February Meeting

Our next meeting will take place on Thursday, February 16th from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The location is Mount Pleasant Road Baptist Church on 527 Mount Pleasant Road.

Dr. Michael Haykin will be speaking on "The Elephant of Kettering: Learning from the life and ministry of Andrew Fuller." The Canadian Baptists (otherwise known as Convention Baptists) will be joining us.

Please RSVP if you plan to attend. We'd appreciate a response as soon as possible for planning purposes, but by Friday, February 10th at the latest.

January 19 Meeting

Our next meeting will take place on Thursday, January 19th from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The location is West Toronto Baptist Church on 3049 Dundas Street West. There's lots of good street parking in the area.

There's a special focus this month on our Association's vision for church planting. Come and help us as we look forward to launching new churches in Toronto. Ka Wong, a tent-making church planter (and our treasurer), will be sharing some of his story.

Please RSVP if you plan to attend. Deadline: Friday, January 13th.

Upcoming Meetings

Please save the date for our upcoming meetings:

On Thursday, February 16th, Dr. Michael Haykin will be speaking on "The Elephant of Kettering: Learning from the life and ministry of Andrew Fuller." The meeting will take place at Mount Pleasant Road Baptist. The pastors of Toronto Baptist Ministries (formerly known as the Convention) will be joining us for this meeting.

On Thursday, March 22nd, Dr. David Barker from Heritage will be speaking to us about "Preaching from the Old Testament." The meeting will be held at Downsview Baptist Church.

On Thursday, April 19th, Bruce Clemenger, president of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, will be speaking. Location to be confirmed.

November Meeting and Other News

We hope you are enjoying a good season of ministry this Fall. We look forward to seeing you in the near future and hearing how God has been at work in your life and ministry.

Next Meeting

Our next meeting will take place on Thursday, November 24 from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The location is Morningstar Fellowship (map).

Steve Jones, our new Fellowship president, will be our speaker.

The cost for this meeting is $10, free for first-timers. Lunch will be served. Please RSVP (before November 21) if you wish to attend.

Future Meetings - Save the Dates!

Here are the dates of our future meetings. Please mark them in your calendars. All meetings take place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

January 19 - Ka Wong on "The Tent-making Pastor"
February 16 - Michael Haykin
March 22 - Dave Barker, Heritage Seminary
April 19 - TBA

Can You Host a Meeting?

We are looking for locations for our meetings next year. If you would like to host our pastors, then please let me know as soon as you can. We will tell you how many people we're bringing; you provide the space and the meal; we reimburse you for the cost of the meal (up to $8/person). We really appreciate when our churches put out the welcome mat for our pastors. Please let me know if you can help in this way!

We've Been Busy…

Our Dave Kraft event took place on September 30 and October 1. It was well-attended (over 100) and we had great feedback from those who attended. We hope that you've taken page 26 from the conference notebook. It's the "Application Page" and contains key actions that you commit to take as your response to what we learned.

We were privileged to hire two students (Gracie Villanueva and Jessica Russell) through the Canada Summer Jobs Initiative. The students worked in five churches during the summer (West Toronto, Commonwealth Avenue, Queensway, Islington, and Dovercourt). Thanks to Arc DaSilva for organizing this. The students write:

Thank you for blessing us with the opportunity of serving FEBToronto’s churches and the city of Toronto. Beyond simply being a fun and unique experience, it stretched us in ways that deepened our walk with Christ. Please continue to pray with us that the Holy Spirit will use our work to impact the eternities of the young souls we encountered. Also, thank you to Calvin Russell for allowing us to attend Toronto Remix, free of charge, with no direct cost to FEBToronto.

Earlier this year, we approved the position of a Director for FEBToronto. The Director will be responsible to assist the Association to accomplish its vision by:

• working with the Executive to implement the vision
• work with churches and pastors in the Association to promote pastoral health, church health, and church planting

This Director will be reimbursed costs, and will be responsible to raise his own support.

We hope to be able to present a candidate for this position in the near future.

Please continue to pray for FEBToronto. We hope to see you at our November 24 meeting!

Practical Tips and Tools for Lasting as a Leader

Dave Kraft is coming to Toronto in September. Hope you can come. Here's a sample of what you can expect:

Dave Kraft | Leaders Who Last from Canon Wired on Vimeo.

Don't wait to register for the Dave Kraft seminar

We're really looking forward to the "Leaders Who Last" seminar taking place in Toronto on September 30-October 1. I'd like to encourage you to register yourself right away, and to let your leaders know about this seminar too.

Why This Seminar is Important

Dave Kraft is in his 70s. He's been in Christian ministry for over forty years. He's coached over 500 leaders. He now spends his life coaching younger leaders, even while living with cancer.

Mark Driscoll writes of a a difficult time in his life:

I was basically burned out in every way...My adrenal glands were fatigued. I could not sleep. I was seriously discouraged, exhausted, and frustrated. At that time God brought into my life a handful of ministry and business leaders who were older, wiser, and humble enough to serve me. Pastor Dave Kraft was one of those men. As a professional ministry coach, he brought me through a formal coaching process and helped me get my life and ministry in better order. He gave me permission to make some difficult decisions for the well-being of my family and our church. He wanted me to be one of the leaders who last...

Now I am glad to see a friend who served me well publish this book because we both want you to be one of the leaders who last. Sadly, too few Christian leaders finish well, and a combination of grace and wisdom cannot be overrated. You will find both in this book.

Kraft is coming to Toronto to share the lessons of his book with us. You can benefit a lot from reading his book, but some things can only be communicated in person.

The odds against you finishing well are low. That's just a fact. This seminar is important because it will help you identify what has to change in your life and leadership if you are going to beat the odds and make it to the end.

Why You Should Register Now

We have 100 books of Dave Kraft's book Leaders Who Last ready to be distributed to those who register. The best way to prepare for this seminar is to take the time to thoughtfully read over the book. It's the sort of book you may want to read more than once.

I highly encourage you to register today so we can get a free copy of the book to you, so that you have the time to benefit from the book before the seminar takes place. (Registering now helps us do a better job of planning the event too.)

The Vitals

The seminar takes place Friday, September 30 in the evening, and Saturday, October 1 in the morning, at Richview Baptist in West Toronto. We also have an informal discussion with Kraft planned for Saturday afternoon for those who wish to attend. The cost is $40 for the first person from each church, $20 for each additional person from that same church.

Here's what you can do.

1. Register today.
2. Send this information to your key leaders so they can attend too.

Let me know if you have any questions. Looking forward to seeing you in September!