Moment #159 – Welcome to SEMBEQ!

Over the next several months we will be giving you an overview of SEMBEQ, why it exists and what it does.  We will actually be taking excerpts of a series we did for our quarterly Quebec Alive (winter, spring and summer issues of 2008-09).  Therefore, for some of you this might be a review.  Still for others it may be new.  Either way it is always good to keep in mind SEMBEQ’s vision and ministry for the Lord’s work in Quebec.  During the ensuing months we might include an article or two of current interest, but for the most part we will  be giving you an overview of the ministry of SEMBEQ.  So, Welcome to SEMBEQ!

SEMBEQ stands for the Evangelical Baptist Seminary of Quebec.  However, it is not your ordinary seminary.  It was established in 1973 by the local Evangelical French Baptist churches centered in Montreal, Quebec, to meet the need for leaders in their young churches.  In the past, the Roman Catholic Church had almost total control of the spiritual life of Quebecers and it exerted a great influence in the area of politics as well.  However, in the late sixties and into the seventies, the Catholic Church lost much of its influence both spiritually and politically.  Much of the spiritual void was filled with secularism, but the Lord began to do a mighty work through a small group of committed, energetic and God honoring people in the Province of Quebec.

Next week we will look at why SEMBEQ was needed.

Moment #158 – The Mission of the Saint-Hyacinthe Church

Last week we highlighted the 1975 planting and growth over the past 36 years of the Evangelical Baptist Church of Saint-Hyacinthe.  This week we will highlight some of their mission as a church in discipleship and evangelization.  Their mission is to grow in love by their (1) worship of God (picture above), (2) growth in Christ, (3) work in the world, (4) fellowship (joining of lives) in the church, and (4) spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ.  In order to accomplish this the church activity centers on five distinct areas.

 First is church worship, including magnifying Jesus in the church, biblical teaching that is pure, worthy, holy and without reproach, and learning to depend upon God by developing a spirit of prayer in the church.  Second is church communion, the fellowship within the church, which they have accomplished by establishing living house-churches (church cells), maintaining a climate of acceptance and mercy centered on the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, and seeking unity within diversity.  Third is church growth.  This is done by establishing a training program for all believers (left picture): training leaders, deacons, elders, pastors, and evangelists, and bringing believers to being accountable towards others.  Fourth is church service.  This is accomplished by maintaining a climate of helping one another in the church and having the work of ministry become the business of each believer in the church.  The fifth area of activity is evangelism, which is promoted by using one’s relationships and opening one’s home for the sake of  sharing the Gospel, planting sister churches, developing a strategy to reach college students, increasing the vision for missions and missionary projects, and developing relationships with missionaries in order to offer prayerful,  spiritual and financial support.  It is this vision, based on and evaluated by the Word of God, which guides their mission as a church.  Pray for this church as it reaches out to the 99% of Quebecers who still do not know the saving grace of Jesus Christ.

Moment #157 – The Church In Saint-Hyacinthe

In 1975, Richard Houle (right) planted a church in the Saint-Hyacinthe region of Quebec, about an hour east of Montreal and, in 1977, the Association of Evangelical Baptist Churches of Quebec recognized it as a member church, as the Evangelical Baptist Church of Saint-Hyacinthe.  Then in 1993, they built the building they are currently using.  From 1987-1998, Gabriel Cotnoir led the church and then from 1998-2000, Francois Picard (current President of SEMBEQ) led the church, along with pastor-in-training, Dominique Angers, until Francois Turcotte (Current Assistant President of SEMBEQ) was called to lead the church from 2000-2008.  Francois then passed the baton of leadership to Donald Rodier (2009 Cohort Graduate).  Donald (right) became a pastor-in-training under the coaching of Francois Turcotte (left) in 2003, joined SEMBEQ’s first Cohort in 2004, became Associate Pastor in 2005 and the Senior Pastor in 2008.  At this time Francois Turcotte was beginning to move into SEMBEQ full-time.  In 2007, Gilles Tessier joined the pastoral staff as an Associate Pastor.  In January of 2008, the church began a program for its men called the Reserve, which follows SEMBEQ’s Cohort program, but is less intense.  Donald stated, “We believe that God mandates the Church, and specifically its leaders, to equip Christians to have the character of what God asks of men of God in Scripture for being leaders, who themselves (2 Timothy 2:2) will be able to equip the saints for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of ministry and for edifying the body of Christ.”  The church now has a second Reserve with a total of ten men involved, eight from the church itself and two from other churches.  They are considering beginning a third Reserve with the emphasis on Evangelism.  You can see the influence of SEMBEQ on this church, its leaders and members.  We praise the Lord for His Work in and through the ministry of SEMBEQ.  We Praise the Lord also for the vision and faithfulness of the leaders and members of this congregation.  Pray for this church to continue to rely of the Holy Spirit for its understanding, guidance and empowerment.  Next week we will take a closer look at some of the vision of the Evangelical Baptist Church of Saint-Hyacinthe.

Moment #156 – Gilles Farley – Goals of New Coaching Coordinator

Last week we mentioned that Gilles Farley (pictured here with his wife Suzanne) had taken over the responsibilities as SEMBEQ’s Coaching Coordinator.  This week we will look at some of Gilles’ thoughts about his goals for these responsibilities.  In the immediate future, Gilles’ initial involvement will be one day a week, but he is considering how he might be able to transfer some of his responsibilities as an elder at his church in Gatineau to another man in order to create the possibility to have 2.5 days per week.  Gilles states that the initial goal is to “re-establish the relationship with the present coaches and identify what the shortcomings are with the present support that SEMBEQ provides.  It has been close to a year that the function could not be performed.”  After evaluating the coaching process, he wants to “establish measurable indicators that will be used to determine if our coaching program is accomplishing what it should [and] by mid-year, present a longer term plan on what we need to do in this area.”  Since coaching is fundamental to SEMBEQ’s training, there is a need for “the development of more extensive training on coaching and identify ways to integrate more fully coaching with every other element of our curriculum.  Our goal is that coaching be part of the graduating students’ DNA.”  To this end Gilles states, “We are thinking of developing an accreditation program for coaches.  This would ensure that coaches are equipped to perform the activities.  Some 15 coaches would become model coaches able to assist other coaches.”  This team of men “will guide and assist in the delivery of the changes which would include: a) Development of an accreditation program for new coaches; b) Introduction of the changes to the existing program; c) Identification of those individuals that we think can become ‘our model coaches’.”  There is also the thought of developing five regional coordinators to help meet the needs of the coaches and students in those regions more timely and effectively.  Gilles’ final thought is, “I think there are pastors in our Quebec churches that have far more pastoral and coaching experience than I.  My role is to leverage their experience and wisdom for the benefit of God’s work in Quebec.  My desire is for all to see the work that God is doing through the men He has given to Quebec.  The success does not depend on my abilities, my experience, my zeal, but on God’s work.”  Pray for Gilles and the men, both coaches and students, as the training of coaches and the process of coaching moves to an even higher level of effectiveness.

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.