“Lift up your eyes and see the fields ripe unto Harvest…” John 4:35 The Harvest Field “Lift up your eyes and see the fields ripe unto Harvest…” John 4:35

Thanks for your commitment to “Planting for a Greater Harvest!”

Some Canadian “People Groups”

The Canadian Harvest Field What are the Largest Components?

The Harvest is Post-Modern

Postmodern Canadians Conceive of truth as personal, not absolute Influenced by “new-age” thinking Syncretistic - believe a little of almost anything From broken families - now hesitant to make commitments Open to following Jesus (but don’t care for their image of the traditional church) Require “seeker-targeted” churches

The Harvest is Ethnic

New Immigrants 227,000 new Canadians entering annually during last 12 years Majority are Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist, or Confucian - the “mission field” is here! More open to new ideas in first generation Greater Toronto Area: 49% first generation, Vancouver: 63% do not speak English at home

Sample of 15 Language Groups Requiring New Churches More Info: Contact Brian Seim at SIM

The Harvest is “Cocooned”

High-Density Housing 1/7th as likely to attend church as residents of single family homes (i.e. unreached) Residents almost invisible to most churches & untargeted (i.e. a “hidden” people group) Highly mobile population More likely to be poor Quebec and Ontario have highest proportion Require a church in EVERY larger housing complex

Quebec, Ontario, and B.C. lead in High-Density Housing

The Harvest is French

French Canadians Largest unreached people group in North America (6 million in Canada) Less than 1% evangelical One church for every 13,059 persons (Cf. English ratio of 1 church for 2,440 persons) Do not participate in Catholic church but highly suspicious of non-Catholic “cults” French evangelical church is very small, and has lacked leadership & other resources

The Harvest is Aboriginal

Aboriginal Canadians 2400 reserves without Gospel witness. Few evangelicals, desperately few leaders. Christian profession is common but counter- productive “native spirituality” (animism, spiritism and syncretism) predominates. Overwhelming social problems: compose 50% of federal prisoners. Disproportionately high portion of Canadian suicides are native youth. Need to look to cross-cultural Asian and Polynesian planters for assistance

The Harvest Field: An Overview Declining religious observance: In 1957 – 53% attended church twice a month, in 1993 – 23% Today 82% of Canadians are functionally unchurched 10.8% evangelical worship (including renewal groups in historic denominations) Canada is the “best” country in the world to live in but has 3rd highest world suicide rate

Canadians Dying without Christ: 182,389 Souls each Year “The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved.” - Jeremiah 8:20

The Best Solution? “Research and experience has shown that the most effective evangelistic methodology under heaven is to plant new churches. This applies both to old ground where churches have existed for a long time and to new ground where no churches yet exist.” - C. Peter Wagner, Professor of World Missions, Fuller Theological Seminary