Acts chapter six is a famous passage about the appointment of the first deacons to serve the church’s practical needs.
​
The church had been growing and growing fast. Acts 6:1 recaps this by saying, “Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number…” However, this growth was producing growing pains (much like our children when they grow so fast!). The verse goes on to say, “a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.”

The cultural Greek believing Jews were coming into conflict with the culturally Hebrew believing Jews over alms to the poor widows. The Greeks felt they were being neglected. This almost certainly wasn’t a sin issue but one of oversight. Rather than seeing this as a crisis the matter was resolved constructively—deacons were appointed and all the widows were cared for.

Luke then tells us about the result in v. 7, “And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.” Overcoming the growing pains led to greater witness and growth!

In recent years, as part of this quiet revival, MBC has grown. In fact, all of the association churches have grown. Our attendance has about tripled and we have about 100+ people regularly worshipping with or connecting with us. Many of the questions that face us—like in Acts— are not sin issues but growth and size issues. I’m heartened to know we are not alone—all of the association churches and many others across the West are experiencing the same growing pains! Addressing those growing pains effectively is key to growing numerically and spiritually.

On this point FEB Central passed along a helpful article to the Elders, which we’ve reflected upon and want to share with you. The article is called “Leadership and Church Size Dynamics” by the late Timothy Keller. In it Keller points out that the change brought about by church growth can feel even greater than the difference between changing denominations! He offers 6 things that are generally needed to grow from a small church (30–100 in Canada) to a medium church (100–250 in Canada).

You’ll notice we are right on that boundary. Those 6 things are:

1. A willingness to embrace necessary change: By necessity a church of 100 is not the same as a church of 40. Change is difficult because it entails loss. However, change is also necessary if we wish to grow.

?-   The elders believe this is in process.

1. A willingness to pay the cost of more staff: One full time lead-elder cannot cover all that is needed in a church of 100+, even if there are other committed leaders and volunteers.

N-   The elders believe this is a short term need, which we’ve already begun to address by discussing an intern.

1. A willingness to let some power shift away from the membership to leaders: Less people can be in the know as the church grows this big. It requires trust of leaders to make day to day decisions.

?-   The elders believe we already have this biblical structure in our elders-led congregationalism model that balances the best of both worlds,  but need to fully embrace it.

1. A willingness to become more formal in their communication: There is a move from word of mouth to the use of a website, newsletter, etc.

Y- The elders, confirmed in the recent survey, believe we are already doing an excellent job here!

1. The ability and willingness of both the pastor and people for the lead-elder (pastor) to do shepherding a bit less and leading a bit more: Like Jethro’s advice to Moses, the pastor will always be available but must make a multiplying investment in other leaders who care for smaller groups, all the while leading and teaching.

X   -The elders believe this is possible but requires more of a culture shift and also more leaders and volunteers.

1. A willingness to consider new or expanded facilities: One needs to have space to grow otherwise people won’t feel welcome and you’ll literally have no where for people to go.

Y- The elders believe this is not a present need thanks to the existence of our wonderful facility.
So we would score 2/2/2. That means we still need to focus on 4 areas.

Our church has been growing, praise God! To avoid bouncing off the glass ceiling and instead moving beyond it, these are some wise considerations we should think about. We want to be like the church in Acts and constructively address matters so that we can continue to be effective witnesses. 

Theology is the knowledge of God, both factual and experiential (Ps 34:8- Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good…). It also includes everything He has revealed about faith and practice. Theology is not boring, it is the foundation of Christian life and inspires worship and holy living.

Sadly, however, many people get bored of God and plateau or ‘fall away’ after an initial interest. Such can be the case with some children raised in the Church. Such people inevitably grow out of theology. Why does this happen? This happens when people have not embraced true theology but rather manmade or partially true theology. You see, humans are finite—limited. Any theology based on man will invariably be able to be exhausted. Once we’ve reached its limit, we tire of it, stagnate or move on. How sad! We grow out of theology when we have a small view of God and a big view of man.

True theology is based upon what God has revealed about Himself and His ways in the Bible. Because He is infinite—limitless—we can never exhaust true theology. Seeing the big God of the Bible is key to never growing out of theology but always having more to grow into; more to discover, more to experience, more to learn! True theology provides us with an inexhaustible pursuit that we will enjoy, not only today, but for eternity. The believer has an eternity to get to know God! True theology inspires love and service and growth.

Bored with theology? Try switching to a theology that you can grow into, not out of! 

Continuing in our series on our church covenant (find earlier blogs here and our actual covenant here), we press into 1. 3.7:

We also engage to maintain family and secret devotion; to religiously educate our children; to seek the salvation of our kindred and acquaintances;

While using older language, this covenant clause emphasizes three commitments:

1. Personal Worship (This used to be called ‘family worship’): Whether we are single, married or a child in a family, we should all take time—ideally daily—to hear from and speak to God in praise and prayer and the reading of Scripture. We should cultivate this as a normative pattern in our lives. We should do it as a family if we are more than one and even if we are part of a family, we should also do it privately.
2. Discipleship of Children: If you have children, then there is a spiritual responsibility to disciple them (Dt 6); to intentionally do spiritual good to them. (Even if they are grown, we can still seek this). If you, or you and your spouse, don’t have children, we can always seek to do spiritual good toward children generally. If you have children, the point here is not to offload this responsibility to others (e.g. a Christian school, the church); however, involved the Christian community should be. The point is that parents have a responsibility to teach their children the faith by instruction and example.  

*As an example of points 1 & 2: every morning I lead my son in reading from a children’s Bible and, at the moment, a Christian biography; every evening after story time, we read a child friendly Christian book and then the Bible. We pray together (petitions) as a family using a ‘prayer jar’ that contains many prayer requests
      3. General Evangelization: Not only should we seek the salvation of our children (or other                   children), but we ought also to fulfil the Great Commission generally. Our entire relational                  network is our mission field. Growing and making disciples should be our bread and butter.
​*A simple example of this is to find small ways to drop biblical truths or speak of God as Gospel opportunities in day-to-day communication and examples. We can of course be more forthright too.

It is right and good to attend public worship and support the evangelistic and discipleship activities of your church. However, this clause encourages us to be consistent in our own lives. When we regularly worship, disciple and evangelize personally, our minds will be fixed on Christ, His will and Word, resulting in personal transformation, humility and readiness to serve Him. 

A message given at Grey Gables, Jan 14, 2026. 

​​Our steeple represents a big picture overview of the life of MBC. While a small but growing church, the Lord has continued to use us in mighty ways. This has also produced growing pains, which we are seeking to constructively surmount with God’s help. In this it is good to know that as part of the quiet revival, many churches are sharing similar experiences.  
Highlights of the year include:

• Our 30th Anniversary, with a formal celebration in May, along with other events and videos
• Our two main weekly Lord’s Day gatherings, a.m. (60–70+) and p.m. (40+).
• A journey about ‘standing firm’ from 1 Peter, Daniel, some summer Psalms, 2 Peter and Malachi.
• In intergenerational worship the children learned from CAT, Christiana (Pilgrim’s Progress part two), and the ABC’s of the Reformation (we’re blessed to have 18+ children worshipping with us).
• 6 new members: 3 by baptism and 3 by joining.
• 41 in membership (+7 formal adherents); as of August, which along with adherents totals 110 worshipping with us altogether (as of Dec the number was around 99).
• The death of three members and one adherent
• Many new visitors, some who stay and some who don’t. We hosted our first newcomers luncheon in September with 31 present. There have been 29 who’ve stopped coming. May we all see to reach out to them.
• A fall Foundations I class with 14 who crammed into pastor’s office.
• Three community outreach flyers to 3700 homes in 20 min radius around Markdale. Themes included hope, stability and light. Together with our other exposure ministries (website, newsletter, Youtube, etc) ensure we have a strong exposure ministry in the community and plant many seeds.
• Supporting those in our midst with dementia + their carers.
• A summer VBS with 65 children and family fun night with 150 people.
• Our pianist stepping down but us gaining a guitarist. We are grateful for Sue’s service.
• The existence of various ministries: prayer central(s) (30), Life Groups (30+), Ladies Coffee Hour (12+), King’s Kids (20+), Fabulous Friday’s (70+), men’s breakfast (15+), Merry and Mature (high 20s), social (e.g. fellowship meals, games, funerals), missions (see report), benevolent and meal ministry (see report) and Grey Gables chapel. Many others help support aspects of worship (i.e. music, A/V, parking service, nursery) and the general life of the church (i.e. property, kitchen coordinator, etc).
• Extra gifts to missions: New Life Camp, Pastor Henry, Christian refugees
• Property upgrades: a pavilion and a cleaned steeple
• A fall survey, which revealed many strengths as well as some areas for improvement.
• Christmas outreach: 1000 candy invites, a walking parade, & carol service.
• Fellowship meals and socials (a.m. and p.m.) and spring and fall games nights
• Welcomed many guest preachers and visiting missionaries

With a growing church it is difficult to capture everything that took place throughout the year.

​From my basecamp I’ve engaged in numerous activities over 2025:
 

• General oversight/vision and leading the Eldership.
• Regularly present with my family at our morning and evening worship gatherings.
• Preaching: I regularly preach twice each Lord’s Day and lead the children’s time. Over 2025 we learned to stand firm in our series through 1 Peter, Daniel, some summer Psalms, 2 Peter and Malachi.  
• Life Groups: Write the weekly questions, which are part of our sermon book studies.
• Blog: publish a weekly blog, Drippings, that covers a variety of subjects. Please check them out.
• Music: I regularly lead music in the evening service and upon occasion in the morning.
• Visitation: I regularly seek to visit at least 2 individuals/families, make phone calls and receive visitors who pop into my study. Much visitation time was taken up connecting and discipling visitors/new believers/those being baptized and joining the church. I also engaged in some hospital visitation and crisis counselling.
• Funerals: 2025 was a big year for funerals, I conducted 5 in the early fall and one community funeral in the winter.
• Fabulous Fridays: I’ve taught one chapel each month to 70+ moms and children
• Hospitality: We host a weekly Life Group in our home. We’ve also had some guests over from church, though not as much as we’d like given Rebekah’s health.
• King’s Kids: Regularly teaching these precious young souls.
• VBS: enjoyed teaching and leading music at our weeklong VBS.
• Discipleship Ministries: I led a fall newcomers’ luncheon and the fall Foundations I class.
• Community: Food Bank board member; bi-monthly chapel services at Grey Gables.
• Church Health: We held a round table in May. With the input and help of the Elders, Deacons and communication’s team, I helped to craft and present our fall Church survey.
• Association/Denomination: Coordinate the Barnabas program. This entails coordinating instructors and doing some teaching. I’m grateful for the administrator, Val, who takes care of the majority of the day to day work.  I’ve also sought to attend our Bluewater Association meeting and attended/led a workshop at the FEBC Stronger conference. With the Elders’ support, over the summer and fall, I was also part of a national grassroots team that has sought to keep our Fellowship complementarian.
• Other related duties (largely administrative and property based)

 
Beyond MBC I’ve taught 2 courses at Toronto Baptist Seminary: Church History B and Baptist History and Thought. I also continue to edit the seminary’s Gospel Witness journal that produces scholarship for the church. You may find copies in our library.
 
I have many research and writing interests that time doesn’t wholly allow me to pursue. However, I did present a paper at the Canadian Baptist Historical Symposium in April. Also, my book Drippings from the Honeycomb is finally in the final stages with the publisher and should be out in late 2026. I also spoke at a pastor’s retreat and co-taught at a summer Chinese Baptist church retreat. I’m also preparing a book chapter titled, “Ontario Baptist Confessionalism” (2026) for a Canadian Baptist Historical Society volume. Into 2027 I will also be the coordinating editor of various Ontario scholars to produce the 100th history of Toronto Baptist Seminary.
 
As a family we took a summer trip around the world’s largest lake—Superior. Despite having caught the plague at VBS it was a beautiful journey. We were grateful to finish our major renovations at Orange Valley Acre too. Please continue to pray for various health concerns and Digory’s spiritual well-being. 

We are certainly transitioning from a smaller to a more medium church. This brings with it growing pains. As we grow the truth remains that the “harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few” (Mt 9:37). I want to thank our core members who serve sacrificially and encourage others to join the church and experience Acts 20:35, which says, “it is more blessed to give than receive.” As we rally around God’s word, we’re also seeking to turn harmony into unity as we all mature in the faith together.