, healing, and reconciliation in the world,” Danielle Steenwyk-Rowaan, Open Homes Hamilton’s team leader, shared.
With the help of a NewGround grant, New Hope Church in Hamilton, ON showed up to partner with Open Homes Hamilton. This new partnership has allowed New Hope to welcome refugee claimants into communities of belonging and has reminded them of the transformative power of the ancient Christian practice of hospitality.
Read MoreOvercoming Spiritual Roadblocks in Ministry – Devotion #2: Prayer Changes Things
When we step into the place of prayer, it is often to ask the Lord to change circumstances. We pray for healing for someone who is sick, comfort for someone who is grieving and for the Lord to change the heart of someone who is walking away from God’s kingdom. Prayer changes things, and the Lord is able to move in people’s lives and circumstances because we pray.
But prayer does not just change a situation…
Read MoreServing God’s Church and the Community as a Diaconal Coach
Len Bakelaar served as a Diaconal Coach in Classis Huron for over 18 years. When Len ‘hung up his hat’ and retired from being a Coach back in June of 2020, we asked him to share about his time with Diaconal Ministries.
Read MoreSowing Seeds of Community in a Pandemic
The city and region of East Preston, Nova Scotia is now considered a “food desert”. With the help of a Covid-19 grant from Diaconal Ministries and World Renew Canada, John Calvin CRC in Truro is working with the community of East Preston and sharing their community garden expertise.
Read MoreOvercoming Roadblocks in Ministry – Devotion #1
STEPHEN – FULL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Acts 6 describes the establishment of the role of deacon within the community of believers. A dispute over meeting the needs of the Greek and Hebrew widows led to the leadership making the decision to find people who could meet the needs within the community.
The leaders looked for people who were described as being full of the Holy Spirit. They found Stephen who is described as being “a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 6:5)…
The fact that the apostles specifically looked for people who were full of the Holy Spirit suggests that some of the congregation were not! So were some only half full? Were others empty? Just exactly what did the apostles mean when they looked for people full of the Holy Spirit?
Our Top 10(+) Blog Posts of 2020
Because last year was such a unique year AND because here at Diaconal Ministries we like to do things just a little bit differently, we are presenting our Top 11 Blog Posts of 2020.
Read MoreOvercoming Roadblocks in Ministry
Over the course of the next 10 months or so, we want to make deacons aware of the realities of spiritual roadblocks that can show up in ministry AND help them deal with these kinds of challenges. To do this, we are producing a brand new set of devotions, which will be rolled out once/month on our e-Quip Diaconal Blog in 2021. The focus of the devotions will be how the Holy Spirit equips and empowers deacons (and all believers) to do the work of ministry and advance the Kingdom of God. We will be building up a ‘spiritual’ toolbox of resources for deacons…
Read MoreEdmonton Church Combines Care and Connection during Covid
So far 20 churches across Canada have received funds from a joint Covid-19 Grant Fund, sponsored by Diaconal Ministries Canada and World Renew Canada. Approximately $60,000 has been put into the hands of deacons and churches longing to reach out to their local communities during this pandemic. Churches are finding creative and sustainable ways to…
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