The following are the articles and stories from the August 2025 MIT Monthly newsletter. If you would like to sign up to receive this newsletter from the Missional Initiatives Team, you can fill out this form.
The Greatest Advice
From Strategy to Discernment
By Cam Roxburgh, VP of Missional Initiatives
I remember it like yesterday. Having just finished seminary, my wife and I had three options from which to decide what we would do next. We prayed, we considered, we asked people close to us . . . and we decided on this wonderful church planting opportunity to move into a new neighbourhood and take over an empty church building. The invitation was to gather a group of people who were following Jesus and focus on neighbourhood transformation.
I had no idea what to do. But I had a very wise mentor.
My brain raced ahead to the many things I thought ‘would work.’ These strategies were not bad, but they would have been my own and not from the Lord. I asked my mentor, John Zimmerman, what to do, and the answer he gave has forever changed not only my life, but I would suggest the lives of hundreds of others, maybe even more.
“Just walk the neighbourhood,” he said. “After you have moved in, begin to just walk the neighbourhood for at least three months and meet people. Sit in coffee shops or in the local community centre and ask what it is that God is doing. Do not rush things. Do not worry that you are not working – this is your work. See what it is that God is doing there. He will give you a plan for what he wants to see happen there.”
Perhaps the language has changed since then, but the advice is as solid as ever.
I did exactly what he prescribed. We moved in and I walked, and I talked, and I got a sense deep within my gut of what God wanted to see happen in that place. We saw many people not only “come to church” but be introduced to Jesus. We were convinced that God was leading us into the things he was doing in that neighbourhood.
Since those days, I have been part of and led several church planting organizations. I have been privileged to work with many churches who diligently have come up with their vision, mission, and value statements. However, so many have missed that wonderful advice I received, which I now would articulate as “dwelling, discerning and discovering.”
Far too many times, churches settle for a strategy of being successful. Of course we emphasize prayer within that strategy, but it seems as if we rely on our own agency instead of trusting in God’s. I remember being part of a team of wonderful men and women who wrote the Church Planting Guidebook for Church Planting Canada. We were doing our best at the time. We wanted to see many churches planted and wanted to be a help to the many men and women who, through their love for Jesus, were stepping out in faith to plant churches. We put them through assessments and then taught them to come up with their own mission, vision, and values that would shape their churches for years to come. But today, I would do it differently.
I would first give the advice that John gave me. Dwell. Without immersing ourselves in scripture and in the neighbourhood, how can we create space to pay attention to what God is doing? This should be the norm for every Christ-follower.
Then after dwelling, we need to Discern. But discerning takes work as well.
We need to learn to listen to peoples stories. Often, when we think we are listening, we are actually thinking of our own situation, how we will respond, or creating an argument to refute what they are saying. We might be listening merely to solve their problem.
Instead, we need to simply listen.
Listen to the story they are telling us. Be present. Be focused. Be attentive. For it is only when we seek to hear their story that we may well begin to hear the voice of the Spirit telling us what he is doing in their lives.
This is discernment. Hearing the voice of the Spirit and how he is at work in the life of another or in that place. This is so different than beginning with a strategy (usually it begins with starting a new worship service). If we are paying attention, we will likely hear the Spirit’s voice inviting us on a journey with plans and even a strategy, but discernment must come first.
A final word. After discernment, we come to the final step of Discovery.
We come back to community and share what we have discerned with others. Then, together we step out in faith, recognizing that we will not always hear correctly. Often we will be surprised by how God begins to work through us, but on occasion, we will have to circle back and discern again. But this is where the grace of God is at work, patiently walking with us as we seek to follow him into his ways of redeeming all things.
Anatomy of the Holy Spirit’s Movement
How God Works through His People in Ordinary Life
By Deb Judas, Missional Initiatives Team
A Random Introduction:
I first met Karen at the gym I belonged to. She was an excellent fitness instructor, and while I tended to stay away from classes and just do my own thing at the gym, a friend convinced me to give Karen’s class a try. I did. And I was hooked.
A Situation Arises:
About six months later, our gym closed down suddenly and without notice. At the end of Karen’s final class, she invited people to write down their contact info if they were interested in finding out where she would be teaching next.
A Holy Spirit Nudge:
It was at this moment that I heard a quiet voice in my head say, “Don’t lose track of Karen.” And so I went and added my name to her list, not knowing or even really thinking much about what this might lead to.
Following the Holy Spirit’s Lead:
A few months later, I got an email from Karen saying she was starting up her own fitness workouts from her home and would I like to join? I still had not found a gym I liked, and she only lived five minutes away from me, so I was excited to give her workouts a shot.
The Quiet Work of the Holy Spirit:
Over the course of the next couple of years, Karen and I became friends. Often on those very early morning workout sessions, it was just the two of us, and we had some really meaningful conversations about life, faith, and church, the latter one being a little bit of a bone of contention. 🙂 She knew I was a pastor and had many questions about God and opinions about church.
During this time, Karen shared that she had a desire to open her own wellness and fitness studio. We brainstormed together and came up with a name, and she made the big step of finding a place to lease and then opened her studio to the public. Her client base began to grow, and she hired admin staff and fitness instructors, even convincing me to become a fitness instructor! She mentored me through all my training, and I started teaching classes and bootcamps on the side.
The Holy Spirit’s Move:
One day, in conversation, it came out that our church plant was struggling and needed to find a cheaper place to rent for our Sunday gatherings. Karen generously offered her studio at a very low price, and we made the move. As time went on, Karen would sit in the front office and listen in on our Sunday worship services. Eventually, she began to sneak into the back row. As well, our conversations about God became deeper and her curiosity stronger. Finally, she became a regular attender and got involved in our various ministries and events. And then it happened – she gave her life to Jesus! She was baptized and became a member and was ALL IN. She has never looked back.
A Ministry Begins:
As time went on, the line between her business, church, and ministry began to blur. Her studio became her mission field. And then our church got pulled in, and we found ways to support Karen, our members attended her classes and some of us worked for her. It turns out Karen is an evangelist! She can’t help herself. Her love for Jesus and the Gospel just pours out of her.
The Blessing of the Holy Spirit:
Fast forward to today. Our struggling church plant eventually folded. Our people scattered to other churches and ministries. Karen became very involved in the prayer and deliverance ministry at her new church. She now has many years of training and is full of powerful stories. We have always remained friends. She is my “go-to” when I need a good laugh, a good cry, prayer, or spiritual advice. She avidly pursues Jesus every single day, and her joy is infectious.
And this year, God has blessed me again. After a year of discernment, Karen has made her way over to my church (The Neighbourhood Church in Surrey, British Columbia) and now we get to serve together again in ministry. I can’t wait to see what happens next.
This is an almost twenty-year story of friendship, ministry, and the movement of the Holy Spirit in ordinary life in our neighbourhood.