A blog summary of an event
Last weekend, almost 400 jr. highs, leaders and staff set out on a road trip to Muskoka Woods for our first in-person retreat since 2020. There was snow, food and so many memories made. We even had a travelling suitcase where our MCs, team captains and Karra emerged from to join our plenary sessions in the Hangar. We had several people comment, "It's good to be back together for
For the first time in three years, we hosted Centre Court, our outreach event through the Toronto Raptors. As "normal business" continues to evolve from the pandemic, many things changed as well in how Centre Court unfolded. When we finalized our plans with Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE), we had five weeks to promote and plan what now turned out to be a pre-game outreach event. In total
Last week, along with our counterparts with Canadian Baptists of Atlantic Canada, Union d'Églises baptistes francophones du Canada, Canadian Baptists of Western Canada and Canadian Baptist Ministries, we hosted a forum with 47 youth leaders across Canada from a variety of backgrounds and experiences. Some may remember a similar gathering hosted in 2016. At that time, Imaginative Hope resulted from that forum. Similar questions were being asked last week as
On October 4-6, we had a small group of six youth pastors come to Camp Kwasind for our annual Youth Pastors Retreat. In light of the 18+ months of adapting (and readapting) youth ministry in our current times, many felt tired and weary. Together, we took time to rest. Our schedule was slow-paced. We had time to be renewed personally and sharpened in our ministries. Matt led the group
Last Saturday, Today's Teens Conference (hosted by Youth Unlimited and involves many volunteers within our CBOQ family) went completely online. Over 1300 guests joined from all province and territories of Canada, several US states, UK, Australia and other nations. The aim: to reimagine what God continues to do in reaching the next generation with the person and message of Jesus. Through our four main session speakers, we rooted ourselves in
AVALANCHE 2021 REVIEW Avalanche this year was unlike any we've ever hosted. Given the pandemic and most recent state of emergency "stay at home" orders, so many of our churches had to stay at home (and our Avalanche team as well). That didn't stop us from delving into our theme "ONE: One God. One Life. Together". Meisha Watson led us through a biblical understand of how God is wanting
Youth Pastors Retreat 2020: Reloaded Follow-Up Download the Focus Group Questions
Last Saturday, over 1000 youth workers and student leaders converged at the Meeting House in Oakville for Ontario's largest and longest running youth ministry conference, hosted by Youth Unlimited. All were encouraged and inspired that, with all that's happening in the world, THERE IS HOPE BECAUSE OF JESUS; all were challenged to bring that hope to their spheres of influence. Some key reminders from some of the plenary speakers: Mark
This past weekend, over 550 students and leaders descended on Muskoka Woods for a weekend to explore our identity in Christ. Mike Gordon walked through John 4 (Jesus and the Samaritan woman) in seeing how the woman wanted to project her identity, how Jesus saw behind it and who Jesus really said she was. Mix in some personal stories (including surgery) and students were drawn into considering who Jesus says
Last Saturday, CBOQ Kids (with support from CBOQ Youth) hosted the 4th Faith and Family event with Raptors 905 (the G-League team of the Toronto Raptors). Over 120 joined together for a Raptors 905 victory and a fun-filled post-game program. One key highlight was Raptors 905 forward Nicholas Baer sharing his faith story. As a rookie from Iowa, he shared how his relationship began with Jesus at age 10, and
