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Reflections on District Staff Retreat 2017

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A couple of weeks have now passed since the District Staff Retreat at Whistler. As always, it was a great time to get away with people from the district and spend some time together seeking the Lord and pressing into what God has for us in a beautiful location. As I reflect on the retreat this year, I was reminded of so many great moments, deep connects with friends, encouraging teaches, and some really clear instances of God’s presence, leading, involvement, and ministry.

One of the things that I appreciated about this year at District Staff Retreat was the desire to press into the work of the Spirit in our meetings and to see Him move in our midst. Deep down inside, I think we all really want this; we all want to see God moving among us and in the ministries that we are called to. We all want to know Him in a deeper, more intimate way. In Ephesians 1:17, the Apostle Paul is clear that God genuinely wants to know Him better. He prays for the Ephesian church “that God would give them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that they can know Him better.” God wants us to be aware of His presence, His activity in our lives, and to fully embrace the reality that He loves us. God wants each of us to know Him better, to experience the fullness of what He created us for, and to be satisfied in Him.

It can be all too easy to be involved in ministry for a season of time and to find ourselves so busy creating environments for people to encounter God that we miss out on the encounter with God ourselves. This can be a great danger of ministry at times. We love people and we want the people in our churches to go to deeper places with God. We want them to become more aware of His presence, His great love for them, His activity in their lives. The reality is that this happens best in the place where we are intimate with God and walking in that vital life-giving relationship with Him. God wants us to encounter Him, to live in that intimate union with Him and to take Him at His Word.

It was a great blessing to have Sandy Isfeld come and join us for the week with his staff team from Airdrie Alliance Church. They’ve been experiencing a great blessing of God in the last few years. They have been seeing healthy growth, miraculous healings, a deepening faith as a church, and a powerful move of the Spirit. They are experiencing the renewal of God in their midst. This renewal did not just happen. As Sandy shared, this renewal was preceded by more than 20 years of tough ministry, challenging days, seeking God, hungering for more of God, and calling for Him to move in their church before they saw God move in the ways they are seeing today. For Sandy and his team, they, like those who have experienced spiritual renewal in their churches in history and recently, know that spiritual hunger precedes spiritual breakthrough and renewal.

I believe that we are a hungry people here in the Canadian Pacific District. The response to the ministry times that were offered gave an indication of the level of hunger and desire for more of God. Over the course of our time in Whistler this year, we saw God move in powerful ways in many different people’s lives.

I want to thank the district team for opening the door to the ministry times for people, and also for giving us opportunities as a whole body present to be able to pray for each other and serve each other in the ways that we were able to. I appreciated seeing our district leaders stepping into ministry and also being willing to be prayed for. We have a really great District Superintendent and district team who are seeking God themselves and are leading us as a district from that place of seeking God and hungering for more of Him.

I think that there are great days ahead of us in the CPD and I am excited to see what God has in store for us as we become more aware Him.

Carmen Kinniburgh

District Children’s Ministry Partner

Children’s ministry involves developing leaders, discipling children and families, exercising creativity, with an emphasis on fun and building relationships that help others to experience God’s love as they are loved by people who know God’s love. Carmen has served in children’s ministries as a volunteer, coordinator, curriculum writer, camp speaker, and pastor. Her desire in ministry and life is to help others (whether they be children, youth, or adults) to hear God’s voice and to experience the freedom and fullness of love found in knowing Jesus and living kingdom lives. Whether your children’s ministry is led by volunteers or a pastoral leader, Carmen would love to connect, build networks, support, resource, pray with, and provide care in whatever areas are needed.

Carmen lives in Vernon with her husband, Jeremy, and their two teenage kids. She loves playing soccer, hiking, camping, and theatre. She and Jeremy have founded two new ministries called Threshold Initiatives and Contributing Pastor.

Terry Ann Opperman

Official Worker

David has served at Lakewood Alliance Church since the fall of 2002, first as an associate, then as Lead Pastor starting in November 2005. David has been on various committees including DEXCOM, District Nominating Committee, a few General Assembly Committees, and the Rules Committee for District Conference. David has an interest in church governance and seeing healthy leaders serving on healthy boards in order to better equip and serve the church.

David and Tara are in the process of launching their three young adult sons and enjoy seeing the trajectories their lives are taking. David enjoys woodwork and getting out cross-country skiing in the winter.

Steve Schneider

Lay Person

Steve is a layperson and a member of Peace Portal Alliance Church in Surrey. He has been married to his wife Brenda since 1984. They have two adult daughters. He is an engineer by background and holds an MBA from Heriot-Watt University. He works in the paper industry and is also the President of SGS Consulting Ltd. He has recently become a licensed worker in the CPD.

Steve has served in varied ways over the years but has more recently been focussed on church board work. He served on his first church board 36 years ago. Since that time, he has served on four different church boards and the District Executive Committee of the CPD. Over the last 12 years Steve has actively been teaching and consulting with church and not-for-profit boards within and outside of The Alliance Canada to help them develop healthy governance practices.

Keith Cheung

English Lead Pastor at Burnaby Alliance Church

Keith was also an active member at Westside Calgary Chinese Alliance Church before moving to Vancouver to begin full-time pastoral ministry. After a brief stint pastoring in a church from another denomination, Keith began serving as the English Lead Pastor at Burnaby Alliance Church in 2017 where he continues to serve today.

Keith is married to Cecelia (20 years this year!) and they are raising 2 beautiful daughters (11 and 6) who they adopted from Taiwan and Korea respectively. He loves, in no particular order, cooking and eating and conversations, the Saskatchewan Roughriders, road cycling, family reunions, and good movies and music.

Carol Goh

District Chaplains Committee Chair

carol@mycac.ca

Carol Goh has chaired the District Chaplains Committee and served on the Association for Alliance Chaplains (AAC) National Committee since 2018. She completed her Masters degree in Chaplaincy in Spiritual Care from Trinity Western Seminary and is the Neighborhood Chaplain and Pastor for Seniors at Chilliwack Alliance. As a chaplain, Carol invests in the neighborhood (parish) around the church through connecting with those who live, work, and go to school there. She intentionally supports the local public elementary school and other local organizations so that together they can weave together the fabric of care for the inhabitants. The Goh household includes her husband Andrew, their three teenage sons, Andrew’s mother, and their golden doodle.

David Driedger

Board Leadership Training Partner

dave@lakewoodalliance.com

David has served at Lakewood Alliance Church since the fall of 2002, first as an associate, then as Lead Pastor starting in November 2005. David has been on various committees including DEXCOM, District Nominating Committee, a few General Assembly Committees, and the Rules Committee for District Conference. David has an interest in church governance and seeing healthy leaders serving on healthy boards in order to better equip and serve the church.

David and Tara are in the process of launching their three young adult sons and enjoy seeing the trajectories their lives are taking. David enjoys woodwork and getting out cross-country skiing in the winter.

Daren Wride

Transitional Pastors Network Coordinator

dwride@shaw.ca

Daren Wride has been serving in transitional roles since 2011. He has been on the ground as Transitional Pastor in multiple churches around the province and has engaged as a Transitional Coach with several other churches. Prior to his transitional work, Daren pastored three churches in Alberta and BC for a total of nearly 20 years. Daren has also spent time in the professional speaking and internet marketing worlds and usually has a related project on the go.

Geoff Stewart

District Youth Ministry Partner

geoffs@peaceportalalliance.com

Youth ministry is among the most demanding ministries in the church from a relational standpoint, serving young people who are defining the ever changing culture we live in. Leading in youth ministry is best not done alone, and Geoff desires to help our youth pastors serve and encourage one another through the sharing of resources, wisdom, experience, and perspective. In the ever-changing world of today’s high school student, it is vital for us as youth pastors to be changing with them to understand the world they are navigating and share with them the life changing truth of the Gospel.

Geoff has been a youth pastor for 6 years at Peace Portal Alliance Church and volunteered for 10 years before that in the same church. He is passionate about seeing young people transformed by Jesus and becoming leaders in their school and community. He and his wife Lavonne live in South Surrey with their cats Norman and Puff Daddy.

Andy Lambkin

Team Lead - Property Development & Nest Housing Society

andy.lambkin@gmail.com

Andy wears two hats in the Canadian Pacific District. He serves as our New Venture implementer, helping new communities of faith emerge across our province, and he also leads the Nest housing Society, a non-profit affordable housing society working with local churches to utilize their land for social good while fulfilling critical ministry priorities. If you have questions about either of these areas, please reach out.

Personally, Andy is married to Jolie and they have four kids. Residing in North Vancouver, they call simplechurches, a network of house churches, their church home.

Carmen Kinniburgh

District Children’s Ministry Partner

jckinnib@telus.net

Children’s ministry involves developing leaders, discipling children and families, exercising creativity, with an emphasis on fun and building relationships that help others to experience God’s love as they are loved by people who know God’s love. Carmen has served in children’s ministries as a volunteer, coordinator, curriculum writer, camp speaker, and pastor. Her desire in ministry and life is to help others (whether they be children, youth, or adults) to hear God’s voice and to experience the freedom and fullness of love found in knowing Jesus and living kingdom lives. Whether your children’s ministry is led by volunteers or a pastoral leader, Carmen would love to connect, build networks, support, resource, pray with, and provide care in whatever areas are needed.

Carmen lives in Vernon with her husband, Jeremy, and their two teenage kids. She loves playing soccer, hiking, camping, and theatre. She and Jeremy have founded two new ministries called Threshold Initiatives and Contributing Pastor.