Tapestry

In the comments for Pondering, Louise dropped a note to mention her husband Kevin's recent sermons on the Kingdom of God, as they are exploring it in their church plant. Tapestry: A Church in Progress can be found in Burlington Ontario, just down the road from Crossroads Communications, home of 100 Huntley Street, and our friend Lorna Dueck's Listen Up TV. DANG, but Wendy & I have a lot of history out there!

Back in the mid-80's, George Mercado put me in leadership over the youth group's music & drama groups (about 30 teenagers), and that's where I first met and became good friends with a student named Kevin.

Kevin (on the right) was the "youth" who helped me first get out of the clergy/laity mindset. We were brothers in Christ and friends.

Through Wendy's and my common history with the youth group under George Mercado, we got to know and minister alongside many people like Kevin and Louise (who would later begin dating and eventually marry). Kevin & I used to meet for breakfast every week for three years, all through his Grade 10-12 years. Kevin thinks he learned a thing or two from me, and I know for sure that I learned a lot from him.

In the years since, Kevin followed in my footsteps in doing an internship at Brant Bible Church (now Compasspoint), but while I headed west to Vancouver Island after my internship, Kevin was able to transition into leadership in the post-George years, which eventually led to Kevin & Louise planting Tapestry.

I've had the privilege of visiting Tapestry a few times, and I'm thrilled by a number of things about the church:

1. That there ARE churches -- even mega-churches like Compasspoint -- that are able to bless and release alternative church plants like Tapestry. I know it wasn't always a smooth transition, but the fact that both churches remain connected and supportive of each other is very encouraging.
   
   
2. It's encouraging to see, after experiencing and hearing from many others about their horror stories of church employment, that there are some churches who get it right. Kevin & Louise had incredible support from among the older generations of leaders at Compasspoint -- some of whom joined them in the church plant -- and I hope they realize how rare that is, and how much God has blessed them in this way.
   
   
3. Kevin, Louise & Co. are melding and moulding things from a variety of church streams into... well, (ahem), a Tapestry. It's a very unique blend of numerous streams that far too many people try to label anti-thetical.
   
   
4. Kevin is one of the best preacher/teachers I've heard in a long time. His grasp of the Bible is huge, and he's a gifted communicator. Kevin was always a talented musician, singer, actor, and communicator during his high school years, and that gift of communication has only been honed and sharpened when it comes to teaching at Tapestry.

On that note, you can check out some of Kevin's teaching at the Tapestry: Teaching. The links Louise recommends -- as do I -- are those in the "Aliens" series, as Kevin (and the church) explores what it means to be the "missional, incarnational, sacrificial, communal, organic, messianic, Kingdom-seeking people of God". GREAT stuff.