“At the end of the day, it’s not about our particular badge or denomination.”

Craig Macartney
Spur Ottawa Writer

Ottawa churches have a rich legacy of working together. They collaborate on outreaches and conferences, but some groups are even helping plant churches outside their own denomination. One recent example is the new Southeast City Church.

After seminary, David Hood dreamed of being part of a church that sees everyone as missionaries in their local community. His vision was fueled when he connected with a local network of church planters and pastors, called The Incubator.

“Simultaneously, the Lord started opening our eyes to our neighbourhood, how many needs there are and how much potential there is,” Hood says. “There are just not enough churches trying to reach the 47,000 people in our area.”

Hood participated in a church-planting program run by Sea to Sea (C2C). At the end of the two-year program, C2C encouraged Hood to apprentice with another church before stepping out to plant on his own. He turned to Ryan Dawson, the lead pastor of Sequoia Church in Barrhaven, who he had met through The Incubator.

“There was never any pressure to betray our convictions. There was never any pressure to become like them, either.”

Although the two men approach certain doctrinal issues from a different perspective, Dawson says, “We were open to the idea from the start because we really want to be a Kingdom church. That’s not about building our brand. Our desire is to make Jesus famous and help other churches.”

Hood spent a year at Sequoia as a member of their leadership team. He says they agree on all the issues that are “truly important”. Even when addressing areas where they disagree, Hood says he didn’t find the experience difficult.

“There were a lot of areas where we agreed. Where we disagreed, there was the freedom for Diane [Hood’s wife] and me to be different. There was never any pressure to betray our convictions. There was never any pressure to become like them, either. It was very refreshing.”

Sequoia is part of the Canadian National Baptist denomination. Southeast City Church launched as part of the Mennonite Brethren. While Sequoia has helped plant four other churches since its inception, this was the first from another denomination.

At the end of August, Sequoia commissioned Hood and his team and helped them financially as they launched.

“It’s about Jesus, His kingdom, and impacting people with the good news of Christ. We have to stand together to get the job done.”

“The time we spent there was good for us,” Hood says. “They have really set us up for success. The way we were treated and the way we were blessed, I want to take that with us. We want to do what they did for us, in the future. They modeled it for us perfectly.”

The two churches remain in contact and are talking about how their relationship will continue. Both are clear the experience was positive and both want to help plant more churches inside and outside their denominations, in the future.

“At the end of the day, it’s not about our particular badge or denomination,” Dawson states. “It’s about Jesus, His kingdom, and impacting people with the good news of Christ. We have to stand together to get the job done.”

Dawson says he is encouraged by seeing young Christian leaders building on the decades of work toward Christian unity in this city.

“What I’m seeing now, which is really cool, is the younger leaders are less denominationally wired than the older leaders. They have their denominational tribes and have their distinctive, but the reality is that they aren’t that locked into that. What can God do with it when we really work together? I think it bodes well.”