​​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. 

​We are living in spiritually challenging times, yet spiritually exciting times. They are times in which the Lord is calling His people to be ready, to be ready to evangelize and disciple the broken, the hurting, the lost—those without any church experience. Church history is in the making. Are you ready?
​
Let me tell you three short stories of what the Lord has done in the last week or so:

• A lady who had checked us out on Youtube, troubled by the darkness of our times, the Charlie Kirk assassination, and generally just down, a non-Christian friend said she should try going to church. We were able to meet up, I listened, brought the Gospel into her situation and gave her a Bible at her request. God is working.
• A psycho-therapist from the city (secular for all I know) rang the church. She asked if we would be open to partnering to help her client who lived in the area. She said he needed community and purpose (two things the church can offer!). When I asked why she was reaching out to us (a church, a religious organization), she said: a) she found our website, and b) we had what he needed. God is working.
• A young non-Christian couple visited church. They were seeking religious and spiritual answers and a conservative homeschooling environment for their children. They were ripe to consider everything we shared about Christ and openly asked some great question. God is working.

God is working. It has been called the quiet revival. The bigger question remains whether we, God’s people, the local Church, are ready? Do you feel ready and equipped to share your faith, to tell others who ask the Gospel? If not, come out Sunday night for an “Evangelism 101” training seminar. Even if you do feel ready, like CPR training, it is always good to have a refresher and share your insights with others. 

Today is Reformation Day, the day when Protestants remember Martin Luther posting his 95 arguments and thus starting a movement to reform the Catholic Church called the Reformation. On the surface the Reformation was about justification by faith. However, at its heart it was about authority. Protestants believe that Scripture alone is authoritative and Catholics believe that Scripture and Tradition are co-equally authoritative.
​
Fast forward some 500 years. In a culture that is so subjective and post-modern that it is adrift, people are looking for meaning. As such, there is a quiet revival happening in religious life. Whereas in the 90s and early 2000s religion was declining because of secularism, today it is on the rise. There are two areas where statistics, news articles and experience all reveal where growth is happening: in classically evangelical churches and in Catholic/Orthodox churches. In the former it is because eternal truth is proclaimed uncompromisingly, in the latter because of the emphasis on ancient tradition. Truth and tradition are drawing people back to visible Christianity.  

However, another interesting trend has been happening, a Reformation reversal of sorts. There have been news articles of Protestant pastors ‘swimming the Tiber’ and converting to Catholicism. Likewise, there are personal examples of those raised in Protestant homes and churches converting to Catholicism. This isn’t widespread and there are still many Catholics who convert to Christ. Still, what is driving this phenomenon?

I suggest three main reasons:

1. Worship: Much modern, mega-church, charismatic worship is about YOU and not GOD. Likewise, the setting and atmosphere is CONTEMPORARY. When you ‘go to church’ it feels like just another compartment of the world and not something different. Gone is the reverent simplicity of classic Protestantism and so people seek holy mystery in the Catholic/Orthodox church.
2. Truth/Theology: It is sad to say, but Protestants, who once knew their Bibles and theology so well, are often biblically illiterate and theologically ignorant. Do they really know what they believe and why they believe it? Can they defend it against (not only the world) but aggressive Catholic apologists? Despite various sects within the Catholic Church, it has a clear basic set of beliefs. Listen to mother church vs. all the many views of the Protestants. Protestants, who held much in common initially, have so fragmented because of poor interpretation of the Bible that where there was once a Protestant orthodoxy, now we might speak of that in the plural. While we want to know what the Bible says, no one can know everything they and so are left to depend on the Church. Catholics tell you to believe this and to believe that. Protestants used to hold out the truth to believe, all the while giving strong biblical reasoning, however, because of a culture of niceness, made worse by theological fragmentation and simplicity, many Protestants struggle to offer a cohesive vision.
3. Tradition: Truth is primary. Nevertheless tradition (meaning the living faith of the dead) has an important helping role. Many Protestant churches are so contemporary and their beliefs so diluted that they have lost touch with their Christian forebearers. Just as we are biblically illiterate and theologically ignorant we also have historic amnesia. Catholics come along and claim uninterrupted succession from Peter and that constancy and tradition appear very attractive (it is also flawed for their have been many schisms in church history). They point out that Protestantism is only 500 years old whereas Catholicism is 2000 years old. However, Protestants aren’t restorationists, we don’t believe the church ceased to exist during the middle ages (c.f. Mt 16- I will build my church) but rather that she had become corrupted and needing reform to bring her back into alignment with the truth of Scripture. This is what the Reformation did and it is a glorious heritage! And not only do we have the first 1500 years of church history to draw meaning from but our own deep roots: Protestant confessions of faith, the examples of noble men and women.

We have no need as Protestants to become this or that but have great reason to continue to praise God for the Reformation. In remaining classical Protestants (or perhaps returning to) we find everything we need on worship, truth and history to find meaning and purpose in our mission today and tomorrow. 

Ref: Proposed Affirmation of Faith; March 12, 2025 e-update from Steve Jones
*I’ve bolded the points I feel are more major. I’ve underlined personal implications.
*If you are a church member, don’t read this until you’ve first read the proposed AoF for yourself. 

I was born into a Fellowship Baptist church in Springfield, ON. It was my grandmother’s church near the family farm. Thankfully it continues to be a faithful and robust Christian witness. 

A recent study in the UK has coined the phrase ‘quiet revival.’ Historically revivals—periods where the Holy Spirit has wrought great repentance and faith in Jesus— have seen 100s, 1000s, indeed whole communities and nations transformed for Christ. What the study observed in the UK was not such a revival, more quiet, yet a revival nevertheless. It observed that since 2018 church attendance has doubled, especially amongst youth. This is quite something in a country so impacted by secularism that, despite being twice the population of Canada, has had half the church attendance.
Yet this ‘quiet revival’ applies not only to the UK. Arguably it describes a phenomenon across the West, including right here in Canada. Culturally it may be linked to Covid or the wackiness of wokeness. Religiously it is a quiet movement of the Spirit of God. It does appear that the Lord is watering the root of His faithful remnant (Job 14:7–9).

This study helped give words to something we have been witnessing across Ontario amongst faithful churches. A church in Windsor that was 150 is now 300+. A church in Timmins was 75 and is now 150+. This past Passover (Easter) many churches experienced countless baptism, not 100s but in the 2s and 12s. Some of this growth represents seekers, brand new believers, sometimes migrating Christians from mainline churches or lapsed Christians. Closer to home in our own Association, the past few years have proven a similar trend. The church of 15/50/75/100/150/200 is now 30/100/150/300/400, etc. None of these churches have done anything ‘special’ apart from faithfully existing but the Lord has quietly been sending people to them.

We have experienced this here at MBC. Just prior to Covid we hadn’t had a recent baptism, had 26 members and about 40-50 people who regularly connected with us. Since then we’ve had 9 baptisms, 38 members (in spite of natural losses) and have well over 100+ people regularly worshipping and connecting with us. Measured financially, our budget has nearly doubled and we've invested surpluses in local and foreign missions. (Yet, there is still more to do. Higher numbers require more work. We long to see the sinners amongst us saved and baptized, saints join in membership and together to worship and serve the Lord. Then there is still the vastly unreached population in our community).

Yet, we would not boast in ourselves or our techniques. We haven’t done anything extraordinary, and most people have simply found us. One young man is an example. He attended our church out of the blue and simply felt prompted to Google ‘church near me.’ Our website came up since it is very active. All we have done is seek to be faithful to God’s commands for a church: gather regularly on the Lord’s Day (a.m./p.m.) in worship; preach the Word; pray; provide opportunities for discipleship; seek to make Christ known in our community; visit and care for each other; invest in our facilities, etc. (1 Cor 3:6).

We rejoice at what the Lord is doing—however quietly!

Would you join us in what He is doing?

We’re living in a time when it doesn’t only feel as if suicide is on the rise, it is. While suicide has always existed in the human experience since the Fall, it has steadily been on the rise in Canada since the 1950s when it was only 5 deaths/100K. Today it is 15+ deaths/100K (this is similar to a peak in the 1970s).[1] In the USA it has increased 36% since the year 2000.[2] The stats are also eschewed because attempted suicides are not recorded, a higher category amongst women, and also because MAiD isn’t considered suicide by StatsCan. As of 2019, most suicides happen amongst those middle aged, though there a variety of factors why certain groups or individuals succumb to suicide.[3]
​
However, statistics shield the reality that each represents a person. Today, hardly anyone or any family escapes suicide’s tragic effect. Whether it be MAiD or classic instances, suicide has even been described as a present epidemic, being one of the leading causes of death in the USA.[4] Clearly, we must be informed on the subject, as hard as the reality may be.

This is not a mere intellectual exercise either, nor should our experience or emotions be the primary guide. I don’t write here emotionally detached, from as early as high school I was confronted with suicide amongst friends. My own childhood friend committed suicide as an adult, there have been attempted suicides in my extended family and I’ve had youth and adults connected to my churches kill or attempt to kill themselves. While this doesn’t make me an expert it does, along with professional training, provide an opportunity to comment on suicide from a theological perspective. Christians must be equipped to deal with suicide, which sadly given the state of our culture and like many other things, is only going to get worse.

This multi-part blog series will seek to answer:

What is suicide and what does the Bible say about it?
How can we help minister to those considering suicide/or who suffer as its result?
What about a profession Christian who commits suicide?


[1] https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-021-11293-8

[2] https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/facts/index.html

[3] https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/publications/healthy-living/suicide-canada-key-statistics-infographic.html

[4] https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/facts/index.html

…on a Sunday. (I seldom eat out otherwise because food is so expensive!)

I don’t eat out on the Lord’s Day, and haven’t since I came of age in high school, because it is God’s special day of rest built into the fabric of the universe at Creation. This includes not causing others to work. Ex 20:10b tells us, “On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.” This includes restaurants, pizza, Tim Horton’s drive through, [online] grocery shopping, etc.

And even if someone is not a Sabbatarian in a classic Christian sense, even if you only believe the Lord’s Day is a New Covenant ordinance for worship, does not the principle of Ex 20:10b compel you? I mean, isn’t it hypocritical for you to have the day off and to go to church but by purchasing one small thing or eating out, rob the employee of that same blessing? (Here I find it ironic that in England it is the socialist parties that still favour Sunday trading laws because they protects workers!).

Things never used to be open on Sunday and shouldn’t be open today. Alas, we live in a post-Christian world, and like most ethical area’s, we don’t have the godly law of the land to guide us. Everything is a test. Everything is an opportunity to trust the Lord’s ways and be a witness in the darkness, including keeping one day in seven as special.
​
Instead of eating out, plan ahead, make freeing others to worship part of your worship, invite brothers and sisters or an unbeliever or a new couple at church over for a meal—show Christian hospitality. Enjoy the freedom that the gift of rest brings.

Life 100.3 interviewed Pastor Chris, interested in our evening service. It aired several times in late June, 2024.

Every age has a counter message that seeks to shroud, confuse or combat, the true Gospel. Our age is no different.

When in the city recently I came across a large mural on the glass of a leading Canadian bank. It read, “There’s no better feeling than being accepted for who you are.” Such a slogan is riddled with faults.

Firstly, expressive individualism rooted in subjective feelings (and not objective truth) is not a sure guide.

Secondly, total-acceptance (or the intolerance of ‘tolerance’) is as ridiculous. Sure, we respect people as being created in the image of God on the one hand, but we embrace others, not based upon who they put themselves forward as, but whether they, in truth and goodness, are nice and useful people.

Thirdly, the message is clearly ideological (cultural-marxism or woke), where if someone doesn’t agree with you on your terms, then they must be a bad oppressor and must be shamed and re-educated.

Beyond mere virtue signalling, much of our society seems to have bought into the anti-Gospel, lock, stock and barrel. No longer is it about LGBT, it has become the flag, or mantra of our day. It is the anti-Gospel. Embrace your sin, relish in it and demand others do too.

The true Gospel proclaims that we are sinners. That we are accepted by God only when we’ve been accepted by Christ through repentance and faith. That joy only begins when we receive grace and the Holy Spirit works to renew us into the people God wants us to be.
​
I wouldn’t want to be accepted for who I am—what a hideous thought! Rather, my sole hope is being accepted before God by virtue of who Christ is—and has applied to me—through the imputed righteousness and imparted Sanctifier. It is only when I become a new creation and am transformed and await my glorification as a saved sinner that there can ever be a true feeling of joy, even jubilee.

​Christian, even yet-to-be-Christian, do not be fooled by the anti-Gospel of our age. It doesn’t satisfy or save. 

WORTHLESS MEN. It is an Old Testament category of its own- and you don't want to be one!

To be worthless can have two meanings: 1) perverted or wicked and 2) being good for nothing, useless, without profit or benefit. The first refers to not attaining to God's standards and the second to not contributing positively to your family or community.

Question- Avoiding judgementalism, what caricature comes to mind when you think of a 'worthless man?'

Look up the following Scriptural references and not what the context is and why the man/men are is being described as worthless. Use the following chart to summarize and expand.

​Job 11:11; Deut 13:13; Judg 9:4, 11:3, 19:22/20:13; 1 Sam 2:12, 10:27, 25:25, 30:22; 2 Sam 23:6; 1 Ki 21:10, 13

While worthless men certainly exist, is any man worthy? (Ro 3:23). Not referring to value as created in God's image, we are all worthless for we've not met God's holy standard nor aspired to His grand design for manhood. 

Who alone is worthy? (Mk 1:7, Rev 4:11, 5:9). The worth of Jesus (axis) speaks of His tipping the balance, of His supreme weight of person and character. Through repentance and faith His worth may be imputed to us (credited righteousness) and His worth imparted to us through His Spirit and by His Word. Like David who gathered worthless men around him, we should seek to do the same in discipleship remembering those men eventually became leaders in his kingdom. As we are men of worth through Christ, like David, our worth becomes central to our witness in a world of worthless men. 

May the Lord save and transform many worthless men for His glory.