Evangelicals 'were everywhere' in Quebec City

By Jim Coggins

EVANGELICAL Christians celebrated the 400th anniversary of Quebec City this summer by distributing over 400,000 copies of the Gospel of John. The goal, according to Terry Cuthbert, was to "entirely saturate" the city and its surrounding area with the gospel.

The outreach, called 'Quebec Espoir 2008,' was spearheaded by Aujourd'hui d'Espoir (Hope for Today), a lay-led parachurch organization that is affiliated with the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches in Canada (FEBC).

Cuthbert, who is director of church planting for the FEBC's French region, said he had "never seen such an enormous operation" by evangelical churches in Quebec. By the time it was over, people on the street were responding, "You're everywhere!"

The outreach began in June with distribution of the Gospels in the outlying areas, as far away as Chicoutimi and the Saguenay Valley, and moving into the centre of Quebec City by early August, reaching every home in an area with a population of 1,073,000 people. The Gospels were accompanied by invitations to an ambitious series of events July 31 - August 10.

The organization rented the entire campus of Francois-Xavier Garneau junior college. At this site, organizers created a 'festival environment' with such things as musical performances, face-painting and kids' clubs. This location also served as the headquarters for the outreach, from which teams were trained and sent out to distribute more Gospels. A half-dozen youth teams were also sent out to do mime presentations in parks and on downtown street corners.

In the evenings, the organizers rented the 1300-seat Albert Rousseau Auditorium in another nearby college, Ste. Foy. Here musical and dramatic concerts were put on, followed by a 20-minute gospel presentation. All of the evening events were broadcast on the Internet and on a local cable TV channel, Telemag. The evening concerts were emceed by Karo Vallee and Rejean Joly, hosts of the local Christian cable program Aujourd'hui d'Espoir. People could respond to the gospel presentation in person, on the Internet or by phone.

Cooperation

Officially, three denominations were represented on the organizing committees: the FEBC, the Union d'Eglises Baptistes Francaises au Canada and the Christian Brethren Assemblies.

The FEBC held its annual national convention at Franois-Xavier Garneau August 4 - 6, and on the last day the delegates went out to help with the Gospel distribution. The Union d'Eglises Baptistes Francaises au Canada held its convention in the same location the week before; it is the French-Canadian wing of Canadian Baptist Ministries (the "Convention" Baptists, from whom the FEBC Baptists split in the 1920s).

However, the "entire evangelical community" in the Quebec City area got involved in the Gospel distribution, said Cuthbert, with teams from virtually every evangelical church in the region participating in the Gospel distribution. Teams from other parts of Quebec, the rest of Canada, the US and even Europe also came to partner with local church members in the Gospel distribution and other aspects of the outreach.

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A number of parachurch organizations were also officially involved, including Bible et litterature francophone, Through the Bible, L'Heure de la Bonne Nouvelle, Top Chretien, In Touch Ministries, Trans World Radio and Peoples Church Toronto.

Trans World Radio partners with Aujourd'hui d'Espoir in producing the local TV broadcast, as well as radio broadcasts throughout Quebec. Vallee, a well-known singer in Quebec, hosts the programs, while Joly, who also works half-time as a pastor, does the Bible teaching.

However, both Cuthbert and Gerald Hayes, president of Trans World Radio Canada, said the vision for the event and all the hard work came from the local Christians, including hundreds of volunteers. Both men credit especially Marcel Perron, a retired chiropractor who is executive director of Aujourd'hui d'Espoir. Cuthbert called him "a visionary leader" and Hayes called him "a gift from God."

Aujourd'hui d'Espoir hopes to run a similar event in 2009 in Trois Rivieres, which is celebrating its 375th anniversary, and then in Paris, France in 2010.

For the FEBC, which is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its French work, 'Quebec Espoir 2008' fell in the middle of a 10-year outreach program. The FEBC's French region had about 70 churches in 2003 and developed a plan to add 30 more in 10 years to reach 100 by 2013. At the halfway point, it has planted 12.

A favourable environment for dialogue

'Quebec Espoir 2008' was planned to be part of the summer-long celebrations of the 400th anniversary of the founding of Quebec City and as a result received a great deal of newspaper and television coverage. Cuthbert said it was "a divinely appointed 11 days" since it occurred during a lull in the celebrations when not much else was happening.

The event helped "create an environment" where evangelicals can dialogue with members of the general public, said Cuthbert. Quebec society has been heavily influenced by the Roman Catholic Church, which still claims the allegiance of the vast majority of Quebecois, even though many are "religious traditionalists" who only attend at Christmas and Easter, if at all. This dominance was symbolized by the Roman Catholic International Eucharistic Congress, which was held in Quebec City in June.

However, the 400th anniversary allowed Quebec evangelicals to also highlight the role Protestants have played in Quebec, particularly through dramatic presentations. The wife of explorer Samuel de Champlain, who founded Quebec City in 1608, was a Huguenot (French Protestant), as were many of the early settlers and several of the first French governors of Quebec. However, the Huguenots were suppressed by the French government following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685.

Protestants and Evangelicals were not welcome in French-speaking Quebec society for a long time after that. The early FEBC church planters spent an accumulated total of about seven years in jail for their efforts in the 1950s and 1960s. The pioneers of the Union d'Eglises Baptistes Francaises au Canada had an even more difficult time back in the 1800s.

Such persecution is a thing of the past, but resistance and unhelpful stereotypes remain. The 400th anniversary was an opportunity for evangelicals to highlight the Huguenot past and demonstrate that "the evangelical community is not a sect or cult," said Cuthbert.

In spite of continuous rain, which hampered the daily programs at Garneau College, the Albert Rousseau Auditorium was "comfortably filled" for most of the evening events. "Some great things happened, and most of our objectives were reached," said Cuthbert. Twenty-two conversions were recorded, and another 50 people requested a follow-up visit, but this does not count the responses local churches may have received through the Gospel distribution.

In spite of the apparent success, the evangelical church in Quebec is still "struggling to get results from our evangelism," and "continual sowing" and much prayer are needed, said Cuthbert.. He said he hopes this event will have the same impact as the evangelical outreach associated with Expo '67, which helped spark a major evangelical revival in Quebec in the 1970s and early 1980s.

There is a constant temptation for churches to turn their focus inward, said Cuthbert. However, with so many churches across the province getting involved in the Quebec City event, he said he is hopeful the event will "create a new momentum in reaching out."

"This event stretched us in all kinds of ways," he added.

Related stories:

Why Louisbourg matters
For 2008, the historical focus has been on Quebec City, marking its 400th anniversary this year. Fair enough, as the establishment of Quebec and the subsequent battle over it loom large in Canadian history. But what about Louisbourg? Never heard of it? I was embarrassed a few years back to discover, at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, that I had never heard of a major colonial centre and site of a key battle. Perhaps growing up in Calgary, our schools focused on Western Canadian history, but even then Louisbourg should not draw the blank I would reckon it does for most Canadians.
Father Raymond J. De Souza, National Post, August 14

August 14/2008

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