Papa Dan's Pastoral Days

 THINKING ABOUT MOVING ON   Dan in his office at Rockyview Alliance Church Knowing when to leave a church and move on is always a soul searching time.  Should I leave, should I stay?  What are the reasons for leaving?  What are the reasons for staying?  Well, after nearly eight years as senior pastor at Rockyview Alliance Church, I started thinking that maybe it was time to move on.  I informed the district superintendent of my intentions and also notified the district superintendent of the Canadian Pacific District of the C&MA. The superintendents obviously share with other superintendents when a pastor is thinking of moving on.  So once I had shared with my superintendent of the Western Canadian District of the C&MA and the Canadian Pacific District of the C&MA , a superintendent of another district in Canada, phoned me asking if I would consider being a pastoral candidate at a growing church in his district....

 PASTORS ENJOY FUN, FELLOWSHIP AND FOOD I've indicated in a previous post or two that Rockyview Alliance Church was a relatively young church.  Except for one or two men, I was several years older than most of the church elders.  When I went to Calgary, I was only 46.  Some of the elders were in their late 20's or early 30's.  They were fathers to babies or young children.  As best that I can remember, there were only three men in the church that were retired. We were able to seat all of the seniors in our church around our dining room table. There were at least two or three dozen folks that were around our age. Some of us older ones, those of us in our 40's or 50's, often got together in a home for a fun evening of table games, food and fellowship.  Many of them celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary during our years there.  We also celebrated our 25th when I was at Rockyview.  The church had a special gathering after church o...

AIRDRIE ALLIANCE CHURCH Rockyview Alliance Church continued a steady growth with the vast majority of the people coming from NE and SE Calgary.  A few families came to Rockyview from NW and SW Calgary.  Seven families came from Airdrie, a growing community about 25 minutes north of Rockview.  These Airdrie families made the trip to Rockyview every Sunday, plus some mid-week activities.  With help from the Western Canadian District of the C&MA co-coordinating matters, we agreed to give birth to a daughter church in Airdrie.  Those who were in attendance at the first service were a few folks from the Airdrie area that attended First Alliance Church in the south of Calgary and from Foothills Alliance Church in NW Calgary, along with six of the Airdrie families that regularly came to Rockyview Alliance Church.   Dan speaking at the first service in Airdrie, April 1982 Space was rented in a hotel in Airdrie for a meeting place.  I spoke ...

ROCKYVIEW'S MUSIC MINISTRIES Rockyview Alliance Adult Choir As a lover of good music, I was encouraged and thrilled with the caliber of music that we had at Rockyview Alliance Church.   We had some musical talent that some churches only dream about.  For a church the size of Rockyview, one year averaging 400 in the Sunday morning attendance, peaking a couple of times at 500, we were abundantly blessed. The day came when we had three choirs.  There was an adult choir, led for a period of time by Ian Charter, who was a school teacher in Calgary.  Ian also led some of our congregational singing and together with Allen Powles, put together some wonderful and inspiring seasonal music nights.  Donna Frentz led a youth choir and Marla Craig led a children's choir, later giving leadership to the adult choir when Ian joined the music faculty at the Prairie Bible Institute in Three Hills, Alberta.  From there he was on the music faculty at Canadia...

SOUTHERN ALBERTA BILLY GRAHAM CRUSADE I have written several posts about Rockyview Alliance Church's evangelism ministry, etc.  Before I move on to other happenings during our ministry in Calgary, I want to share about the biggest evangelistic thrust ever held in the city of Calgary.  McMahon Stadium , the home of the Calgary Stampeders football team, held thousands of people, night after night, August 23 - 30, 1981, singing God's praises and listening to Evangelist Billy Graham proclaiming the gospel. The Sunday meetings were in the afternoon.  I had heard Billy Graham, as I've previously mentioned, but the thrill and excitement of being involved in a crusade in your own city was something else. Final invitation in McMahon Stadium, Sunday afternoon August 30, 1981 Preparations for this big event began many months before.  There was the selection and training of ushers, choir members and counselors.  Plus there were prayer meetings, and all kind...

ROCKYVIEW'S SUNDAY SCHOOL Many changes, in how we do church, have occurred over the years for the better, some, well let me say, some changes from my viewpoint, were maybe not so good.  I am thinking, as I am nearing the completion of this blog, that once I am caught up to the present day, I need to write a blog on the many changes that I have seen in my six decades of ministry.  One big change over the years is the low level of importance that is placed on the Sunday School in many churches, not all, but many.   A Primary Sunday School Class at Rockyview Sunday School used to be a fifty-two week ministry.  We never heard of shutting down the Sunday School for the summer.  We had classes for all ages and for the whole year.  If teachers were going to be away, we had substitute teachers, or combined a couple of classes, if necessary, but we did not shut down.  Sunday School was a high priority in the church.  I remember when one of ou...

HIGH PERCENTAGE OF NEW CHRISTIANS Of all of the churches that I was privileged to be the pastor, I believe Rockyview Alliance Church had the highest percentage of new Christians.  One summer I had a student intern from Canadian Bible College in Regina.  His focus was on evangelism.  He did a study on the make up or spiritual life of our congregation, young adults and up, posing questions to me and what I knew about them.   He then took my answers and came back with this conclusion.  Twenty-two and a half percent of our adults, young and old, were new converts.  Some of these were teaching Sunday School, learning the stories along with their students about Joseph, Moses, Daniel, the apostles, etc. It was all new to them.  Others became involved in other areas. I've shared a story or two, among many, of people who received Christ through our Evangelism Explosion training visits, plus the sharing of the gospel one to one. I recall one week of ...

SHARING THE GOSPEL ONE ON ONE We rejoiced to see folks receive Christ through our team visits, but far more people came to know the Lord through a one on one encounter with family members, friends and fellow workers.  The purpose of Evangelism Explosion was to equip people to share their faith wherever and whenever. Let me share a couple of stories that come to mind.  Frank was one of the two people that I had on my first team.  Frank's 12 year old daughter had been talking to a school chum about things that were going to happen in the future.  Talking about prophetic things frightened her girl friend.  This frightened girl told her father, Dave, and he phoned Frank asking him if he would talk to his daughter and ask her to stop frightening his daughter. Frank agreed to talk to his daughter, but said to Dave that if he was open to it, that he would be glad to meet with him and share what it was that they believed.  Dave welcomed the opportunity....

TESTIMONIES FROM TRAINING TIMES We didn't always know when we sent a team out to visit whether the newcomers were Christians or non-Christians.  I share a couple of testimonies from those visits.  The first was a great compliment paid to us by a Christian couple, new to the church.  This couple appreciated the church's ministry, but they had one criticism.  Their criticism was that Rockyview Alliance Church was too friendly.  That's right, too friendly!  They said that they could not get out of church without people talking with them.  We accepted that criticism. Lingering in the lobby for fellowship Though the Evangelism Explosion sessions were times of training on how to share your faith one on one, they were indeed times of spiritual harvest.  Another story comes to mind about a visit which one of our teams made. We usually met back at the church for a very brief time of sharing.  One team, one night, was bubbling over the ...

OUTREACH INTO THE COMMUNITY The Goldsmith Family - Calgary Stampede Week Church hosted a free pancake breakfast for our neighbors Prior to our moving into our church facilities, we hosted a pancake breakfast on the church property to get to know our church neighbors.  We had the first church building in the The Properties , which consisted of an area of four square miles.  Once we were in our church building we began holding a summer Vacation Bible School.   The ladies in the church started a Ladies Time Out , the first of its kind in that area.   Ladies Time Out offered a variety of crafts and classes of interest for all ladies in the area. Another ministry which was deeply appreciated was that of  kindergarten. Then a couple of years after occupying our new building, we began a training program, teaching folks how to share their faith with their neighbors. I mentioned in a previous post about attending  the Evangelism Explosion t...