All the latest general news and announcements are found on this page.
NAB Triennial 2018
If you are interested in attending the 2018 Triennial in the beautiful river valley of Edmonton, Alberta, July 26–29, please contact our office. Details can be found here!
Update from Andrew Friesen
Hello beloved Whyte Ridge Family,
It’s hard to believe that Courtney Joy and I have been married for almost 2 months now! God has done some amazing things in our lives since the beginning of August and we feel incredibly blessed!
- Our wedding day (Aug 6) was filled with such unspeakable joy! It was stunning weather and filled with such precious memories with close friends and family. Our favourite part was worshiping together and truly sensing that Jesus was honoured and there with us.
- Praise God for a fruitful time at Mobilizers forum just 3 weeks after our wedding. This is an annual conference where all of Africa Inland Mission Canada’s mobilizers gather for a week of training, prayer, and fellowship. We felt encouraged by the team and were able to learn a LOT from their experience. At the end we set some goals for the next year and everyone was of one mind.
- We have two young ladies and a couple that are beginning applications for short term service for this upcoming year! Praise God that He is finding people with unique interests to serve Him from sports ministry, to English teaching.
- Praise God as Courtney Joy and I have been given TWO opportunities to preach in churches in the upcoming months! Neither are churches AIM has had contact with in the past!
- Praise God for the ways that He has ALREADY been leading Courtney Joy and me into His Word this past month. We have been challenged in our quiet times and are learning how to hear Gods voice as a couple- it is such an honour to serve the LORD and to simply be in His presence together.
- Please keep praying with us that the LORD of the harvest would bring labourers. We are asking the Lord for four to six full time missionaries, three short termers, and we are looking to increase our inquiry base to thirty in the next year here in Ontario.
- Praise God for Gary and Kim Lidstone who are two new additions to the Ontario mobilizing team. Pray for them as they are beginning to fundraise in the fall and hope to be fully supported by January. This is a amazing blessing as Ontario is a huge area to cover!! They will work alongside us and Susan Pinkerton (still recovering from surgery) starting in the new year.
- Please pray, with the increase of contacts here in Ontario, we are mapping out several trips to Ottawa, Windsor, Hamilton, Guelph, and Pickering over the next two months! Pray that we would have endurance.
- Pray for Courtney Joy and me as we have really begun to lean in to the discernment phase of where God is leading us in Africa. We have had many meaningful conversations, done some research, and are seeking the LORD to guide us forward. We know that God has asked us to walk into the darkest places to make disciples & see His church grow… but where that is we are still discovering together.
Love you all dearly and can’t wait to see you in the new year
Courtney Joy and Andrew Friesen
Congregational Meeting
A congregational meeting to approve the 2018 budget will take place on Sunday, December 3 following the second service; a soup and sandwich lunch will be served. All members and adherents are encouraged to attend! To help us plan for the meal please register here.
"Call for Conscience" Campaign
Join the “Call for Conscience”
This fall, members of Manitoba’s legislature will consider Bill 34 which deals with conscience rights for doctors, nurses and health care professionals who cannot participate in euthanasia/assisted suicide in good conscience. Please visit www.CanadiansforConscience.ca/manitoba to learn more, join the “Call for Conscience” and write directly to your MLA asking them to support Bill 34.
Evangelical Fellowship of Canada Updates
Jesus calls his followers to be salt and light to the world (Matthew 5:13-16). We seek to live as His faithful servants and be agents of His transforming presence in our society and the world.
Evangelicals engage in all areas of life as part of our witness, and we want to be obedient to God in the pursuit of justice and care for the vulnerable. One of the ways we do this is to learn about key issues facing our culture, and think through how biblical principles apply in these areas.
A way to do so is to join the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada‘s email list or to browse through their resource database containing hundreds of topics online.
Anna Gabrielle Major - Born: July 12, 2017, Date of Passing: July 12, 2017
ANNA GABRIELLE MAJOR: BORN: JUL 12, 2017, DATE OF PASSING: JUL 12, 2017
Listen to Anna’s Celebration and Dedication to God Service here.
Jennifer and Sean, the proud parents of Anna Gabrielle Major, would like to introduce you to their wonderful daughter who is now safe in the arms of her loving Savior, Jesus Christ.
Her name has special meaning. Anna means ‘gracious and giving’ as she was a miraculous gift from God. Gabrielle means ‘woman of God’ and it was always our prayer that her life would glorify the Lord and that she would walk with Him.
Anna was a beautiful baby girl that we looked upon with awe and wonder. She was born on July 12, 2017 at Women’s Hospital, weighing 7lbs 4.3oz and measuring 21.5 inches long. Anna had her mum’s hair color and her daddy’s curls. She had the blue eyes, lips, ears, button nose and chubby cheeks of her mum and she had her daddy’s hands and feet. Anna only knew love, she never knew any sorrow or hurt. She was a much anticipated and desired child whose very existence was much celebrated.
While her arrival came right on time, our precious Anna’s life was limited to the time her mum got to share with her as she carried her in her womb.
Our darling, sweet Anna Gabrielle will continue to be loved and cherished and always remembered by many, including her parents, Sean and Jennifer Major, her grandparents, Jim and Cindy Law, Dolly Major and Les Major, her great-grandma, Audrey Hemminger and many other family and friends.
Anna’s parents would like to thank the many people who have helped through the joys and sorrows of this journey, humbling us with their warmth and care. They would also like to thank Ryan Mason, Pam Mason and Jim and Cindy Law for joining them in as they welcomed Anna into their arms and bid her goodbye with the same breaths.
A celebration and dedication to God of Anna Gabrielle was held at Whyte Ridge Baptist Church at 10:00 a.m. on July 15, 2017 with the interment following at Darlingford Cemetery.
A God Story
Hello church family! I just wanted to let you know what I will be up to this summer. I spent the summers of 2014 and 2016 serving with an organization that works with orphans and abandoned children in Romania, and I was planning on doing that again this summer. Unfortunately, due to a number of reasons, these plans fell through. After spending two full summers with the same children in Romania I had begun to feel like this was my second home, and upon learning that I could not go back this summer I felt lost and confused. To make a long story short, after weeks of looking for jobs, applying for jobs, and emailing back and forth to a number of different children’s ministries around the world, God made it clear to me that I need to go and serve the needy, orphaned, and abandoned children in Mexico. I am leaving on July 18th to serve at a children’s home/orphanage in Reynosa, Mexico for four weeks. I will be doing many things including assisting with building/renovation projects, assisting with running a VBS for the kids, and of course spending time playing with the kids. I would really appreciate your prayers as I prepare for this adventure – that I would be a vessel of Jesus’ love for these beautiful kids. In recent weeks there has been a lot of drug-related violence within and around the city of Reynosa, Mexico, so prayer for peace, health, and safety for myself, the full-time missionaries and staff members, and all the children would also be appreciated. I look forward to updating you upon my return at the end of August. Thank you for your prayers and support! If you have any questions about what I will be up to in Mexico, I would love to talk to you about it!
God bless,
Alex Warburton
Giving Options at Whyte Ridge Baptist Church
As announced this past Sunday, we are excited to launch a new Mobile Giving app, Tithe.ly, as one of the various giving options at Whyte Ridge Baptist Church.
It was also announced that there will be a demonstration of this new giving option on Sunday, In advance of this demonstration, please download the Tithe.ly app for iPhone and Android here.
Please note the following information regarding ways to Give @ Whyte Ridge Baptist Church. If you have questions regarding giving @ Whyte Ridge Baptist Church, please contact our church office.
Here are some ways that you can give at Whyte Ridge Baptist Church:
Give online
NEW: Online and mobile giving is now available! Click here for online credit card donations.
Give using the Tithe.ly mobile app
Download the Tithe.ly app for iPhone and Android here.
Give through automatic withdrawal
Fill out Whyte Ridge Baptist’s Pre-Authorized Debit Agreement and give or mail it into the church office.
Give personally
Using one of Whyte Ridge Baptist’s envelopes you can give a cheque or cash. It’s that simple. Envelopes can be found in the holders on the back of every pew or they can be requested from the church office.
Give by mail
If you are unable to attend a service or forget your tithe at home, you can mail your cheque to:
Whyte Ridge Baptist Church 201 Scurfield Blvd. Winnipeg, MB R3Y 1A5
If you have questions regarding giving @ Whyte Ridge Baptist Church, please contact our church office.
WRBC Online Church Directory Profile (Breeze)
Click here to be directed to our WRBC Online directory! Please bookmark for reference.
If you have created your username and password, you can login anytime at www.whyteridgebaptist.ca/DIRECTORY or select ‘Church Directory Login’ from the menu at the bottom of our website or the Whyte Ridge Baptist Directory logo near the home button on this page.
You can also download the app for your mobile phone here for easy access!
If you have not yet updated your WRBC Online Directory Profile, please do so either in response to the invitation email that has been sent to you or login and update your profile and profile photos. or contact Pastor Kevin and he will happily arrange for assistance with set up. If you have not received an email invite but would like to be part of the Online Directory, please click here and request your invitation.
Details regarding how to complete this process can be found here: www.whyteridgebaptist.ca/wrbc-online-church-directory-profiles/
Note that sections 1 and 2 in this video have been combined, and that some of the fields have changed. The video also may seem to end abruptly, but all instructions are included.
Thank you,
The Pastors and Leadership at Whyte Ridge Baptist Church
Worship By The Lake: A Celebration of God's Faithfulness - A Reflection by Pastor Kevin Klassen
I first came to Whyte Ridge Baptist Church 21 years ago. Not really because I wanted to. And certainly not because I was very interested in finding a church home. I recall that I visited this church reluctantly, coming here together with someone who had other friends who attended here. And then I basically never left.
WRBC very quickly became my church family and, ever since then, God has used my time at this church to change my life in some very significant ways. First of all, it is here that I met my beautiful wife (on the worship team, no less). And it is also here that I have found and enjoyed many life-giving friendships. And even deeper than that, God has used the teachings, the relationships, the joys, the challenges and the experiences that I have had in the context of this church family to change me on the inside. He has used my time in this church to mercifully convict me and lovingly shape me, teaching me about His Word, His grace and His sufficiency.
And in recent years, God has granted me the profound joy of serving as a pastor of worship and care – ministering within the very family that has loved me and walked with me throughout almost all of my adult life. God is so very, very good!
Because of this history, there are plenty of personal stories that I could tell about God’s faithfulness to us and through us as a church family. And I know that there are many others who could do the same, whether they have attended for a long time or a short time.
And this coming weekend, September 10th and 11th, we are going to be gathering at our church property on McGillivray Boulevard to Celebrate the Faithfulness of God! It will be a fun weekend of worship, fellowship and prayer – remembering the stories of God’s faithfulness in the past and asking and thanking Him for His continued faithfulness in the future.
We will be especially be remembering the gift and the purpose of the land that God has given us on McGillivray. In fact, this weekend will serve as a celebratory kickoff to a Capital Funds Campaign that we expect will move us forward toward the construction of a new church building that God will use to continue to faithfully build His kingdom in and through us.
Worship By The Lake:
On Saturday evening at 7 pm, we’ll have an outdoor celebration that will include much praise and prayer as well as stories that celebrate the Lord and His loving kindness. Following that will be a bonfire and fireworks. A few of us are also camping there overnight and you’re welcome to join us (and there are portapotties there, in case that’s a deal-breaker).
Sunday morning we’ll continue our celebration with an outdoor worship service at 10 am, followed by a BBQ lunch.
Everyone is welcome!!! Bring your friends, bring your lawn chairs, bring your mosquito repellent and bring hearts that are ready to worship the Lord. Prepare your own heart by reflecting upon your own story of how you have seen God’s faithfulness to you and to this church family. And let us come before Him with thanksgiving and also with anticipation of how He may use this land and building in the discipleship, worship and witness of His church.
For just as we each have personal stories to tell of God’s work in and around us during our time at WRBC, I believe His faithfulness is most greatly reflected in the way that He chooses to include us in the Great Story that He is writing in the building of His Kingdom for His glory. God is so very, very good!
– Written by Pastor Kevin Klassen, Associate Pastor – Worship and Care
Sermons and Podcasts Available Online!
Miss a Sunday at Whyte Ridge Baptist Church this summer? All sermons are available online by visiting our Latest Sermons Page, or by subscribing to the podcast using the links below or via iTunes. Catch up on messages from a variety of speakers on your next drive to the beach or during your commute!
PODCASTS AVAILABLE AT THE SITES BELOW:
WRBC Prayer Wall
Are you receiving our Prayer@WhyteRidgeBaptist updates? If not, sign up visit our Prayer Wall to sign up today.
Praying for each other is a key part of doing life together, and this is a way to support each other in this way. Once you sign up, you will receive prayer requests as they come in and have opportunity to send a ‘prayer notification’ email to the individual requesting prayer by selecting ‘I Prayed for This’ on our Prayer Wall.
If you have any questions, please contact our new Prayer Coordinator, Irene Toews, at prayer@whyteridgebaptist.ca.
Did you know @WhyteRidgeBaptist is on Twitter and Facebook??
All of the latest updates and news – including photos and additional posts – can also be found on Facebook and Twitter!
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WhyteRidgeBapt
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WhyteRidgeBaptist
Follow us, like and comment!!
Prayer@WhyteRidgeBaptist: Attawapiskat Suicide Crisis
Attawapiskat is a Cree First Nation Community in northern Ontario with a population of approximately 2000 residents. The community has declared a state of emergency as they deal with an epidemic of suicide attempts among its young people. Since September 2015, over 100 suicide attempts have been made with 28 being in the month of March alone. Both provincial and federal government response teams have been sent to the community to deal with the crisis. While these measures will assist the community in dealing with the emergency situation that exists today, a long-term plan must be developed to address the suicide problem.
CLICK HERE TO READ ARTICLE ON THE WRBC PRAYER WALL
What to pray for….
*The people of Attawapiskat particularly young people who have a sense of hopelessness and consider suicide a solution to feelings of desperation.
*Health workers in the community who have been working tirelessly in the community. Pray for strength, wisdom and insight as they address the immediate needs facing the community.
*Long term solutions to address the problems faced by Attawapiskat and so many First Nations communities which include poverty, inadequate housing, contaminated water and a lack of educational and employment opportunities.
*Sensitive and compassionate hearts for those of us in the non-Aboriginal community toward our fellow First Nations citizens.
CLICK HERE TO READ ARTICLE ON THE WRBC PRAYER WALL
Revised Pre-Authorized Debit Offering Form Now Available
Pre-authorized withdrawal from your bank account is a convenient way to maintain regular giving of your tithes and offering. We have recently updated our pre-authorized debit offering form, which is now available on our website at https://www.whyteridgebaptist.ca/giving/. For those who wish to take advantage of this option, please visit our website or pick up a paper copy of the form at the church welcome centre.
Please note that completion of this new form is not required for those currently using this service. If you have any questions regarding tithing or offerings, or the pre-authorized withdrawal option, please contact Dave Barton (Chair of Finance) or Shirley Wynne (Financial Secretary).
Evangelical Fellowship of Canada Update
For those looking for additional information on the EFC ‘Declaration on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide’, details can be found at the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada site.
'The Nature and Function of the Church' - Pastor Doug Friesen
An excerpt from Pastor Doug Friesen’s article, ‘The Nature and Function of the Church’, as referred to during his January 24th message:
What is the nature of the church? In today’s society there is a lot of confusion as to what a church actually is. By no means does the word “Christian” exclusively come to mind when people hear the word “church” in causal conversation. For the term “church” is used for a wide variety of religious groups (such as Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, etc.) and thus the Biblical use of the word is often not known. In fact, if most people were asked today what a church is, the most common response would be that it is type of building in which a variety of religious groups meet in order to have their services. But what does the Bible say the church is? What is its nature? By looking at various biblical images used throughout the Scriptures, this paper will shed some light on the nature of the church.
Other questions about the church which arise today are: “What is the function of the church?”; and “What exactly are we put on this earth to do?” Once again, the answers to these questions are readily found within the Scriptures and are just waiting to be explored!
Click HERE to Download the Full Article
LifePath Events and Studies - Sign Up Today!
Registration for all LifePath studies are now available online! Please review the following upcoming events and studies, and register below.
LifePath Seminar: Learning About Your Spiritual Gifts (1 Session)
Dates: Wed, April 27th or Thurs, April 28th
Location: WRBC Lobby
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Contact: Pastor Doug (204-489-3875)
Please sign up Online HERE or at the Information Center by Sunday, April 24th
Please select a valid formLove and Respect resources available in the Church Library
by Pastor Kevin
Love and Respect resources available
We were blessed to have 110 people attend last month’s Love and Respect marriage seminar. What a wonderful thing it was that so many couples in and around our church were willing and able to take the time to focus on building more Christlike marriages! I have heard from numerous couples that this was a helpful weekend for them. I trust God will continue to use what we have learned for the deepening of our relationships.
Love and Respect Ministries provides a variety of great DVD and book resources for further learning and growth. We have purchased three of these resources for our church library:
The Love and Respect Book – Much of the material of the conference came from this book. In it, Dr. Eggerichs explains how, in times of conflict, women often tend to react to feeling unloved while men often tend to react to feeling disrespected. This is a very insightful perspective with helpful advice about how to communicate in a more helpful way, especially in times of disagreement or tension.
Love and Respect Experience – This is a devotional book for couples, cited as “a husband-friendly devotional that wives truly love.”
Respectfully Yours – This is an 8-week Women’s DVD Small Group Study. It includes 2 DVDs with 8 teaching sessions as well as Leader’s Guide and Study Guide.
These resources are in the library now, ready to be accessed by you!
