#48 - Post Covid Opportunities for Mission ft. Mike Olynyk

BCMB 048 - God's Work In Meadows Church Plant.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

BCMB 048 - God's Work In Meadows Church Plant.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Mike Olynyk:
We want them to know Jesus, but there are needs around them that we can meet, and in the process, they meet Jesus. So I think that's really important as we love people, suddenly our stories parallel with theirs. So a strategy that I've learned to do in in gospelizing people is just, what's the 4 or 5 things in my life faith journey? You know, my mom got diagnosed with cancer. My dad was never around, and I was rejected by him, you know, and it goes on and on. I brew my own beer and you can use that side. But just more of the negatives in your your story, but how God comes into the mix.

Intro:
Welcome to the BCMB podcast, pastor to pastor. This is a podcast by the British Columbia Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches. We want to help equip and encourage pastors, churches, and anyone else who wants to listen in and be more effective in their ministry. This is episode 48, God's Work in Meadows Church plant with Mike Olynyk.

Rob Thiessen:
Hey, everybody, it's Rob Thiessen here. And this is the BCMB Pastor to Pastor podcast. We're sitting here at my place, and I've got a guest with me today, Mike Olynyk, and we're in. Am I saying it right?

Mike Olynyk:
Mike Olynyk.

Rob Thiessen:
Olynyk yeah, just right. And yeah, I'm really excited to have Mike with me here. We're sitting in the living room this time for this podcast. Often we do it like in a church on location somewhere here in the province. And but today we're at my place because you happen to be planning a church not far from here in Langley Meadows. And so welcome here. Welcome to everybody listening.nAnd I'm going to start with a question that we always start with. Tell us a little bit about the community that formed you, the people that God brought into your life that helped shape your journey.

Mike Olynyk:
Yeah. Well, I didn't grow up as a Christian and it was actually through Willingdon Church and Mark Janzen, youth pastor there. I went to the scouting program and he got my number and took me out. And the love that he showed, started my journey.

Rob Thiessen:
So you're a Burnaby boy?

Mike Olynyk:
I'm a Burnaby boy. Yeah. I went to Moscrop. Me too. Did you?

Rob Thiessen:
I did know Mark Janzen, too. I did a stint as a youth pastor at Willingdon. That's my church. I grew up there.

Mike Olynyk:
Oh, wow that's awesome. Yeah, welling is a great church. And what's cool? They have a day camp program that I really felt found a sense of purpose in, and I think that was part of my journey through Robin Dueck and what she was doing there. And Mark and Norm. Norm Funk was there at the time, and Lee Francois was the young adults person. So just throughout that journey, just they came alongside me, did some missions trips through the youth program and John Wiebe there. He went to Mexico and that was pretty awesome. So that kind of started my journey out.

Rob Thiessen:
What did your parents think about you being involved in this church down there at the bottom of Wellington Street there?

Mike Olynyk:
Oh yeah. Well, my dad wasn't around and it was just me and my mom, and my mom wanted something for me, for men to build into my lives. And so that enter in Jesus to that. And now I'm like, hey, mom, can we go to church? And she's sitting back row the balcony and then and I'm just like. And like, I'm an extrovert. I'm, you know, let's let's get to the front of the balcony and let's see everything. And slowly moved her up. And she came to know Jesus through through a small group, through the Boy Scouts and Rick Pennington. It's amazing to see how kids can lead their parents to Christ. And yeah, got a job at at Blue Mountain Baptist, was kind of my first gig. Robin said, hey, if you need somebody for your day camp program. So Kurt was a, yeah, he was a really, really cool mentor, just letting me, giving me freedom to mess up, which I love. And then and to succeed and to talk about both. And I guess if we're talking formative, I think teachers and books that we've read are part of that. And so Matthew Chandler was on my ride to work to South Abbey on my anywhere from 30 to an hour and a half commute, depending on traffic from Langley to Abby. And then I love I think BCMB had a cadre with, with Jeff Vanderstelt. Right. And it just fell in love with what he was about, like just using the seasons, using all that. We are just to be missional and just kind of embrace that and his missional community bent. Love it. And then I think Francis Chan is another guy that that I respect a lot because he lived out what he spoke. And so he left the megachurch to go do a house church movement. And, you know, he's a great teacher to non-Christians as well. So I kind of look up to that.

Rob Thiessen:
Big influence in your life. What brought this shift? You were talking about South Abbotsford. You were a youth pastor there for how many years?

Mike Olynyk:
Ten years.

Rob Thiessen:
Okay. And then, like, tell us about the shift from youth pastor to where you are now and maybe tell us where you are now, you know, where has God brought you and you know, how would you describe this new gig that you're in?

Mike Olynyk:
Yeah. Well, we were at we were at Jericho actually first. And so we moved into the Langley Meadows community, which is around where Jericho is. And I was a half time youth guy there, and we just. Kim and I just went for prayer walks. We love that community. We just want them to know Jesus. It's a darker community where there's a lot of atheists and Sikhs and just people who need Jesus. And so we'd walk around. That's a 14 year prayer walk journey. But throughout the time that we were at South Abby, we were always just intentional about our neighbourhoods. And, you know, I brew my own beer and that's a ten hour process. And people are intrigued by that. So I just use it for missional involvement and say, hey, come and brew beer with me.

Rob Thiessen:
And my neighbour did that across the street. You get these big bags of balt or grain or whatever.

Mike Olynyk:
And grind it up and do the whole shebang.

Rob Thiessen:
He had a big fridge with like Nitro or?

Mike Olynyk:
It's, yeah, CO2. I have it too. I have a four tap system. It's it's great.

Rob Thiessen:
And all right, I'm sure you're going to get a lot of podcast interest from from this. Hey Mike, when can we visit.

Mike Olynyk:
Can we have a little follow up a little flight. Yeah. So just being missional in our community and then Covid hit during a time where things were going really well at South Abbotsford in terms of just youth ministry. And we used Alpha as a strategy just to bolster things. And it it grew the ministry and people's faith and then Covid hit and my kids were so upset that they couldn't invite their non-Christian friends to the day camp. South Abbotsford runs an amazing day camp. And so we started a backyard day camp where they were like, they invited their friends so we could only have 15 girls or 15 kids. They had to have masks. It was the Covid thing. And Raelyn and Makenna's friends showed up and we had 15 girls that heard about Jesus, and it was a wow factor in our neighbourhood, people were driving by and we had people sitting in lawn chairs watching us do our thing. And it was great. And that was the first year of many where we went, wow, this is actually a huge impact. Our third year, we had about eight kids come to know Jesus. And in the midst of all that in our house, like it's our front and back yard, like we're rubbing shoulders with the parents because they walked here. They live in the neighbourhood. You got like 80% of the people that don't know Jesus. And out of that, we just said, hey, how can we resource you? Your kids want faith. They are interested in Jesus. And two of the parents said to me, well, if my kids want to learn about Jesus, I better learn about them too.

Mike Olynyk:
And that blew my mind. Finally, there was this after 14, you know, that 14 year prayer walk. We're having this impact. And so we had two families over, and I had my flights of beer for them to try. And we talked about Jesus. And it was it was amazing. At the end of the conversation, like just the Holy Spirit showed up and one of the parents went, I feel different. Can we do this regularly? We started doing Francis Chan's Greater Than series. Two families became seven in a short time, and suddenly our house is exploding with kids. I mean, we had like 15 kids in our house and it's a small house. And so the coolest thing just continued, South Abbotsford said, we love what you're doing. And I said, hey, can can we rent the school? We don't need a gym. We're not that big, but too big for my house, too big for any of the houses in the community. So we rented the library and we rented the multipurpose room and we you know, I'm not going to say like, oh, we shot up and we have like 200 people coming and it's, you know, a revival. God works like that sometimes. But, you know, I think the slow and steady, the loving people where they're at and like these, I got to say, probably 70% of the people coming to Meadows Church, which has become our unchurched, becoming churched. And so that's a really neat environment.

Rob Thiessen:
So cool. So you said you did in your third summer camp. You saw kids, you had eight kids come to Christ. How many summer camps have you done? You started in Covid, I lose track. Covid goes into a blurb, right?

Mike Olynyk:
Yeah.

Rob Thiessen:
Was this your fourth this last year or your third?

Mike Olynyk:
This is our fourth and this past year. And we've had kids come into Christ every single year. It happens and we give out Bibles, the picture Bible. It is so cool. The amount of unchurched parents that are reading the picture Bible with their kids, it's gospel just being infused in the home. So this past year, we decided that it was time to own the school in the sense of like, we're going to move into the school in September as Meadows Church, so let's do our day camp there. We had 54 kids come, 11 kids accepted Jesus. This camp, and we put 24 Bibles in homes.

Rob Thiessen:
That's a lot. That's like 20% of kids came to Christ.

Mike Olynyk:
It's awesome. And, you know, so so we're. What do we do with with these kids that are that are coming to know Jesus? We want to we're not going to do Francis Chan again because some of the parents from have already done it. So let's do Alpha. Let's just strategize around food and conversations. And so we were a night church. The reason why we're a night church or a dinner church is because kids have soccer. Girls soccer is always Sunday morning.

Rob Thiessen:
Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Mike Olynyk:
And other sports too, right? So a lot of our people were in that boat. And so they said, why don't we just meet at night? And so we share a meal. And the plan was to do alpha and so sent the word around, sent some fliers around and invited those families of the kids who accepted Jesus. And they came. And suddenly we were at about ten families on a regular basis, coming pre-kind of summer. We hit the fall and suddenly we have about 30 to 35 adults there. We have another 30 kids and youth and our kids ministry and youth ministry went from 12 to 30 in one Sunday as people came to Alpha. It's incredible. We have a huge problem now because we need a children's worker, but that's a good problem to have.

Rob Thiessen:
This is a little shout out here. You want to put a pitch for your how many hours are you hoping for?

Mike Olynyk:
Yeah I would love if you if this excites you. Meadows church and what's happening in the Langley Meadows community. We're looking for a 10 to 15 hour a week children's coordinator. Somebody who's not only thinking about programs for the Sunday night church, but can just be an influence in the school and spend some time there. We believe that we're a missional community in Langley Meadows Elementary. And we're running Breakfast Club on. That's where I was this morning, just feeding kids. And there's so many different ways that you can get involved.

Rob Thiessen:
So what is tell us a little bit about that. You're feeding kids. Is it through the school or just something separate.

Mike Olynyk:
Yeah. Langley Meadows Community Association is kind of a long standing association in Langley Meadows. And one of the programs they run is a daily kind of food program for kids that either need to be dropped off because their parents work or it's they just need food. And there's a fair amount of that. It's at the school.

Rob Thiessen:
Okay. So it's a partnership with a school. Central does this in Chilliwack too. They've done that for years. They get over there and they cook breakfast for kids in Chilliwack at the schools.

Mike Olynyk:
Well we partner with Starbucks and grab, cut it up and, and we have some cereal. We don't go as big as like the cooking breakfast, but it's just great. I bring a little speaker and kind of have a little bit of coffee shop feel, and it's just great to bless not only the kids but the administration. They see it. And, you know, my wife's president of the pack and and she's connected. But we're just looking for ways that we can help out a very, very overrun system. Just stressed. So the VP's setting up signage for for the cars outside and, like, why is she doing that? So I just come five minutes earlier and set up her signs. Just how can we be a blessing.

Rob Thiessen:
Yeah, yeah. Well, that's a story that I hear in lots of places where there is renewal of like evangelism, where the church is outward focused and is that pastors and church leaders just do stuff like they look around in the community and find ways to serve or they just, I don't know, make themselves interesting people. Like you brew beer and then I don't know if this is how my neighbour was, his garage was open, and I noticed he always had visitors coming over to drink his beer. And, you know, other people tinker with cars or you know, Gary Simpson over at Broadway, he plays darts and he joins. So he goes down and shoots darts with people. Right? But eventually, you know, he does it whatever to win, I guess. And to have fun. But I think we can do that in ministry. Yeah. And people figure out he's a pastor and invariably leads to conversations. Right. So I think that's not insignificant its just getting out and being there. And especially in schools, like when you mentioned soccer, I mean, I went down with my grandson to watch my grandson, Rudy in Blaine in Ferndale on Saturday like he was in field 23. Oh, wow. I mean, they're not full fields, right? They divide them, but I mean, I couldn't find parking. There must have been a thousand parents out there and it's just unbelievable. And here Langley it is a nutso place for soccer and baseball. Langley is crazy for baseball.

Mike Olynyk:
What a mission field, right?

Rob Thiessen:
It's right.

Mike Olynyk:
You're either coaching and so being a part of the kids or it's, you know, maybe you're bringing coffees for parents or just serving in that way. Yeah. I was thinking about just the different ways, like you got Halloween and Christmas and, like, there's just so many ways that we can bless our community. Yeah. An expensive missional engagement. I spent, you know, 2500 on a dog. And, you know, that was the Covid purchase, that happened. But, man, if you want to be missional with your neighbour's and your community, just get a dog and start prayer walking with your dog.

Rob Thiessen:
People like your animal and starts conversations.

Mike Olynyk:
Yeah. And then suddenly you're praying on the driveway for the a cancer diagnosis or whatever. And it just, people know that you are a safe person they can go to. And then they know that there's more, that there's a joy that you have. Yeah. And it's cool.

Rob Thiessen:
So, I have this question I wanted to ask you. And, you know, maybe it goes somewhere, maybe it doesn't. But how would you characterize the heart of your message to people like, you know, we use the word gospel a lot, but what would you say is the good news that you lead with in conversations, or is that situational or do you really have a heartbeat? This is actually the message that we want to communicate.

Mike Olynyk:
I think first it's just the message of love before we, I mean yeah, we love people and we want them to know Jesus, but there are needs around them that we can meet. And in the process they meet Jesus. So I think that's really important as we love people, suddenly our story is parallel with theirs. So a strategy that I've learned to do in gospelizing people is just, what's the 4 or 5 things in my faith journey? You know, my mom got diagnosed with cancer. My dad was never around, and I was rejected by him, you know, and it goes on and on. I brew my own beer and you can use that side. But just more of the negatives in your your story, but how God comes into the mix.

Rob Thiessen:
That's so true. Like, people are drawn to another person's weakness, not their success, you know? So when you share stories of your success, people feel often intimidated. Maybe they think, oh, you know, I wish I was like you or whatever, but when you share stories of something hard, they're like, oh, I could identify with that. Or I felt something like that.

Mike Olynyk:
And when you're talking to people, you have a cancer diagnosis. Oh man, that's really hard. I how do you, I my mom had breast cancer and she beat it. Praise god. But you know, that was really hard for me. How did you deal with it. Well they share they're in the middle of it. And they're sharing their heart with you. And inevitably it says, how did you face this? And so then you get to share the hope you have and how you got through it. And you can do that through, you know, father rejection. Like whatever your story is, God's redeemed it. And so we need to share that with others and parallel our stories.

Rob Thiessen:
Yeah, yeah. That's awesome. Tell us a little bit about how South Abby, you know, you're a youth pastor and all of a sudden you're busy with a growing concern here in Langley and you're a youth pastor in an Abbotsford church, how have you experienced the church coming alongside? And yeah, tell us a little bit about that.

Mike Olynyk:
Yeah. So I think the first thing was them noticing that I was burning out. We're in February and I'm doing the youth pastor gig, and we're trying to do Meadows on every other Sunday night. And they said, why don't you just take eight hours? And we're just going to give that towards what you're doing in the community, which was such a blessing. And, you know, they're paying for the rent and they're coming alongside us in prayer.

Rob Thiessen:
Paying for the rent at the school.

Mike Olynyk:
At the School. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Not my house.

Rob Thiessen:
Okay.

Mike Olynyk:
And as all of this is happening, we're feeling people are coming alongside us, and it's like a mutually beneficial partnership. Because people are hearing the stories and it's bolstering their faith as well. So it's really cool to see that. As of August, I moved into a new role where we are. I'm the pastor of Community Engagement, so I have they've moved me into a full time role at South Abbotsford with a I'm the campus pastor at Meadows for 20 hours a week, and then for the other 20 hours a week, I am coming alongside the youth pastor who's amazing, the new guy that we have. He's grown up through the program, and now he's taking the reins. And then also just infusing that evangelistic fervor and the stories into South Abbotsford and seeing where it goes. So it's been really cool to have that. The idea of sending BCMB, you know this, churches plant churches. And so for them to stand up and say, we're going to plant you is huge, you know? But there's so many other partnerships besides South Abbotsford. We've had C2C come alongside us, BCMB has come alongside us. We've had Northview and North Langley both say, hey, we know start up costs are hard for a church plant. We're going to give you significant capital to start out. And it's made it so I didn't have to start a fundraising platform. I could actually continue to just do what we're doing and see where it goes.

Rob Thiessen:
Yeah, yeah that's cool. And you know, the journey with South Abbotsford, the parts that I know, you know, they also were just walking a bit blind into it. Right. You're going ahead and saying well this is unfolding. And I remember we had some conversations with Michael Dick and at the time, you know, well what is this a campus? And, you know, it's like, I don't know, is it? And it's kind of far away to be a campus. So there was sort of an evolving conversation there. But they had the courage to lean in with you and say, well, whatever it looks like, we want in on this. We want a share of this. And I can tell you from BCMB, that's how we feel too, like as a community of churches, we want to invest in this because it's a blessing to us all to be a part of it. So you know that's been awesome to see. I know we interviewed you at the CREM team, the Committee for Renewal, Evangelism and Multiplication. And you know, that was awesome to come alongside and give a thumbs up and say, yeah, this is a church planting a church. And this is the kind of partnership we love to see.

Mike Olynyk:
Yeah. And you know what? I think that was more of an encouragement meeting than it was an interview on that one. And it's just so cool to see that people are praying that they just love what's going on, and they want to be a part of it. Can I share a story? Yeah, sure. Okay, so we have this grade five kid comes to know Jesus at camp, and she the story happens in, this is in August at our day camp. She is just peppering me with questions and she's quite aggressive with the peppering of like, well, what about this? What about this? And the conversation just softens and softens and softens. At the end of the day, she accepts Jesus. Oh, awesome. So amazing. But that's the start of the story. So she gets a Bible and she starts reading it. And her mom, who actually comes from an anti-Christian home. She's starting to read the Bible with her kid. Well, this kid invites her mom, her mom's partner, her dad, her dad's partner, her friend who also accepted Jesus, her mom and her partner. We have six adults that are now coming to Alpha because these two kids came to know Jesus. It is amazing to see what happens when we build into the next generation they're seeking, and through it, Jesus is moving in families.

Rob Thiessen:
And this, you said this girl was started out really oppositional. Yeah, right. It's kind of reminds me of the classic, you know, Nicky Gumbel talking in Alpha about those people who just have every sort of question and throw every sort of oppositional approach. And Nicky always says, oh, that sounds like a future alpha leader to me, you know? And because it's often, you know, the defense that people put up, but internally there's something else going on. The spirit is working. Yeah. That's cool. Tell us a little bit then about you. You've launched a church around Alpha with a meal and a Sunday night church. So you invite people to Alpha and that's your church launch. How is that been unfolding? What is it about Alpha that works? And, you know, we did Alpha for. Yeah, As soon as we moved into the building here out of the school at North Langley. And, you know, that was just a gift from God because I was I had heard about Alpha and then one of my elders went to Australia to visit family and came back and said, we went to this most amazing thing in Australia. It's called Alpha. And I said, yeah, I know about it. Do you want to help me start it? And he said, sure. And so yeah, Mel and Marlene Tupper were the first couple that helped us with a meal, and we launched that. And that would have been maybe 1990, maybe 1998 or something. Just after we moved. It was hardly here. And we've run it every year since then at the church, but it's evolved a lot and it's gotten really. It was good then, but it's gotten really amazing. So tell us a little bit about how because I'd love for lots of churches to run Alpha. It's a bit of a no brainer to me in some ways. You know.

Mike Olynyk:
Yeah, it's a strategy. So it's not the end all be all right. But it's a really good resource. And so just praying towards it and and getting your people thinking about like who could I invite? Who am I building into, who am I talking over the fence with when I'm mowing my grass? All that, it starts there. Yeah, or it starts in a day camp. That's really what worked for us. So we utilize day camp to just meet parents and invite them. And they came.

Rob Thiessen:
We utilize Christmas. That's you know when you have a building and a music whatever people come and Christmas is like the step for Alpha then. Yeah.

Mike Olynyk:
Yeah. Well and I guess you guys are like NLCC is North Langley is really big on Alpha to the point where they're a hub church for like if you if you're in the Lower Mainland and you want information about Alpha, just call North Langley because. Yeah, yeah.

Rob Thiessen:
Matthew and Tanya, Tanya gotten into it so big. It's great. Yeah.

Mike Olynyk:
So we were there and we got trained by Tanya and and man, Matthew is such a great guy. He got a group of his people were having trouble just making meals. And we don't have that many Christian partners. Matthew shows up with like six pots of chili and drops it off one night. And it's just so cool to see the way they're connecting in. So I needed to give Matthew a shout out there and Tanya. But but Alpha, it's engaging. I think it's really well it's well done. It's cinematic. Yeah. So you don't have to feel embarrassed about that. Yeah. And then there's different modes. So we actually do the youth alpha with our grades 4 to 7. So concurrently with our adult one. And I love it because I've heard conversations around the dinner table the next night or on the way home. Hey what did you get out of? What did you. And it's really, really cool. And you can do this even in it's good just to know as a Christian, go back to the basics, run it once for yourself, and then see and pray into who could you invite to this? Yeah, and it's all around discussion. Yeah I think people want to talk out their faith. They don't just want to be told and talked at and is really good for that.

Rob Thiessen:
You're coming up to your the Holy Spirit weekend or at normally they call it the Alpha one day. Yeah. Have you done some of those before, and what's your experience on that weekend where they emphasize sort of the presence of God through the Holy Spirit?

Mike Olynyk:
Yeah, we just did it at Youth Retreat, actually, we're running it at South Abbotsford, too. Okay. And so that that Saturday night, we just soak in the spirit. It is a beautiful thing. Not so many just people in tears like happy tears. The Holy Spirit's coming. Their baggage is being removed. They're changed forever because the Holy Spirit enters in such a beautiful thing at Youth Retreat. And we've ran that three times now at South Abbotsford for ours, just the nature of who we have coming and the busyness. We're actually running our Holy Spirit weekend just as our normal Sunday nights. It's not ideal. It's good to have that time on a weekend. But I also want critical I want everybody there. Yeah, yeah. And so I want everybody to hear about the Holy Spirit. And so we'll create environments and like we play games and we have time where we can just community build and we'll have some worship. And I'm just really excited for them to experience the Holy Spirit in that way.

Rob Thiessen:
Yeah. Yeah. I found that often it's on that weekend that the penny drops for people. Right. So they're listening to teaching, teaching, teaching. And then when you talk about God present with us and then just invite people into a time. You explain about how God is present, and there's worship and prayer and you know, it's a risk, right? You're like, okay, well, are they going to what is it that they're going to experience. And but consistently, it impacts a lot of people, not everybody. I think people are in different journeys. But, you know, there were times back in the early days when people were like, wow, there's two charismatic and we don't need that Holy Spirit stuff. We certainly don't want to hear tongues mentioned. Et cetera. Et cetera. So we're going to cut out the Holy Spirit weekend. I was like, no, don't be like, that's the place where people connect with God. They figure out, oh, this isn't just a theory that you're talking to me about. You're talking about having a real relationship with a with a spiritual being who is with me and who's good. Yeah. Yeah.

Mike Olynyk:
And they their their view of God pre-Alpha is really a cosmic meanie. Right. Somebody who's setting up rules and he's a buzzkill to all that's good in life. Right. And then they come and they hear about, I have this Buddhist family that's coming. And they have actually told after the third session they're like, Mike, we're actually going to push aside our Buddhist belief. We want to experience Jesus. What you're saying. And so I can't wait for that Holy Spirit weekend where they can see the intimate relationship that I have with God. They can experience that for themselves.

Rob Thiessen:
Yeah, in some ways, you know, whether they're Buddhist or whatever their background is provided, it's not hostile that but that religious seeking a prepares the way. You know, I was reading this morning from John 4 where Jesus went to the Samaritans. You know, he had that conversation with the lady at the well. And then it just stood out to me that he goes back. She goes back to the village, tells everybody, and a bunch of people believe just because she said of what he what he did, what he told her about her life. And then he spent two extra days with those Samaritans and it says a bunch more people believed. And then and then in the same chapter, they go over to Cana and there Jesus says, yeah, you people won't believe unless you see signs and wonders. And I thought, well, what is it about these Samaritans who were really they're marginal people, right? Yeah, that why are they so open? And I don't have an answer, but it's really maybe it's something that they were just seekers and like you were saying about your Buddhist friends, there are a lot of people out there who are really hungry and they're just waiting. And somebody gives them the words of Jesus and the presence of Jesus. And people are like, that's what I want.

Mike Olynyk:
And think. Think about these families. I mean, my generation. I'm 25 for life. But for the 40 year olds out there who they have everything that they have. Goal-setted has really come to fruition. I mean, we we entered the housing market at a time where we could buy, you know, we have the car, the kids, the dog, like the career, everything. And there's more to life. Yeah. And they're finding out that maybe that's what they goalsetted is not everything. And so they're seeking for something. Yeah. And I think it's cool that we can come alongside them through their kids. Yeah. It doesn't have to be through the kids. It could be at work but they're listening.

Rob Thiessen:
Yeah. So have you got the meal thing figured out. Have you got some cooking people that have kind of signed up, or is that still a bit of a sore spot?

Mike Olynyk:
You know we're good now. We've had South Abbotsford small groups. They've heard what we're doing. They've heard the stories and they're like, we'll bring a meal and just been amazing. Had another person just give money. Hey, go grab some pizza. Yeah, but it's time to transition the ministry from hey, here's the food, let's eat and share to we're a family here. And so we need to move to if this is going to be sustainable, we're going to have to move to potlucks. Right. And it was a cool response when I brought it up last Sunday because we have one more meal and then we're moving to potlucks, and there's almost like a I can't wait to bring my signature meal. Right, right. So and I know that will fade that excitement, but at least then we can create that culture of bringing food, sharing food, and sharing Jesus.

Rob Thiessen:
Yea that's awesome, Mike. An indication also of how this ministry can evolve, like it starts, you start it very much in home based. And here you're coming up with a strategy that will let everybody participate and increase their own sense of contributing. Now, I'm not just receiving a handout, which is a deal. When you come to like North Langley, there's a meal cooked and you're like, oh, who did who did this? And of course people think, well, I don't know, maybe the government pays for this. That's how they think. You know, they don't realize it. It's just a bunch of people serving, but each stage of the way and each approach know the Lord can use in unique ways. That's amazing. What's one of the hardest things? Or maybe there's more, but what are some of the hard things that you mentioned a little bit earlier that, you know, people at South Abbotsford noticed you were burning out? That's significant. Like what happened there? And what are some of the other things that you found really challenging in this journey?

Mike Olynyk:
Yeah well, it's kind of a church that I like yeah. I wanted to see people come to know Jesus, but it wasn't something that I like drummed up. And like, we got to go here and, you know, did the C2C process and then church plant, it's just like I'm full time at South Abbotsford Church with, you know, about 180 to 200 students and leaders in my care. And I have a side hustle - this church. And so, you know that burnout was real. And I'm trying to figure out like, you know, I love South Abbotsford and I want to continue to partner, but I need this time. And then there's the money issue too. You know, you got to you got to eat. Right. Yeah. And so in all of that it was you know, Lori, the moderator of the board was really intentional. Just like how's your heart? And a couple others that just said, you know, Mike, we believe in what you're doing and we need to free you up so you can continue to do this missional engagement with the community.

Rob Thiessen:
Yeah. So it was just being stretched with so much of a good thing. Yeah. How about just, you know. Yeah. Personally, like what are some of the things that have, you've had to feel like you've had to overcome or work hard to deal with?

Mike Olynyk:
Well I think there's this constant, I mean we have to point to God in all that we do. And so it's not me, it's God. And sometimes so often our go to type A personalities are I can just make it happen. Right. And Meadows is the exact it shows that I didn't make it happen. God made it happen. I'm on for the ride. Yeah, but it's keep reminding that and being okay with the way God wants Meadows to grow and not the way I want to. I want to see that gym packed with people who didn't know Jesus that now know Jesus. But long term faith decisions. I mean, sometimes that works. Jesus revolution, love it. But often it's just in the little stuff, in the prayers and in the walking alongside people that you build that trust. And then faith comes and the Holy Spirit's doing the work. And so I think that's hard for me because I just I want them to get it. And I think another big one is just my heart's broken when people don't engage when they come. And, you know, not every family that's come to Meadows has stuck around. And they got they're too busy. And that breaks my heart because I want them to have freedom in Jesus and in the power of the Holy Spirit. So that's been really hard. And then I think the another big challenge at Meadows is there a statistic out there that, like average attendance for a church is 50% among Christians? Kind of like two out of four.

Rob Thiessen:
It's getting that way. Yeah, yeah. If I show up one Sunday a month, I feel like that's, you know, my home church or some people, it's like, well, I go twice a year and that's my church. Yeah.

Mike Olynyk:
But like to average maybe out a four. Well, we also get that with these families obviously. I mean we actually get more buy in with them. We might see them three out of four. But when you have a smaller church, the critical mass is important. Yeah. Just, you know, so that we can hang out with more than just a group of ten people. And so I found that challenging. Oh, who are we going to see today. Yeah. And it's not like you RSVP every week to church. And so I think that's been challenging for me, but also weirdly shocking, weirdly just seeing God work. They're coming like they after the first Alpha. And you know we had so many people I'm like, well this is a one off. And Satan's getting in there and he's starting to lie and he's starting to say, you're not good enough or they're just coming for this one time just to appease you because they came to your day camp. And he's just constantly just trying to chip away at the Armour and get inside head and heart. Satan is and when you get rid of the lies like, no, they're still coming, they're still hearing about Jesus. And when they're not coming, the coolest thing has happened. They actually are asking for the videos so that they can keep up for when they're able to come the next week.

Rob Thiessen:
Mhm.

Mike Olynyk:
And so you know Satan hear that - Jesus is stronger. Amen. Yeah.

Rob Thiessen:
So that's a significant challenge here. Just reflecting is the internal fear and negative talk that comes as a leader is just like oh this is fragile or it's not going to work or and a battle. What do you I mean, you've indicated already that, you know, you stick it out and see God be faithful week to week. What are some other sort of practices that sustain you in the middle of that kind of discouragement really?

Mike Olynyk:
Yeah, yeah. It seems to be a bit of a roller coaster with the highs and lows, lots of highs, lots of good stuff, but discouragement as well. And Satan does not want us to do what we're doing. He would want nothing more than me to just be depressed, curled up in a ball and I think that's why it's so important to embrace the word not as a checklist, but like God, primarily. The first thing he wants of me is that I'm a child of him, and he wants daddy-son time. And I lose sight of that sometimes, and he humbles me. But when I spend time just like soaking in a worship song or when I'm, I have ADHD, it's really hard for me to just stop. But when I do and you know, my goal is 2 to 3 times a week, just spend 15 minutes in silence and just, you know, square breathing some of this like just say the name of Jesus as I'm breathing out those times. Suddenly, God, I'll say, hey, you need to at the end of it, it's like, oh, go talk to this person. There always seems to be an encouragement out of it, right? Right. And it's not always going to be the case. Sometimes it's merely just spending time with my father. That's the encouragement.

Rob Thiessen:
Yeah. That's awesome, Mike, to hear. And I think sometimes we especially in pastoral work, you know, we read about and hear about examples of faith and then we measure ourselves against that. You know, you see on the shelf there or my table there, Moody the biography. So I just finished that biography of D.L. Moody and amazing guy. You would love that story because super activist and just started stuff like and started out with kids, started with kids in Chicago and built and he wasn't even speaking or teaching. He just gathered kids and saw God move. Incredible. But at one point, you know, so he's got, you know, he became a great evangelist. And people were talking about his prayer life, and they were talking about Luther, who prayed through the night. And D.L. Moody said, yeah, I tried that once. I woke up a very sore, Moody. And he said, so he said, I'm not, you know, basically I'm not doing that. I'm not wired for that. And yet people said about his prayer life that it was awesome because he prayed all the time, everywhere. Not long, never long, just short. But so, you know, we're wired differently. But the important thing is that we're learning from the master. You know, we're spending time attending to what Jesus has for us. And he's patient and good.

Mike Olynyk:
And he uses weird things to draw us to him. I think the dog has been huge for that. Wow. Just going out for, you know, heading out to a park where I can do off leash walks and just being with God. Like Bailey, my dog is my priest. She leads me to where it's God. And you know, when I'm not in my front entry chair where I do my Bible reading in a morning, she'll look at me and she'll always draw me to that chair. And then she sits in my lap and and reads with me and it's like, God works through some pretty, pretty fun ways.

Rob Thiessen:
No. That's amazing. Good. And that's really important too. You're just reflecting a habit where you have a place to meet God, and you have things that make it attractive for you, you know? And that's important too, to make a habit work for you. So I like this place. This is something I'm attracted to. It's not a duty. It's a part of my life. And yeah, that's beautiful. When we hit those rhythms, it's really enriching. And we need that for tough times, right? Yeah. Because doubts and struggles do come to everyone.

Mike Olynyk:
And a reminder because we really let it slide. Yeah. And I'll admit that, like, I'm not I'm not doing that every day like I should I miss. And when I miss I feel it because I need my daddy time with God. Yeah.

Rob Thiessen:
Hey, when you think about so Alpha is obviously known as an introduction to Christian faith, an introduction to the gospel, which it is. But here you've launched, you have people coming to Christ. When you think about that journey of discipleship, like, how are these people being formed into the character of Christ? Does that happen too through Alpha or what's your thought about that down the road for the church?

Mike Olynyk:
Yeah, I think it's even it's the discipleship of being missional has already happened with some of our Christian partners, some of our partners that maybe used to go to church. That said, if you plant a church, we'll join you. And then they did. I still, I think I'll forever have it in my mind. One of my partners that came to Christ through our House Francis Chan series, he's just he's usually the first one out the door. He'll come, he'll serve. But then he's gone. But he's sitting there on a chair and he's just giddy. He's got a big smile on his face. He's seeing what God is doing. And so discipleship is happening as we are missional together. And I know there's a place for teaching and that'll come. And, you know, we're in the new year. We're going to be walking alongside them through the YouVersion app. You can actually like talk to each other or use WhatsApp, whatever you want, but just kind of continuing that journey. But I feel like when you come alongside people, when they see you doing ministry and you welcome them to join, there's so much discipleship that happens right there and they are seeing God work and they want more.

Rob Thiessen:
Yeah, that's so awesome. So there's lots of people listening who are pastors and they're in existing churches and, you know, thinking and maybe longing for renewal. What do you think? Like you mentioned that South Abbotsford, like is impacted by this too. So what would you say to the, you know, men and women who are pastors in their churches who are longing and praying for renewal? What would you say to encourage them based on how you've seen South Abbotsford be impacted by what God is doing in Meadows?

Mike Olynyk:
Yeah. I think that embracing what God wants to do and carving out some time for it is really important. We are so busy. We've got the garage door, we it goes up, it goes down, we're in the house and then we're off to soccer and this and we're missing what God wants to do in each of those moments. And so I think that's a little bit of gospel fluency coming in with Jeff. Just embrace every moment and ask, how can I point people to Jesus in it and then share the stories? And they might start off as small stories, but we've seen this at South Abbotsford, like somebody's like Mike, I heard your story. I preached recently and I got to share some of my Meadows Church stories. I'm going to live it out today. I'm going to have a story to share next week. And they did. And so I think the more that we story share, not that we're pumping our own tires, this is God's work. And praise God, he's using a sinner like me. But when we share those stories, it does encourage and impact others. And then are there strategic ways that we as pastors can use what's in front of us? So if we're doing a day camp and we have all non-Christian or all Christians coming, maybe we need to revamp that. Maybe it's time to get a who would do this in in their front and back yard. Yeah. And then we want to resource you. And it's not going to be easy right. But it's going to be so fulfilling. And the stories that are going to come out of that.

Rob Thiessen:
Yeah. Yeah.

Mike Olynyk:
Or maybe you do a preaching series on evangelism up to your day camp and talk about friends that don't know Jesus, that they can be praying about inviting to day camp and totally revitalize, bring Vacation Bible School, take out the Bible school and make it about day camp and not about just church kids.

Rob Thiessen:
Yeah, that's repurposing or regaining the purpose for a lot of the the stuff that we do. Right? Focusing it outward. I know that often talk with Janet. She years ago started a program at the church called Women's Breakaway, and she was always about planning events, bringing a local gardener in whatever that would attract people from the community. And but over the years, church people love that event, you know, just like they do with everything they love. We love the camp. We love the Sunday school, we love this, we love that. And then we shape it to suit us. And and it loses its purpose. And one of the tough things to do is to help retrain people and say, we've got to let go of that. It's not a bad thing. But if we're going to do the thing that serves the community, we have to it has to be tuned to them. It has to be something that they can receive, and that's hard. But one of the things I hear you saying is that telling stories can light, a can kindle a fire. So maybe that's an encouragement for existing churches. Before you try to change the whole structure and announce a new, you know, focus. Try telling stories that will kindle a fire in people to go, oh, that's actually what I want to be a part of. I'd like to see somebody come to Christ.

Mike Olynyk:
And just live in it. Like when you're at the grocery store, there's opportunities. You're not going to give the four point gospel message at the, but you can start to build that awareness that there are people all around us that need Jesus. And a simple conversation can show that love.

Rob Thiessen:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So us as pastors and leaders modeling what we're talking about. Yeah. That's awesome. And a great place maybe for us to end the conversation. But Mike, it's been a real treat to have you here and yeah, you and your whole family, you and Kim involved in this great venture. And for anybody who's listening in the Langley area, maybe we'll close with this. So if somebody was interested in coming alongside and helping? You've already mentioned, you know, you're looking for a staff person. But what about if somebody else just says, oh, I want to be a part of that. What kind of people would you appreciate having on board right now to help support you in this new venture?

Mike Olynyk:
Yeah, people who want to emulate, do what we're doing in their neighbourhoods, in there, with their neighbours to be incarnational to if you have that heart and you want to come alongside, I'd love to have a conversation if you're good with kids. Currently, our nursery is in the gym where we're at because we just don't have enough nursery workers, and our youth programs exploded. We have like 15 youth that grade 4 to 7, that's where they're at. And so yeah, love to have the conversation. Yeah.

Rob Thiessen:
Any people who are willing to roll up their sleeves and help wherever basically. Right? Yeah. Yeah, that's great. Well, thanks again, everybody for joining us for this podcast conversation. And if you haven't kind of got the drift this year, 2023 and 2024, we're going to focus on renewal and share lots of stories about what God is doing. Awesome. So thanks, Mike, and for the rest of you listeners, we'll look forward to next time we're together.

Rob Thiessen:
Thanks and have a great week.

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