“It is a gateway for people to come to the church.”

Craig Macartney
Spur Ottawa Writer

While many in today’s world feel that faith has no place in the public square, a Winchester church chose the local Tim Hortons as the meeting place for their new men’s Bible study. The venue was not part of their original plan, but Pastor Bruce North, of Harmony Community Church, says God has repeatedly arranged divine appointments with community members.

“When you’re at Tim’s in the country, everyone is coming in. It’s Tim’s, it’s where people get together,” North Explains. “It’s is private enough that you can get into a corner and open your Bibles, yet public enough that people can come over and sit down with you and you end up ministering to them.”

Being in the country, North says all the locals know each other and people stop to chat when they are in public more than city folks do.

“We are not being blatantly evangelistic, but we are not trying to hide.”

“People come up to me continuously—people who would never come to the church and knock on my office door, but they will gladly come over and talk to a preacher. That’s the country.”

North says availability is crucial in all ministry, and going to Tim Hortons for a Bible study is one way to do that.

“We are not being blatantly evangelistic, but we are not trying to hide. We don’t try to be loud, but we pray out loud and people around can hear us.”

The group finds that God brings people in or causes people to overhear the conversation right when they are sharing something that person needs. North asked Spur Ottawa not to publish the details, but shared how, just this week, a friend overheard a Bible passage North read that related directly to a struggle they were going through. It opened a phenomenal opportunity for the group to speak into the friend’s life.

“We need to make this not a weird thing, make it a natural thing.”

“It’s not so much that we lead people to Christ there, but that it is a gateway for them to come to the church, or ask questions, or when they have a crisis they think to call the pastor.”

This particular study group just started in the New Year, but North has periodically led Bible studies at the Tim Hortons over the years. He says there is another advantage, especially when new converts attend the Bible study: it trains them not to be ashamed of their faith.

“It is true that it takes away our fears, especially in our day and age,” he says. “Here we are, as men, getting our Bibles out and getting a coffee. We need to make this not a weird thing, make it a natural thing. I think that’s something God wants us to do on purpose. He is saying, ‘Get out there and let your light shine.’”