This post first-appeared on the CBF Mission Communities website. Visit www.missioncommunities.org to learn more about CBF’s eight mission communities and get involved. 

By Lee Canipe

Did you know that one of the most challenging mission fields in the northern hemisphere is within driving distance of North Carolina?

It’s true. Across North America and Europe, no culture has become secularized as rapidly or as widely as Quebec has over the last two generations. In 1960, nearly 96 percent of all Quebecois attended a Christian worship service (in most all cases, Catholic Mass) at least once a week. By 2000, only 4 percent did.

What does this mean for the relatively small handful of Quebecois Baptists in this proudly French- speaking part of Canada?

Spiritually speaking, it means that they are among a small minority of practicing, evangelical Christians in their native land. It also means that, as Baptists, they are religious outsiders in a culture that has traditionally equated Christianity with Catholicism. Simply put, our French Canadian Baptist brothers and sisters are walking a lonely and sometimes discouraging road as they try to be faithful disciples of Jesus in a difficult environment.

One French Canadian Baptist congregation is in Châteauguay, a city of 45,000 on the outskirts of Montreal. Église Chrétienne le Rocher (The Rock Christian Church) and its pastor, Daniel Cimon, have been trying to share the good news of Jesus with the community since its founding in 1984. Only within the last few years, however, have their outreach efforts begun to bear fruit.

How have they done it?

As Rev. Cimon puts it, when they started listening to their neighbors, they discovered that many of the people who lived near the church were working class folks who were having trouble affording nutritious food for their families. Responding to that need, Rev. Cimon’s church began a weekly food bank that now serves more than 150 families—many of whom haven’t stepped foot in a church in years, let alone a Baptist one. Yet now, many food bank clients consider Rev. Cimon their pastor.

What’s more, some of these families have become active in the church and come to faith in Christ. For the last three years, several CBFNC churches have been building a relationship with Église Chrétienne le Rocher: First, Ahoskie; Temple, Durham; and Murfreesboro, Murfreesboro. Inspired by the example of Paul and Barnabas and their ministry of encouragement as described in Acts 14:22, these churches have discovered that being engaged with hands-on, international missions does not necessarily require large budgets and transcontinental flights.

All it takes is a willing spirit, a passport, and a full tank (or two!) of gas in the car, and missionaries from CBFNC churches can be serving alongside their French Canadian Baptist brothers and sisters in Châteauguay as God opens doors for them to be the presence of Christ in their community.

Want to learn more about this international mission partnership for churches that want to do international missions but never thought they could?

The best way to start is by contacting Daniel Glaze at daniel@fbcahoskie.org, Scott Hovey at sahovey@gmail.com, or Lee Canipe at canipembc@ lycos.com. An international missions relationship is a lot closer than most of us realize!

Dr. Lee Canipe is pastor is Murfreesboro Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, N.C.