Welcome to our brand new E-Tools Newsletter! This monthly TCC field report also includes strategic outreach resources to encourage, equip, and empower you to more effectively share the Gospel with all the loved ones in your life as we faithfully serve Christ in Canada together.
Left to right: Chris Wood, John Gonciarz, Donna Feica, Jordan Baert (Berean Baptist Church), Randy Lutchman, Rebecca Coyne, Bill Dawson, Matt Ainsworth, David Herbert (Southdale Bible Chapel), Tom Woodburn, Tom Briggs. Taking picture: Cory McKenna.
What do you call a group of Christ-followers commissioned by their local church and equipped by The Cross Current to preach the Gospel, while working together to serve the spiritual, emotional, and material needs of the lost in their community? At TCC we call it a Gospel Outreach (GO) Team…and we can help you and your church launch one!
On Saturday November 21st, two months of evangelism training and preparation converged on the campus of the University of Western Ontario (UWO) where TCC and several members of the Harvest Bible Chapel of London (HBCL) GO Team partnered together for an “all-original” outreach.
Right: The HBCL GO Team works together to turn a busy public street corner into “seed sowing central”!
This year marks a double anniversary in the life of Charles Darwin: his 200th birthday and the 150th anniversary of his controversial classic, Origin of Species. Not only did we enjoy origins/Gospel conversations with over 85 students, parents, and professors surrounding this subject, but we also managed to round up over 40 emails and distribute close to 100 copies of the special “Gospelized” version of Darwin’s book, as republished by Living Waters Publications.
Left: HBCL GO Team member, Rebecca Coyne, uses an origins/worldview survey as a springboard to build a relationship and share the Gospel.
Perhaps the most memorable encounter of the day involved a student named Dan who had an overtly critical reaction to the origins resources we were giving out. Cory was the recipient of Dan’s four-letter words of welcome! After letting our new friend vent for a few minutes, Cory responded by saying: “You must have pretty strong beliefs to react that passionately about a supposed science book! Maybe we’re more alike than you realize!” Cory then began to dialogue with Dan about the fact that we all have faith about what happened in history because none of us were actually there to observe it for ourselves. Further, it’s this personal faith commitment about the past that determines how we interpret the same evidence that we all share in the present. After somewhat diffusing Dan’s desire for fighting about the issue, the Lord then opened up the door to share a very candid conversation about the Creator, His Word, His Son, and His Gospel. Though Dan didn’t commit to showing up at church the next morning, he did give Cory his email and request recontact. Praise God!
TCC exists to equip all the saints in your church for the work of evangelism. We offer both personal and community witnessing workshops to help you more effectively share the Gospel in all your personal relationships and beyond.
In addition to taking the HBCL GO Team through our workshop training, here are a couple other online resources we used in preparation for our origins outreach together that we encourage you to take advantage of as well:
TCC Radio is going live for Christmas! We trust that God will help us help you keep the Cross current and keep the Christ in Christmas in a very unique and special way this holiday season.
Starting on Friday December 4th, our regular radio broadcast and podcast will feature inspirational in-studio Christmas commentary and real-time reports from our field reps on the streets. Invite your family and friends to tune in to hear Gospel glory stories from across the country, open air preaching, and live “wireless witnessing” encounters via cell phone!
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
Just as God freely gave, we want to do the same by freely giving God’s greatest gift of all to the loved ones in our lives this Christmas! To get equipped for more effective personal evangelism at this most wonderful witnessing time of year, we have produced a free audio tract to share with all of our family and friends.
This very special Christmas episode of TCC Radio has been carefully remixed and reinforced with a Christ-centred introduction to provide non-Christians with an accurate biblical context for the Christmas story. So, instead of just giving your unsaved loved ones another pair of socks this season, why not stuff their stockings and their hearts with a free gift of the greatest free gift of all eternity?
Let’s continue partnering together to keep our prayer pulse for TCC and the Church in Canada strong! Here are three strategic prayer points for you, your family, and your church to remember in December:
For the Lord to draw more and more listeners and supporters to TCC Radio, and for Him to bring the volunteer production team we need to launch and sustain our upcoming reality television program on The Stream TV.
For the Lord to help us plan and produce the “TCC Radio LIVE! @ Christmas” series for His glory.
For the Lord to speak to the hearts of more believers about giving generously to TCC’s work of preaching the Gospel in Canada through witnessing, training, and expanded radio/video production.
A very special thanks to all those prayer warriors who joined us both in person and at a distance for our monthly day of fasting and evening of prayer last night! As we always say at TCC: “If you pray without witnessing you’re a hypocrite. If you witness without praying, you’re a lunatic! The battle is won in the prayer time.”
Opening Scripture Passage
We began our time together reading/meditating on 2 Chronicles 20:1-30. The story takes place during the days of the divided kingdom, where Jehoshaphat serves as the fourth king over the separated kingdom of Judah. He is a zealous follower of the commandments of God who “sought the Lord with all his heart” (2 Chronicles 22:9). In this text, Moab, Ammon, and the Meunites are coming to war against Jehoshaphat and he is understandably afraid…that is, until the Lord spoke the following to God’s people through a a man named Jahaziel:
Meanwhile all Judah stood before the LORD, with their little ones, their wives, and their children. Andthe Spirit of the LORD came upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, son of Benaiah, son of Jeiel, son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, in the midst of the assembly. And he said, “Listen, all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat: Thus says the LORD to you, ‘Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but God’s. Tomorrow go down against them. Behold, they will come up by the ascent of Ziz. You will find them at the end of the valley, east of the wilderness of Jeruel. You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the LORD on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem.’Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them, and the LORD will be with you.” (vv. 13-17)
We then shared together in a glorious discussion about how the battle truly belongs to the Lord and all he asks of us is to faithfully stand firm in the truth of His Word to see His salvation on our behalf! Wow! What a powerful framework for the following prayer requests…
More labourers and fruitful harvest throughout the summer
Exodus 2009 Pro-life Rally on Thursday, May 14th (Ottawa)
XTM Toronto on Saturday, May 16th (Toronto):
God’s protection and provision
Fruitful outreach
Strengthen our partner church relationships
Fruitful video footage for The Stream TV
TCC Team
For our team to be “fitly framed together” to honour all of our ministry responsiblities towards fulfillment of our God-given mission as a local missions ministry to His Church.
Personal Needs
Cal Smith (Board Member) and his wife, Ang
Pray for Cal’s mother-in-law Doris who has recently had a brain aneuism
Kevin Lane (Writer and Producer) and his wife, Joanne
Pray for God’s wisdom and discernment to resolve a conflict with a fellow believer and evangelist
John Gonciarz (Rep) and his wife, Marie
For God’s provision during this time of transition
Tom Woodburn (Rep)
For God’s grace and provision during this time of difficulty
Cory McKenna (Founder and Program Host) and my wife, Dawn
For our son Joshua’s complete healing from heart-related health challenges
For Dawn’s health and our new baby’s health in the final stages of pregnancy and delivery
Well, as we make our way into part 3 of this new series of TCC Radio called Operation: Unknown Christian, this week’s helpful hint is just to step out in faith and go for it!
If you’ve ever taken our evangelism training, you’ll remember a great relational ice-breaker we use with family and friends called “the crazy Christian question”. It goes like this…
The next time you’re hanging out with a loved one, simply say to them: “You must think it’s totally crazy that I’m a born again Christian.” After they respond, then ask: “What’s the number one reason that you think I would do something that crazy?” Keeping in mind that our number one reason for repenting and putting our trust in Christ is a reconciled relationship with God for all eternity, let them guess for a little while…and feel free to have a little bit of fun with it! After they either ask you why or after they have depleted all their answers, you can then pop the “million dollar question”: “When you walk off this planet from this life into the next, what do you think is on the other side?”
From there you can share the Gospel yourself or simply invite the person to tune into the show! Just let them know that TCC Radio broadcasts in Ontario on Friday at 7pm on Grace 105.9 FM in London and on The Stream TV out of Orangeville. It also podcasts on tccradio.com.
Again, the goal of this series is really two-fold: to better understand why Christians are hiding out among the lost and to equip them to move out onto the battlefield to contribute to the great cause of Christ in Canada.
Oh yeah, please also remember to email us your Gospel glory stories and personal encounters in everyday evangelism to: radio@thecrosscurrent.com.
We thank God for each one of you and look forward to boldly making His Name great in our world this week!
Welcome to more audio helpful hints for Part 2 of our brand new series of TCC Radio called, Operation: Unknown Christian!
With this being the week of Easter, we encourage you to allow the Spirit of Christ to point your conversations toward the Cross of Christ and to prepare the people in your life to tune in to the show. As you step out in faith to talk about the most important event in the history of the world, we encourage you to ask your loved ones what they think Easter was all about? You can then ask them what they think that Easter has to do with God’s love? How about God’s justice?
If you really want to lift their eyes to eternity, a great question to dial people into the meaning of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ is to ask if they think God is just and whether He should hold people accountable for the evil things they have done? As most people will obviously say yes, from there you can either begin sharing the Gospel yourself (which we would highly recommend!) or you can simply invite them to listen to these same questions being asked by TCC Radio to people on the streets this Friday and every Friday!
Just let them know that TCC Radio broadcasts in Ontario on Friday at 7pm on Grace 105.9 FM in London and on The Stream TV out of Orangeville. It also podcasts on www.tccradio.com.
Please, please, please also remember to email us your Gospel glory stories to: radio@thecrosscurrent.com.
Thank you again for your ongoing commitment to preaching the Gospel in partnership with us! On behalf of the entire team here at TCC, may God’s grace touch your heart to encounter the empty tomb and the resurrection of our Lord and Savior afresh this week!
The LORD said to Solomon: “…if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chr. 7:14, ESV). Obviously the LORD intends prayer to be our first priority, not our last resort! Would you join us on the first Thursday of every month for our special day of fasting and prayer from 6:30pm to 8:00pm for pastors, churches, the lost, and our ministry? If you are within driving distance of London (Ontario, Canada), please email us at admin@thecrosscurrent.com or phone (226) 663-1822 for local meeting directions. However, if you are outside our area, we invite you to pray at the same time wherever you are located.
Please pray for the following the month of April and encourage any other believers you know to do the same.
Opening Scripture Passage
We began our time together reading/meditating on John 15:1-11 and talking about God’s goal for us being more fruitful in our life and witness.
Our Goals for 2009
Donor Development (Cross Carriers)
Partner Churches confirmed and Church Champions network established
Grow our weekly prayer partners and monthly prayer meetings
For our training last month with Teen Challenge and the Winnipeg Conference to bear fruit
For the Explosion ‘09 (Newsboys) event at London Convention Centre and our Speakers’ Corner component onsite to bear fruit
For the Lord’s favour on this new partnership with TCC and the Teen Challenge street teams
For the Lord to continue revealing His strategy for TCC with Harvest Bible Chapel
For the fruitfulness of our first Xstream Team Mission (XTM) of 2009 in Toronto and for TCC to develop relationships with partner churches in each XTM city
For TCC to make the most of the upcoming Spring – Summer ministry season
For TCC to truly strengthen the witness of Christ’s Church in London through more training and developing of partner church relationships
For every pastor, church, and individual believer to unify in the Gospel in London Ontario, Canada, and around the world
Welcome to your audio helpful hints for making the most of our fourth and final episode in our TCC Radio series talking about law. This week we are going to give you the inside scoop by sharing the writers notes and resources from the desktop of TCC Radio Script Writer, Producer, and Engineer: Kevin Lane. Here’s what Kevin has to say about this episode…
We spoke about the purpose of law in Part 1, and in Parts 2 and 3 we asked people on the streets what they thought the purpose of law was. In this episode, we’re going to get to the practical application of law.
Are the Courts being judgmental when they test someone’s actions against the laws of the land? I suppose a case could be made either way, depending on your point of view. But are Christians being judgmental when they help people test their lives against the Law of God?
The Bible says that Christians will judge the angels. Even in this world there is a famous “bar exam” just to be a lawyer. How much more one must be qualified to be a judge? People don’t say to a police officer, “who made you judge and jury?” Nor should they say that to a Christian who is using righteous judgment.
If you rush into a burning house, grab a man, and haul him out, were you calling him stupid for being in the house? Are you saying that you are a better man than he is? Or did you just recognize that he was as helpless as you’d be and decided to do something about it?
Of division in the Church, Jude says to have compassion on some, but others he says to save them as though you were pulling them out of the fire. That’s the same with witnessing: some are prepared for the Evangelist, and sometimes the Evangelist has to be the hero firefighter – either way our goal is to get the person out of danger.
So keep that all in mind as you go for it this week and invite your family and friends to tune into the show! Just let them know that TCC Radio broadcasts in Ontario on Friday at 7pm on Grace 105.9 FM in London and on The Stream TV out of Orangeville. It also podcasts on www.tccradio.com.
Please also remember to email us your Gospel glory stories and personal encounters in everyday evangelism to: radio@thecrosscurrent.com.
May we resolve together to serve our King with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength again this week!
Welcome to our very first e-Newsletter! These bi-monthly email messages will give you all the latest and greatest happenings, highlights, and Gospel glory stories we encounter as we serve to help the Church in Canada keep the Cross current in our culture!
Thank you in advance for your partnership in the Gospel.
2008 in REVIEW!
We thought it best to first give you an overview of how the Lord moved through our ministry over this past year. Here are some glorious highlights of 2008…
Our Mission
The Cross Current was officially founded in April 2007. Since that time the Lord has been graciously helping us refine and define who He has called us to be as a ministry. We praise Him for making our mission clear this year!
His Gospel. His Gifts. His Glory.
The Cross Current (TCC) is a local missions ministry and radio program bringing glory to God’s Name in Canada by unifying His Church in His Gospel and helping pastors equip all Christians under their care to be His witnesses everyday, everywhere, to everyone, as one body serving in accordance with the various gifts He has given each.
The development of www.thecrosscurrent.com is yet another praise report of how God always provides for His people – often in very practical ways! Not only did He bring a very technical and talented web designer our way by the name of Duncan Freeburn (www.freeburns.ca), but the story of how he helped us secure the privileged .com web extension is nothing less than, well, a miracle! In early 2008 www.thecrosscurent.com was due to expire and would then be available for purchase. We backordered the site address and were emailed confirmation that it would soon be ours for the typical purchase price of about $15.00. However, immediately after the extension expired, another buyer somehow slipped past the system, bought the extension, and then tried to sell it to us for almost 50 times the typical purchase price! Though we quickly rejected the offer, as you can imagine, we weren’t too impressed. Not only had we lost the .com site we were patiently waiting for and were told was ours, but we were also being bribed in the process! But God obviously had a different plan. Within just a few weeks of rejecting the “rip off” offer, we received confirmation that the extension was ours if we wanted it…for only $15.00! Praise God that www.thecrosscurrent.com officially launched very shortly afterwards and has been going strong every since!
LondonChineseAllianceChurch (February)
Having not yet turned two years old as a ministry, 2008 was another year of “firsts” for The Cross Current. This past year TCC went multi-cultural and were very privileged to receive our first invitations to train believers at both Chinese and Korean churches!
Ark Aid Mission (February)
This year was also the first time we partnered together with a meal provision ministry to share Christ while serving the physical needs the disadvantaged in our community. Special thanks to the ministry team at the Ark Aid StreetMission for training our clueless crew of TCC Reps how to serve at “the Ark” and allowing us the privilege of sharing the Gospel with your guests.
Portico Youth Conference – Mississauga, ON (March)
In March of this past year, TCC was invited to train the youth group of a large church in Mississauga. The event took place over March Break and involved interactive learning on Friday and early Saturday, followed by a priceless preaching adventure at Square One shopping centre at the heart of the city Saturday afternoon. Cory was also invited to preach on Sunday morning.
Here is what the conference youth pastor had to share about their experience with TCC:
We had The Cross Current team in for a weekend of training and evangelism with our high school students. The training sessions were extremely practical and held the attention of teenagers and adults (not an easy task by any means). The best part was getting to apply everything we had just learned right away. Our entire team had the opportunity to “get out there” and start faith conversations with unchurched people. It was exhilarating and rewarding all at the same time. We had the chance to pray for salvation with three students out in front of the DQ! ~ Rev. Rick Carroll
OCHEC Youth Conference (March)
Undoubtedly, one of the greatest glory stories of 2008 for TCC was our journey into the heart of Hamilton to seek and save the lost with an army of budding street preachers. Over a period of two days, we were invited by the Ontario Christian Home Educators Conference to motivate, mobilize, and mentor close to 100 young people (and around 25 adults) in a soul-winning street invasion like Steeltown had never seen before…in Jesus’ Name!
Of the dozens of praise reports and testimonies we received from the training graduates, one of the most powerful was how a teenager by the name of Andy encountered God on the streets of his hometown. After a TCC Rep had personally shared the Gospel and prayed with Andy and his pregnant girlfriend, the couple walked away thankful, but seemingly unrepentant. However, little did our Rep know, Andy was approached a second time by one of the young evangelists that TCC had just trained. After hearing the Gospel again, young Andy hit his knees in the middle of the park, tearfully repented of his sin and put his trust in Christ alone to save him. Praise God!
Last June we stepped out into our very first Xstream Team Mission (XTM) to Ottawa for Canada Day weekend to share the truth of Christ’s dominion on the crowded streets of our nations’ capital. Not only did the Lord enable us to pass thousands of tracts and share the Gospel one-to-one with countless Canadian flag-wavers, but we also had the opportunity to open air preach by parliament hill and even video record the entire trip in preparation for our first XTM DVD documentary for release later this year!
This summer TCC was privileged to receive a second invitation to teach at the 2008 Christian Youth Worldview and Leadership (CYWAL) Conference in Cambridge, ON. Cory moved the students through our Witnessing Workshop training followed by an evangelism experience of applied apologetics at a local shopping mall. The conference concluded with Cory hosting the students to a bit of hot topic hang-time as he answered the most common questions we encounter on the streets when sharing the Gospel. Congratulations to all CYWAL graduates who also became credentialed TCC members upon graduation.
Here is what the CYWAL Executive Director had to say about her experience with TCC:
“TCC’s training fit beautifully with the objectives of CYWAL! With TCC there are no more excuses! This is training I would recommend to all churches and youth groups!” ~ Gisele Baribeau, Executive Director, CYWAL
Gay Pride Festival – London, ON (July)
Sharing the Gospel at the Gay Pride Festival was perhaps our most stretching evangelism experience of the entire year! However, we praise God that He empowered us with the balance of grace and truth we needed to relationally preach His Word to several homosexuals without compromise. In fact, the rapport that the Lord allowed us to develop resulted in several Gay Pride participants even volunteering to be part of the most ground-breaking TCC Radio series to date and we have been keeping in touch with one of the interviewees over email.
Xstream Team Mission (XTM) Niagara Falls, ON (August)
This past August another team of witnessing warriors hit the streets of the “honeymoon capital of the world” to take part in our second annual XTM Niagara Falls. The Lord again graciously allowed us to personally share the Gospel with a couple hundred people and pass a couple thousand tracts. However, the highlight of this team trip was witnessing the Bible sword skills of evangelist Tom Briggs. We are told time and time again by “expert” Christians that contemporary culture is antagonistic towards Christ and it’s just not possible to share the simple truth of the Gospel on the streets straight from Scripture. Well, perhaps Tom “missed that memo” when he invited an entire family to “gather ‘round to read God’s Word together” while on vacation in Niagara Falls! As the picture of Tom opening the Bible with them above clearly shows, God’s Word will accomplish whatever He wants it to, whenever He wants it to, with whoever He wants it to…He just asks us to share it!
Witnessing Workshop – Harvest Bible Chapel London (September)
Though TCC has had the privilege of helping unify several churches in the Gospel through our one day team-building and witnessing workshops, our training time this past September with Harvest Bible Chapel in London needs to be mentioned a very important reason.
This workshop was the first time that we had a senior pastor and an elder take part in both the onsite and offsite evangelism training! After all was said and done, here is what HBCL’s senior pastor had to say about his ongoing experience with TCC:
We continue to experience first-hand how TCC helps pastors motivate and mobilize their churches to faithfully share the Gospel in all their relationships and beyond. I strongly recommend this ministry to all Christians serious about fulfilling the Great Commission.
~ Norm Millar, Senior Pastor, Harvest Bible Chapel London
TCC Radio has been broadcasting over the airwaves in London, Ontario since April of 2007. However, in October of this year we officially started podcasting the program! That means people anywhere in the world can now find our show on the iTunes website and automatically download it into their portable audio devices each week – along with any TCC teachings, Quick Q & A, etc.
Do you know that one out of every four babies in Canada are aborted? That’s approximately 385 lives destroyed every single day across our country! 2008 was also the year that TCC took the responsibility to speak up for those who can’t speak for themselves by taking part in our first pro-life rally. I think I can speak for our entire team when I say that the radio series we produced on abortion had a profound impact on all of us to the point that we will continue to pray for and support our ministry partners who specialize in this vital service to Christ’s Kingdom! This issue is undoubtedly at the heart of God and His Gospel and we trust that you, too, will get involved in pro-life ministry.
Last year ended with yet another praise report when a Christian professional graphics designer contacted TCC to let us know that he felt the Lord leading him to donate his services to help us develop some solid, promotional resources. Praise God…because He knows we need them!
2009 in VIEW!
The Stream TV
The Stream TV (www.thestreamtv1.com) is more of a media centre than a website. It is a program producer that buys time on TV stations and networks for the purpose of broadcasting quality Christian programming. It is owned and operated by Quick Study TV, a daily television program designed to take viewers through the Bible in one year. The Stream TV website enjoys thousands upon thousands of hits every day and thousands of Internet surfers also download programs from the site on a daily basis as well.
Late last year Cory and John of TCC enjoyed a wonderful time of fellowship and ministry discussion with Rod Hembree and Simen Solberg, the president and studio manager of The Stream TV. The organization has agreed to start broadcasting TCC Radio immediately and has also graciously offered to help The Cross Current launch a reality TV show this year as well! Please pray that the Lord will help us put this show together and that He will use these powerful points of human contact to give His Gospel maximum exposure within both the Christian and non-Christian marketplace!
Currently people can hear TCC Radio on 90.1 FM locally in Orangeville or by visiting the “IHear Radio” section of www.thestreamtv.com every Monday and Tuesday at 11:30am EST. As we move forward, please pray that this strategic alliance between The Stream TV and TCC will greatly impact our mission of partnering with leaders and their local churches to spread the Gospel in Canada.
Creation Magazine Live
Creation Magazine Live, a project of Creation Ministries International (CMI), is one of the top rated shows on The Stream TV. CMI has invited our very own Cory McKenna and The Cross Current to sit in as an “expert witness” for their upcoming special episode on evangelism. The episode will be answering questions and sharing Gospel glory stories in the studio and also playing uncut evangelism video footage from the street. We trust that this guest appearance will also provide timely and effective promotion for The Cross Current television show as well. This episode of Creation Magazine Live is scheduled to broadcast early this year.
Teen Challenge Farm Training
Late this year TCC also received an invitation from the evangelism director of the Teen Challenge Farm (http://www.tcfarm.org/) in London, Ontario to conduct a Witnessing Workshop for their residents early this year. What’s especially exciting about this opportunity is that the director’s vision for the training is not just to have the students sit through a one-day event, but rather to inspire and instruct the infrastructure of a local missions team that will consistently hit the streets to share the Gospel each week!
Through the Roof (UWO)
Current statistics indicate that as many as 80% of students leave the Christian church forever after getting lost amidst the spiritual myriad of post-secondary education. Thorough the Roof is a ministry on the campus of the University of Western Ontario that’s trusting God to redeem that stat through their efforts to create a consistent opportunity for people from all walks of life to come and be challenged by the message of Jesus Christ. Cory will be preaching that message at this event early this year.
CANADA Needs CHRIST.
May he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth! ~ Psalm 72:8, ESV
Do you agree that Canada needs Christ? If so, please take 5 minutes to watch this short video invitation to carry the Cross with us in Canada.