Moment #155 – Gilles Lapierre Transfers Coaching Responsibilities to Gilles Farley

Coaching has always been an important part of SEMBEQ’s training process, but became even more fundamental with the beginning of the Cohort Program which started in 2004 (see Quebec Alive Moment #53). Each student was required to have a coach who would meet with the student several times a month to work on his academic, spiritual and ministry development.  One of the difficult aspects was that most of the coaches had never been coached before and, therefore, it was new territory.  Gilles Lapierre (right) took over the responsibility to develop a coaching process which would be effective in the student’s training.  After much research and experience over the first few years of the Cohort Program, Gilles developed an excellent process which allows for the effective training of  both coaches and students  In 2009, Gilles Lapierre took over the responsibility as the Director General of the Association of the Evangelical Baptist Churches of Quebec (see Quebec Alive Moment # 52).  This change required him to cut back on some of his responsibilities with SEMBEQ, but he still remained the Coaching Coordinator.  As is the vision of SEMBEQ, Gilles was looking to hand over this coaching oversight to another and, as 2012 began, the responsibility of Coaching Coordinator was passed on to Gilles Farley (left).  Gilles has been a Cohort student (see Quebec Alive Moment #81) and a coach of several students and therefore has an excellent perspective for coaching.  Currently he will be working one day a week in this position, but as he looks to see how he can hand over some of his elder responsibilities in his home church in Gatineau, he hopes to be able to increase his time to 2.5 days per week.  Next week we will take a look at some of the goals Gilles has to coordinate the development of the increasing number of coaches necessary to meet the needs of SEMBEQ’s increasing number of students and to oversee the coaching process in general.  Please pray for both Gilles Lapierre and Gilles Farley as they faithfully serve the Lord’s work in Quebec.

Moment #154 – Montreal-Nord Considers Three Services

We have been following the Montreal-Nord church since the end of 2007, when it had an attendance of about 30.  As the Word of God was shared throughout the neighbordhood through door-to-door evangelism and personal witness and with follow-up discipleship, this church grew to about 75 in a matter of several months and then to about 100 within the first year.  The attendance was requiring a bigger facility, but all their efforts to secure more space were met with barrier after barrier.  However, the church continued to grow and they began two services in order to accommodate the attendance.  They continued to look for a larger facility and the Lord continued to add to His church.  The members were still going  door-to-door and following up with discipleship.  They started using a member’s home for part of  the Sunday school classes as the church reached 150 and then 175.  The attendance now is around 200 and a new facility which they can afford still has not been found.  Therefore, they are now seriously considering a third service, two in the morning and one Sunday evening.  God has now provided two homes right near the church, one for the teens and another for a women’s adult class.  The church is growing in both number and maturity and Robert Charpentier is working to pass the baton of leadership to Narcisse Yopa, a SEMBEQ student with the Rosemont Cohort.  Praise the Lord for His work in this church and pray for them as they consider a third service and develop the leadership for ministry.

Note: The church has decided to have a third service.  Praise the Lord!  Please continue to pray for the building needs of the church.

Moment #153 – Church-Bases Courses – Part 2

Last week we introduced you to SEMBEQ’s church-based courses. This week we would like to continue with some additional comments made by Francois Lalonde, who is an ambassador for this program for SEMBEQ.  In relation to the requirements necessary for taking one of these courses, Francois states, “We suggest a high school graduate or better.  One must be a believer, approved by the local church leadership, particularly for courses taken with credits. Our courses can be taken with or without credit, depending [on whether] the student is working towards a certificate or Bachelor’s or even Master’s degree.  Our courses can have 1.5 or 3 credits, depending on the time demands per course.  The costs vary, depending on whether the student is taking the course with or without credit.  The cost with credit is 70$ per credit and 55$ without credit.”

In respect to the actual class itself, Francois states, “Facilitators, sometimes pastors themselves, offer these courses at will. Some churches offer one SEMBEQ church-based course every year, some twice (fall and again in January), rarely during summer, but it does occur.”

Francois ends his comments with his prayer and vision for the aspect of SEMBEQ ministry.  “My prayer and vision is that every local Baptist Church in our association (or certainly most) offer church-based courses for the edifying of the Church and the building up of our leaders and that the Master could raise up men and women for His service, particularly shepherds, not mercenaries, but true shepherds.  Hosea 4:6; ‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.’  I consider it my privilege to have a small part in the building up of the saints and of the training up of the next generation of leaders.  Praise God for the vision of our pioneers who faithfully and sacrificially put the foundations on what has become SEMBEQ and what this modest seminary has produced in the Lord’s work in Quebec.  Other regions and countries have asked ‘us’ to help them in setting up a training model they can use in their setting.  All the honour and glory be given to the Lord of the Church and the Master of our modest seminary, called SEMBEQ, Seminaire Baptiste Evangelique du Quebec.”

Pray for Francois as he promotes this program of SEMBEQ and for all those teachers and students involved.

Moment 152 – Church-Based Courses – Part 1

SEMBEQ’s main objective is to help the local French Baptist churches in Quebec train their members for the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:12) and to use the coaching/mentoring concept as its fundamental method for training pastors, evangelists, church planters, elders, deacons, teachers and for any ministry the Lord is using for His glory in Quebec.  One of the programs used by SEMBEQ to give members a strong scriptural and doctrinal foundation upon which to grow is church-based courses.  In this Quebec Alive Moment and again next week, we will give you an overview of this program which has been in place since 1974, shortly after SEMBEQ was founded.  Recently, Francois Lalonde (pictured above with his wife, Lise) took on the responsibility of promoting the use of SEMBEQ’s church-based courses in the local French Baptist churches (see last week’s Quebec Alive Moment for information on Francois Lalonde).  Francois comments, “We started with these church-based courses in 1974 because we didn’t want our new converts to leave for college for several years and therefore deprive our new and growing churches of the best candidates for leadership.  These courses are college level [and] for the past 40 years…have been the foundation of our existence, helping the churches equip their leaders in the knowledge of the Word of God.  Over the past few years, each of our church-based courses [has] been [improved], using a more current style of learning…a guided reading style with discussions facilitated by a group facilitator.  The manual is the teacher in each course.”

The current courses available are: Survey of the Old Testament (4 courses), Survey of New Testament – Acts to Revelation (2 courses), Essential Doctrines (4 courses), Survey of the Gospels, The Establishment and Growth of the Church in Acts, The Letters of Paul and the Building Up of the New Churches in the First Century and Now, The Spiritual Personality of the Leader, The Challenges of  Ministry, The Family in the First Century and Now, Evangelism During the First Century and Now, The Heart of the Leader, and Training in the Local Church.  As you can see, these nearly twenty courses provide an excellent foundation for the work of the ministry.

Next week, we will continue with some other comments about SEMBEQ’s church-based courses.  Pray for the leaders and students involved with these courses.

Moment #151 – Francois Lalonde: Ambassador for Promoting Church-Based Courses

Francois Lalonde and his wife Lise were saved in 1976.  At that time they were a young family of two and by 1979 it had grown to four.  Shortly after being saved Francois began taking some of the church-based courses being offered by SEMBEQ.  It allowed him to grow in his understanding of the Word of God and, at the same time, to provide for his young family as he developed a successful career in sales.  At that time he had not felt the call of the Lord for full-time ministry, as a couple of his friends had.  As time progressed he continued studying the Word and taking SEMBEQ courses and he began to preach regularly at his local church in Gatineau.  When Jacques Alexanian left his pastoral responsibilities at the Gatineau church to become SEMBEQ’s first president, Francois became the “lay-preacher” of the church.

In 2002, he and Lise were involved in an AWANA mission trip to Africa to help train AWANA leaders.  Upon returning they felt a call to serve the Lord in Quebec and at that point thought it might be by becoming AWANA missionaries.  In 2007, Lise became the first woman missionary for AWANA in Quebec.  She had been involved with AWANA for over twenty years prior to taking this full-time appointment with AWANA, which she still continues to hold.  During those years since 2002, Francois thought that he would be called to be a “coach-pastor”, but the Lord did not open any doors.

Then, in 2007, Francois Picard, current President of SEMBEQ, asked Francois if he would take on the role of Representative for SEMBEQ to promote the work and ministry of SEMBEQ.  He accepted and set out to develop prayer and financial support.  For several years he served in this capacity and then last March he was asked to consider a new role as an ambassador for promoting the church-based courses in the local French Baptist churches of the Fellowship.  The use of these courses, which had been a pillar in the SEMBEQ training process, had declined in recent years and was in need of having their importance renewed.  Francois began his 3-day/week position of contacting pastors and promoting SEMBEQ’s church-based courses and, if needed, to be available for assistance.  Francois states, “My mandate is to encourage local churches who currently offer church-based courses to continue and ask how I can be of service to them.  To the churches not currently offering SEMBEQ church-based courses, my role is to encourage them, prayerfully, to consider offering [these]…courses for the building up of the saints in Sound Doctrine.  Our churches desperately need to be built up in the ‘faith which was once for all revealed to the saints.’”

We see once again the Lord using the skills he gives people to help further His kingdom.  Francois’ ability to motivate people has led him to use that skill to promote one of the basic programs SEMBEQ uses in its training.  We will have more on the church-based courses in the Quebec Alive Moments during the next two weeks.  Praise the Lord for His work in and through Francois and Lise.  Pray for them as they faithfully serve our Lord in Quebec.

Moment #150 – A Bible and a Medical Case

The newest book in SEMBEQ’s, Our History Collection, is entitled A Bible and a Medical Case.  It is the story of Dr. Alan Johnston and his wife, Janet, both born in English Canada and serving the Lord in Quebec for over fifty years.  The following is found on the back cover of the book:  “This is not a book about the history of a movement during its darkest and brightest hours.  But this story is about a man who faced personal challenges few fully understood outside his own family.  It is a story of a man who devoted his life to meet the physical and spiritual needs of a people he made his own.  It is a story of a man who understands what it means to yield to God’s leading in his life and experiences God working through him in leading others to Christ.  It is a story of a man who brought so much joy into the lives of others even as he struggled with painful health issues in his own life.  And in the process, he saw God use the difficulties he faced to shape him into an even more effective servant of God.”  If you want to purchase the book, contact SEMBEQ at 514-337-2555 or 7415 boul. Gouin Ouest, Montreal, QC H4K 1B8 Canada.

Moment #149 – Training Conference – SEMBEQ Model

Immediately after the 3-day SOLA Conference (see Quebec Alive Moments #s 144, 145), SEMBEQ held its first 3-day Training Conference for 15 English-speaking pastors and church leaders from Canada and the United States, who were interested in learning about SEMBEQ’s training model and, more specifically, the foundational aspect of coaching.  Gilles Lapierre (picture left), Director of SEMBEQ’s coaching process, and Francois Turcotte (picture bottom right), Executive Director of SEMBEQ, were the main presenters for the conference.  Some of the topics covered were:

            1. The Doctrinal Basis for Coaching in the Local Church

            2.  Establishing and Structuring a Coaching Relationship

            3.  The Relationship Between the Coach and Protégé

It was a very concentrated conference with much information being disseminated, but questions were welcomed throughout the presentations.  Also, there was much fellowship and discussion during the meal times.  Praise the Lord for this conference and pray that what was learned will be adapted to the individual dynamics of each church involved.

Moment #148 – First Semester 2012 Intensive Courses

In order to reach as many students as possible and make the best use of the teachers, several avenues will be used for teaching the courses offered the first semester of 2012.  Some will be taught in the traditional manner of students and teacher in the same room, others will be available in the traditional manner while being simultaneously transmitted over the Internet, and some will only be offered over the Internet.  There are five intensive courses being offered this semester.  An intensive course is one that is taught over a 3-4 day time frame.  The first course is Christian Ethics and is taught by Pierre Constant (picture) who teaches at the Toronto Baptist Seminary.  The course will be at SEMBEQ from January 4-6, 2012.  Robert Lehman will be teaching the course, Theology of Counseling, at SEMBEQ from February 6-8, 2012.  He is a professor at Grand Rapids Baptist Seminary.  There will be another course in February (20-23) entitled Biblical Theology of Our Material Goods and will be taught by Craig Blomberg, who is a professor at Denver Seminary.  From March 5-9 Terry Cuthbert, Director of Church Planting for the Association of the French Baptist Churches of Quebec, will be teaching on The Foundations of Church Planting.  The final intensive  course this first semester will be Theology of the Church and will be taught by Donald Carson, professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, from June 4-6, 2012.  Except for the course on The Foundations of Church Planting, each class will also be availbe for “live-streaming”.

Moment #147 – Happy New Year!

Last week we prayed that as we remember Christmas we would be filled will awe at His love, grace, mercy and provision and that we would be faithful to the opportunities He gives us to witness for Him and to share the good news of His first coming to all those He brings our way.  As we enter this New Year may we be filled with praise and thanksgiving for all He has done in and through each of us and through the ministry of SEMBEQ and the local French Baptist  churches in Quebec.  During this past year we have been encouraged by the progress of the men and women who have been trained under the ministry of SEMBEQ.  We saw another Cohort complete its six-year commitment, we began a “Virtual Cohort” to reach those in more remote regions by “live-streaming”, and we awarded two Master’s degrees and five Bachelor’s degrees (picture above and Quebec Alive Moment #145).  Churches have been planted, churches are growing, and some have obtained their own buildings.  People are receiving Jesus as Lord and Savior, being baptized, and being discipled.  Finally, we held our first SOLA Conference (Quebec Alive Moments #s 143 & 144) and are planning on holding others in the future.  We held our first Training Conference last month (See upcoming Quebec Alive Moment #149).  We thank you for your part in all of this and praise the Lord for His faithfulness in the provision of workers to reach Montreal and all the Province of Quebec for His glory.  As we begin 2012 may we pray that God will send at least 10 new workers/students for the next cohort, provide wisdom, insight and discernment to all the leaders and students with SEMBEQ and the local French Baptist churches, and that the gospel will go out boldly and lovingly to all regions of Quebec.  May the Lord bless you all abundantly during 2012.  Have a Happy and Peaceful New Year!

Moment #146 – Joyeux Noel From SEMBEQ

The Good News of Christ’s First Coming!

“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:17 NKJV) “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45 NKJV)

At Christmas we celebrate the first coming of Jesus, God incarnate, the Word made flesh (John 1:14 NKJV), the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29 NKJV), who, we are told, came not to condemn the world but to save it.  How was He to save it?  By giving His life as a ransom for our sins.  By the shedding of His  blood as the Lamb of God that “whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16b NKJV).  We know that the Lord Jesus is coming again and this time not to save but to condemn, to judge the world of its sin (Hebrews 9:26-28 and Revelation 20:12-15 NKJV).  Praise the Lord that we, who by the grace of God have trusted in Jesus as Lord and Savior, will not be condemned at His second coming – our names will be found in the Book of Life.  As we celebrate the birth of Christ, His first coming, may we pray that we will be filled with awe at His love, grace, mercy and provision.  May we be faithful to the opportunities He gives us to witness for Him and to share the good news of His first coming to all those the Lord brings our way so they too may come to trust in Jesus and have their names found in the Book of Life.  May this Christmas season be filled with many blessings and may we grow in our trust and dependence upon Him.

From all of us at SEMBEQ, we thank you for your interest, prayers and support, and we wish you a very Merry Christmas!  Joyeux Noel!