Assembly 2014 Summary

SUMMARY CBOQ Family, It has been a wonderful time together here at Assembly. Worshipping together with you, being instructed from God’s Word to “Go into the Far Country”, and enjoying conversation and prayer has been life-giving and challenging. Thank you for your sacrificial commitment to be present with us and to carry out the work of our wider Baptist family. Your various contributions to this gathering and to the quiet, but powerful work of your local churches continue to keep us strong as a family and keep us true to our commitment of mutual support and encouragement.

Let us pray together and for one another the spiritual fullness in Christ we find in Colossians 2: So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

I look forward to seeing you along the way in the coming year, hearing of God’s blessings on your church and joining you again next year, June 11-13 for Assembly 2015.

Tim McCoy Executive Minister

We also welcomed Murray Kohler to his newly elected position as Second Vice President.

Tim McCoy, CBOQ Executive Minister, shared his heart and vision for our family of churches where we become known as followers of Jesus who care for the poor. He sent his encouragement to all our churches for the many things they are doing to live out their love of Jesus.

Michel Belzile also took his place as the incoming CBOQ Board President, sharing his enthusiasm, wisdom, wit and humour. We are so grateful for the faithful service of our board members, past and present.

Alongside music, vision-sharing and learning, there were also significant accomplishments in our church business.

Please see page four for details.

Thursday, June 12 Assembly 2014 began with our family of Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec raising their voices in unison in praise to our beloved God. Two things are clear. One is that we all love Jesus. The other is that Canadian Baptists can sing!

Lola Mather-Dyer, CBOQ’s 2013-2014 Board President, opened with her engaging reflection on the call of Samuel, listening to God and remembering that he can do great things through us. Also, she shared an unforgettable tale of an awkward ostrich, a car, and an aunt’s poor driving skills.

This year, we are so excited to be welcoming many new people and congregations to our family. We have added to our numbers 21 new ordinands and seven new churches!

God is doing amazing things in our Canadian Baptist community.

In addition, our delegates approved the 2013 audited financial statements, 2014 revised budget and the 2015 draft budget, leaving us poised to see what God has in store for the coming years.

In the evening, we worshipped together and then enjoyed the opportunity to hear from David Fitch, who talked about the tension between the missional and incarnational church and reminded us of the importance of being present and making space for God to work in our lives.

Friday, June 13 In the morning we heard from our partner organizations.

McMaster Divinity College’s Dr. Stan Porter shared about the academic work of the college; Dr. Gordon Heath brough life into the Canadian Baptist Archives.

Brian Craig, Director of Leadership Development, encouraged our pastors to walk with Jesus, and our churches and members to walk alongside them. By supporting our pastors, we are all building and strengthening the church.

Of particular note was his short-term benediction: “Walk in Him – Now Take a Hike. Amen.”

Canadian Baptist Women of Ontario and Quebec (CBWOQ) let us know about their campaign “Buying Sex is Not a Sport” for the Pan-Am games and shared encouraging results on their advocacy efforts through “Challenge the Demand.” They also officially introduced Diane McBeth as the new Executive Director. We will miss Brenda Mann, but we know that CBWOQ is in good hands.

Matt Wilkinson, Director of Youth Ministries, filled us in on the importance of intentional investment in children’s ministry, the value of the Christian summer camp experience for young people and the lasting impact of retreats in the lives of youth.

Canadian Baptist Ministries (CBM) has a new look, a new logo and new campaigns beginning. They shared about Discover, a tool to help churches find their mission heart.

They also introduced a new short-term missions initiative, Go CBM, and they highlighted She Matters, an initiative that is geared toward improving girls’ access to education.

Last, but certainly not least, CBOQ’s Clint Mix, Director of Congregational Health, said that God is on the move in our churches. He shared his Looking series, which helps churches engage with God’s mission. He explained how our Canadian Baptist community is engaging with First Nations communities and shared about New Paths and other initiatives that are connecting us with our First Nations neighbours and members. He shared about the new expressions of church that are growing and reaching new people.

It is a good time to be a Canadian Baptist!

The afternoon was filled with a variety of Learning Sessions called Kingdom Perspectives, where Assembly participants learned more about how to equip their churches to be relevant and missional.

In the evening, we gathered together again to celebrate and worship together and heard about gathering together and sharing our lives with each other in our churches from David Fitch. He encouraged us to find moments of Eucharist, connect with people where they are and re-learn how to share the Gospel message.

Offerings We are so grateful for your generosity, giving more than 10,000 to help CBOQ continue to develop and strengthen our family of churches.

Saturday, June 14

Time flew on, with many opportunities for connections and conversations. In the morning, Assembly participants headed to their Learning Sessions, Kingdom Practices, where they were able to dig deeper into more of the praxis of ministry.

We gathered together once more to join in worship and hear David Fitch’s final session. In his final talk, he encouraged us all to go back to our churches, ready to bring Eucharist into our daily lives and seek opportunities to share the Gospel. He then spent time responding to questions from our community.

And with that, our Assembly 2014 concluded. We are so thankful to each of you for coming and being a part of our Canadian Baptist family. We look forward to seeing you again next year, June 11-13, 2015! Check baptist.ca as we will soon have photos up for you to share!

CBOQ General Operating By-Law No.3 – Adopted at CBOQ Assembly 2014 On Thursday, June 12, CBOQ Assembly voted to adopt the special resolution regarding “Continuing the Corporation Under the Canada Not-For-Profit Corporations Act (CNCA).” CBOQ was originally incorporated by special legislation in 1963 but later was continued under the Canada Corporations Act (CCA) on October 18, 2005. Effective October 17, 2011, the CCA was replaced by the CNCA. The CNCA does not apply automatically to CBOQ. Instead, CBOQ had three years, i.e., until October 17, 2014, to apply for a certificate of continuance to continue under the CNCA. Failure to continue within this time frame would have resulted in dissolution.

This affirmative vote puts us in a position to meet the legal requirements under this newly introduced legislation. Now that it is approved, the CNCA documents will be filed with Industry Canada before the October 17, 2014 deadline, with Articles of Continuance to be issued thereafter. Once this is completed, CBOQ will be governed by the CNCA on a go-forward basis.

Included (see insert) in this summary is one addition and one change (prepared as replacement pages) to the Final Draft CBOQ General Operating By-law No.3 your church received in January of this year. As you return to your churches, please add these replacement pages to your church’s copy of the CBOQ General Operating By-Law No.3. The explanation of the addition and amendment is below: The changes included: • An addition to Schedule 1 - Form 4031 – Articles of Continuance, pg. 4 (replacement page included in this summary) • Reason for Addition: This more clearly explains the Class of Membership as provided in CBOQ General

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Operating By-law No. 3. There is no change required to the actual Class of Membership found at Section 2.01 of General Operating By-Law No. 3. See addition of “BOX 8” • Amended Section 2.12(n) Membership Meetings of the CBOQ General Operating By-Law No.3 (replacement page included in this summary) • Section 2.12(n) of the General Operating By-Law No.3 (Transition) is revised to keep the first two sentences and replace the third sentence with the bolded new sentences below: Each Delegate shall be entitled to one (1) vote on each question put to the Members at any Meeting of Members. Unless otherwise required by the provisions of the Act, the Articles or this General Operating By-law, all questions proposed for consideration at a Meeting of Members shall be determined by an Ordinary Resolution of the votes cast of the Delegates in person. In the case of equality of votes, the question shall be determined in the negative.

• Reason for Change: This reflects the fact that the Chair of the Meeting of Members is not a Delegate of a Member and therefore cannot vote to break a tie.

Thank you for providing this information back to your church. Your church will also receive these replacement pages in a mailing in the next several weeks.

Email: info@baptist.ca Twitter: @CBOQ Web: baptist.ca