Redeemer Launches Urban and Intercultural Ministry Program

Montreal is in many ways a center of modern thought, arts, culture, and business. It is also, like many other urban environments, ripe for mission. This need in our cities was the theme of several events on March 7 as Redeemer University College in Ancaster, Ont., celebrated the launch of its newest program, Urban and Intercultural Ministries.

There are more post-secondary students in the greater Montreal area than in any other North American city, yet the city’s high schools have high dropout rates, shared Glenn Smith, the executive director of Christian Direction in Montreal and a guest speaker at a chapel service during the launch event.

Refugees and other immigrants are also changing the cultural face of Montreal, he said. The school boards of Montreal, for example, include students from 168 different countries. All of this affects how one might do ministry there.

Smith, who is also a professor of urban theology and missiology at universities in Montreal and Haiti, explained how this situation is not unique to Montreal. He pointed to the growing numbers of people worldwide who are living in and moving to urban areas, and the need to see and respond to both the challenges and the opportunities of this situation.

Smith encouraged students interested in ministry to “exegete” their local markets, churches, and communities — that is, to study and learn, to interpret and see the meaning in each of these contexts in order to better do ministry and serve the community.

Knowing the culture, the nuances and numbers, will allow us to do the mission of God in changing contexts, he said.

Following the chapel service, Dr. Ken Herfst, a professor in the new Urban and Intercultural Ministries program, spoke during a reception.

“As we worked through this program,” he noted, “we spent a lot of time in conversation with practitioners in different parts of the world — and also close by — so we could provide something that would uniquely equip our students for a lifetime of ministry that is shaped by theology and provides tools but that also gives the students an opportunity to test their calling — and so we have, I think, a very interesting internship and co-op component to this as well.”

Many who are involved in the work of missions agree. Five men and women involved in different types of ministry joined the launch celebration and spoke on a panel about their experiences.

They agreed that practical training — obtaining permits, hiring staff, organizing volunteers — is important, especially in getting started. They also agreed that social and theological training is equally necessary to prepare students for crises and situations they will face.

“We need to keep two things in mind as we serve communities and people: God’s grace, and people as God’s imagebearers,” said Paul VandenBrink, one of the panelists, who serves as a church planter and pastor in Dundas, Ont.

Another panelist was Sue Carr, executive director of 541 Eatery and Exchange, a restaurant in Hamilton, Ont., designed to provide quality, nutritious food and a welcoming environment at a price that everyone in the neighboring community can afford. The eatery even has a “button system” by which patrons can donate extra funds and place a button voucher into a jar on the counter for each extra dollar they pay. The buttons can then be used by future patrons who might not have enough — or any — money to pay for their meal.

In discussing the need for reconciliation as a part of mission, Carr noted that relationships — welcoming and listening — are important for people of all cultures, economic backgrounds, and situations. Without such relationships, the door to ministry cannot be opened.

Kevin DeRaaf, who works as the Eastern Regional Mission Leader for Resonate Global Mission, was also on the panel. He encouraged listeners to adopt a posture in ministry of being the “lead learner.” We need to be willing to learn from and walk with the people we hope to reach with the gospel, he said.

These lessons apply to ministry across the globe. Peterson Waihura Wang’ombe serves as director of the Nairobi Transformational Network, an outreach of Resonate Global Mission in Kenya, and was also part of the panel. Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya, has a population of over three million people and a steady influx of newcomers arriving in the surrounding area every day.

Both a challenge and an opportunity for those interested in mission, said Wang’ombe, is that cities are “magnets and magnifiers.” They are magnets because they draw people to themselves, and they are magnifiers because both the good and the bad things of the world and society are enlarged in a city context.

Diverse opinions, cultures, practices, and issues are gathered in bigger numbers and closer quarters than in small towns or rural areas, and this has an impact on how churches and ministries serve in these ever-changing contexts, he explained.

As we engage a community and a city, said Smith, who was also a panelist, we need to ask what helps are available, what is already being done, and what is left for us to do — and we need to work not in, but with the city.

With the new program, Redeemer hopes to equip students to take on these challenges. “This isn’t just about adding a new program,” said David Zietsma, vice president of external relations and enrollment. “This is about the need of the world to hear the gospel.”