Today, on this, the 30th anniversary of the first service of the Toronto Church of Christ, I find myself flooded with so many memories of the Toronto work.
I remember our 24-member mission team, made up almost entirely of Americans, boldly praying to have an attendance of 100 at our first service. As a clear sign that God was truly with us, he gave us 101 that day. As faith-building as that victory was, the best was yet to come!
Amazingly those 24 disciples would see 128 Canadians baptized into Christ in just the very first year of the work. God would continue to add to our number. The Toronto church eventually swelled to over 1,600 disciples, and some 2,200 total disciples across Canada at its peak, as 11 other churches were sent out from Toronto. With the first century church in Antioch as its model, the Toronto church would also send out countless disciples to more than 60 congregations literally throughout the world.
Reflecting back on the early years of the Toronto planting, I can’t help but think of the countless hours of labor prompted by love, the many examples of personal sacrifice and the numerous contrasting moments of joy and sorrow experienced by all the courageous team members.
I especially want to take this opportunity to express our deepest love and eternal gratitude to both the entire Boston Church of Christ congregation and its leadership for their vision and immense sacrifice in planting the seed and pillar church for all of Canada.
At our team’s send off, the Boston leadership dedicated Psalm 126 to the Toronto mission team. As I reflect back on the amazing things God has done, truly “we became the men who dreamed!”