Salvationist Podcast
News and stories from The Salvation Army Canada and Bermuda Territory.
Salvationist Podcast
Church Planting in Halifax With Captains Brent and Melissa Haas
In 2021, when The Salvation Army decided to restructure its ministries in Halifax, there was a unique opportunity to plant a new church—and so was born Encounter Church.
In this episode of the podcast, Captains Brent and Melissa Haas, corps officers, talk about what it was like to plant a church during Covid; Encounter's humble beginnings in a condo common room and how it's grown tremendously since then; and how a simple slice of pizza has helped the church connect with hundreds of young people, sparking new ministries and, ultimately, leading people to Christ.
Find Encounter Church on social media: Facebook / Instagram
Kristin Ostensen
This is the Salvationist podcast. I’m Kristin Ostensen. In 2021, when the Canada and Bermuda Territory decided to restructure its ministries in Halifax, there was a unique opportunity for The Salvation Army to do something new in the city. And so was born Encounter Church, a thriving church plant with Captains Brent and Melissa Haas as corps officers. In this episode of the podcast, Captains Brent and Melissa talk about what it was like to plant a new corps during Covid, how the church has grown tremendously and evolved since then, and how a simple slice of pizza has helped the church connect with hundreds of young people, sparking new ministries and, ultimately, leading people to Christ.
Hi Brent. Hi Melissa, and welcome to the Salvationist podcast.
Brent Haas
Hi Kristin.
Melissa Haas
Hi Kristin. Thank you for this opportunity.
Kristin Ostensen
Yeah, for sure. So today, we're here to talk about Encounter Church, a church plant where you two are corps officers. So, can you tell us when was this new corps planted? And how did it come about?
Melissa Haas
Encounter Church was started in September of 2021, and it was a journey to get to that point. Halifax went through a major reset, is what we called it. Halifax had five Salvation Army corps. All five corps closed down, and out of that, two new corps were formed. And so, us being Encounter Church, and the other was The Salvation Army Halifax West Community Church.
Kristin Ostensen
And what was the vision for your corps when it was planted? And how might Encounter look a little bit different from other Salvation Army churches, maybe?
Brent Haas
Yeah, certainly Encounter was born out of a vision to reach the unchurched, to reach the lost. Encounter was born out of a period that a reset was taking place in our city. But it was also born in a season and born during a pandemic, which was a very unique time for a new church, for anything, to be kind of coming off the ground. And that season, just really, there was a heart to reach unchurched; it was a season when people were looking to reach out for something, to find hope, to find a place to belong. The pandemic really shook, I think, all of us to our very core. When you ask how is Encounter Church of The Salvation Army different maybe from other Salvation Army churches, I think it's important to say, there's many ways we're completely the same. We've used the term a lot, “negotiables” and “non-negotiables.” Our non-negotiables are the same as any Salvation Army church, corps in the territory. Our vision, our mission, our doctrine, our theology—we share that, we're fully engaged in. But then where we would probably be different is in the negotiable things. And we've at times asked people because even as we think of these questions, like, yeah, what is different about Encounter in general? And people talk about things, about, you know, a less formal environment. Certainly, you know, a heart for community. And wanting to—I think there's some intentionality—every church, we share a mission and we share a vision, but we've tried to really take it from the paper and bring it off the page and live it out and see it embodied. And I think another thing, even as we've asked people that question, sometimes when in The Salvation Army—and Melissa and I were both born and raised in The Salvation Army—corps or churches can be very officer-driven. And we've been very intentional from day one, as we planted, there was a team, a core team, and that team has continued to grow. And even when Melissa I go on vacation, or we come out of the picture for a season, a lot of Salvationists who've been born and raised are like, I can't—like, nothing stops, everything continues. And so that's been a very intentional step to build that on our team and our people, not just the officers or even just a group of local officers—it's built on the church, the people, the collective.
Kristin Ostensen
Mm, very priesthood of all believers.
Brent Haas
Absolutely.
Kristin Ostensen
Yeah. Now I don't think I've ever encountered a Salvation Army corps called Encounter. So, I'm wondering, why did you folks pick that name? What's the significance there?
Brent Haas
It's very much connected to the vision, and the vision of reaching unchurched people, reaching our community, the image of a table. Luke 14, 15 were two passages of Scripture that really informed the vision and the seed that God planted in our heart for Encounter. And that idea of reaching the lost—the last sheep, the last coin, the last son. But the image of a table in Luke 14 really was, there's a place at the table, and we want people to encounter God, and we know that can happen through encountering each other. So, this idea of an encounter—it connects with our mission and vision that people would have an encounter that would transform their lives, their family. And our community can be transformed through encounter—we share the love of Jesus through encounters, we meet human needs through encounters. So that word really was impressed on our heart. And thus, Encounter Church of The Salvation Army was born.
Melissa Haas
Yeah. And our slogan is “doing life together.” So, while we encounter Jesus, we're doing life with him. While we're encountering each other, we're doing life together. And even when we reach out to our community, we're doing life with them as well. So, we try to embody how we do life together through encounters with each other and with God.
Kristin Ostensen
Yeah, that sounds fantastic. I love that picture of community, not just with God, but with each other. I'm curious, how does one actually plant a corps? I mean, I'm sure it's more evolved than just opening your doors and saying, OK, we’re a church now. So, can you just walk me through? How does a corps actually get planted? How do you get the word out and bring people in?
Melissa Haas
That's great because we're still trying to figure that out. [laughs]
Brent Haas
We were hoping you were going to have that answer. How do you plant a corps? And I think, yeah, short answer. How do you plant a corps? By the grace of God. You plant a corps on your knees. And I think, even as previously referenced, we planted during COVID, we planted during a reset in our city. So, it was a very interesting context to be planting a new church in. And obviously, it started with a vision. It started with three or four of us around a table, reading Scripture, praying, seeking God. We sensed he wanted to do something new and fresh in our city, to reach the unchurched, to reach our community, and out of that, God started to plant a seed for Encounter Church. And then within our denomination, of course, there was this reset declared where there was appetite for a new church plant. And we're like, Well, actually, God is laying something on our hearts. So, there was these layers of local, it started in a local body, and then the denomination, you know, joined us in prayer and seeking God. And, of course, there's the formal process of putting the program proposal together, a plan, having that approved by the territory. And we went through all of those steps, of course. And, yeah, now it's amazing to watch that come off the ground. And certainly in the planning journey, we're still planting. We're still in a very—
Melissa Haas
We’re two years old. So, we're still very much in the planting mode. I mean, we're not done, nowhere near done. Because we planted during COVID, I mean, how did we get the word out? Well, everybody was on social media. So social media was our huge platform. And we utilize social media in a big way, but especially back then. I mean, social media was at the forefront, everybody was on it. So that's how we put out invitations. That's how people connected with us in the beginning, was by, you know, messaging and asking about it. Now that we're further along in the plan, I mean, invitation is a big one. So, our people are encouraged to invite friends, invite family, invite someone you're seeing in a coffee shop—get out there and invite people to come to Encounter Church. And so, they do, they're doing it, and people are coming. And they're accepting that invitation. Another one is community outreach events. We're big on being in our community, a part of our community, and offering events. And during COVID, this was a huge one. We would do take-away meals, where people, you know, social distance and all that stuff, would come and pick up their meal and go home. But it was an opportunity to have conversation with people. They would come into our building, they got their meal, and they would see that there was something new going on. So those were the big three items that helped us to get the word out, for sure.
Brent Haas
And still helping us—yeah, they're very much foundational. And it is, if you think of social media, invitation, community outreach—it's all about relationship and using different tools to connect with people and give them an opportunity to connect back with you.
Melissa Haas
And getting outside of our building. Our first summer, we didn't have a formal church gathering on Sunday. But we moved it to various parks within the Halifax Regional Municipality. And we had it Wednesday evenings, and we called it Summer Bash. And there were bouncy castles, we had our worship team up singing some songs. And we would share just a short devotional in a park. And we had hot dogs and hamburgers. And it was just a time to be present in our community, to give back to our community, but also to meet new people. And it was an early stage for Encounter, so it gave us an opportunity to work as a team and to build a team, and for us as a young church to get to know one another, too. So, there were many, many things, but that Summer Bash really helped get our church out there as well.
Kristin Ostensen
What a cool idea. It sounds so joyful, even calling it a Summer Bash, right. And then after the summer, did you start doing sort of more, not traditional services, but you know, Sunday meetings, that kind of thing?
Melissa Haas
Yeah. So yeah, we came back to the building, but for two months of the summer, we were in various parks, so it was a great experience. But then in September, yeah, we were we were back in, for sure.
Kristin Ostensen
So, looking back on those early days, and then now here you are two-plus years in, how would you say Encounter has evolved since then?
Melissa Haas
Well, we started in the early days, our first days, we actually started in a condo building, in the common room of a condo building.
Kristin Ostensen
Interesting!
Melissa Haas
Yeah, so a staff member of ours lived in a building. And so she booked out the common room. And that's where we started. So we would set up, we would take her chairs from her apartment upstairs and bring her decor and bring it down, that kind of thing. And so we started there—
Brent Haas
Like house church.
Melissa Haas
—with about 20 or so people. And we started there. And that's what I would call it. It was like living room worship. It was no different than if we were in your house, sitting in your living room, worshipping together. It started with me on the piano and singing because, during COVID, nobody was allowed to sing, and we all had masks on, and we had to be social distance and all that stuff. And so it looked extremely different. But we had that common room booked from September to the end of December, thinking that we would stay there and then try to find a different space. But we actually grew out of that space. So, we started on September 19, and our first weekend—
Brent Haas
By Thanksgiving weekend—
Melissa Haas
—in our new building was Thanksgiving weekend. So, we had to move out of the condo building because we were growing so fast. And so, then The Salvation Army looked at us and said, “Well, we have an empty building in Sackville. Do you want that?” And so, we said, “Sure, we'll move in there!” And so, in 12 hours we moved in, and we made it look like our own space, because we do want to keep the living room worship feel. So now, two years in, we meet in the building that we're in now in Sackville. And it's still very much living room worship. We're sitting on couches, we're sitting at cafe tables, we actually tore out the stage, and so we're all on one level.
Brent Haas
So, we've continued to evolve. And then we have a Dartmouth ministry site where we have food bank and community services. And if you look back over the two-plus years, it's been a continuous growth and development, reaching new people, getting new people involved, new ministry outreaches. And ultimately, we're still, you know—you say, you know, how things develop or evolve? We're still evolving. And to be honest, Kristin, one of our core values is that idea, again, in our vision of innovation. We don't want to stop evolving. We want to be continuously evolving to meet the needs of our community and to reach new people.
Melissa Haas
And I mean, unchurched people are calming and, you know, transformation is taking place. And so, I mean, we've had numerous people come to Christ this past year, and we believe that God is going to continue to do great things as we go forward. And I mean, in the beginning, you know, we were excited, there was much anticipation, but we still, you know, we had this overwhelming sense of uncertainty. Because when you church plant, what does that look like? What is it going to end up like? You know, every week was a roller-coaster. But we’re still living that same reality. It's still exciting, we’re still anticipating, but there's still an overwhelming sense of uncertainty. You know, what is next week going to be like? Are people going to show up? You know, what's going to happen? Are unchurched people still going to come? You know, there's still so much uncertainty. But we believe that God did, will, and is going to do great things, for sure.
Brent Haas
We're actually growing out of our space right now. And I'm not just talking about a Sunday—it's obviously impacted, yes, Sunday, that's true, too. And our parking lot’s full, so now we get people to park on the side of the roads. But all throughout the week, our ministries or outreaches, our community partnerships. Yeah, so when you talk about, you kind of get, OK, we’re established here to a degree, and now it’s like, what’s next? And that is exciting and overwhelming, all at the same time. So, the roller-coaster continues.
Kristin Ostensen
Yeah, that's good. It's a good roller-coaster, though.
Brent Haas
We love it.
Kristin Ostensen
Yeah. So thinking then, what has worked really well for Encounter in terms of its ministries? You've mentioned a few things, but can you tell us a little bit about where you've seen God at work?
Brent Haas
Oh, my goodness. Yeah, there are many examples that we could share, and certainly feel privileged to be a part of over these last couple of years. One of the things that's been very foundational is our model has been one of discipleship—that slogan again, of doing life together, getting people in life with each other and with God. So we've not been program-driven. It's been about discipleship. It's been about evangelism. It's been about outreach. It's really been about mission and vision. That's very important for us to acknowledge from the start, and we’ve found that the fruit of that has been amazing. There are many tools, you talk about ministries: Alpha is an amazing tool that we've seen both run for adults and youth, where people are connecting, coming to Christ, and many individuals now who came to Christ even about a half a year ago, nine months ago, in Alpha courses that we offered are now becoming leaders in our church. Some are actually getting ready to potentially launch an Alpha course where they're going to be part of the leadership of it. So Alpha is one of those pieces. Certainly a focus on outreach, community. And anything that we do, we've tried to do nothing because, “Well, this is what we've done before. Well, this is just what a church does.” We've looked at the needs of our community, and where are the gaps. And out of that, we've allowed ministries and outreaches to come out of it. And we’ve found that very effective. And you know, like, Parking Lot Pizza, Time With Tots, Study Café—we could go on. There's so many outreaches. Our food bank and community ministries in Dartmouth location—all of these have been ministries that have connected people to us as a church, that brought people to Christ in relationship, growing in faith and, ultimately, have fulfilled vision and helped us live out mission.
Kristin Ostensen
Absolutely. And of course, anytime you're trying something new, there's always going to be setbacks, or things that don't quite go the way you planned. Can you talk about some of the challenges you faced, and perhaps what you've learned and changed as a result?
Melissa Haas
Well, one of our mottos that we adopted, who we heard it from an officer friend of ours, that said: We're going to do it, we're going to try it this way, until we find a better way. And so that's absolutely what we've adopted. Because we're not afraid of failure. We're not afraid of trying something new and it doesn't work out. We have started programming before, or offerings to our community, and it didn't fly. So we didn't carry on, we didn't continue it; we stopped it and said, “OK, let's move on, let's find something, let's find a need that our community needs. And let's dive into that.” So we're not afraid of failure. And we will try something until we find a better way to do it. But one of the challenges, I think that both of us, but used to bug me the most, was the fact that, first when we started, at least for the first nine months or so, a lot of people would come and they would come for a good amount of time, and then you might not see them anymore. And I used to always question like, What are we doing? What are we doing wrong? Why aren't people sticking around? Why aren't they, you know, they seem to be so involved and then, all of a sudden, you don't see them anymore? What is going on? So, we would listen to podcasts about church planting, we attended some conferences about church planting, and then we began to realize that it’s more normal in the church-planting world than one would think, is that people would start out going to a church plant, and then they would just fade off into the sunset, you never see them anymore. And they looked at it as seasons: people come for a season, they help out, they either help you launch, they get involved, and they help you, you know, on a project, and then they don't return anymore—that was their season at Encounter. And so, we have follow-up conversations with these people, by the way—it's not like they just leave and then we don’t ask them why or whatever—we do know. No, but you look at it as seasons—like, they came for a season, they helped, they helped spread the gospel, they helped in various ways. But now they're gone on and they're helping another church. So that helped those reframe or thinking that, Hey, they were here, they helped, they did a work, and we're thankful for them in that season.
Brent Haas
And I think that also taught us the idea of collaboration. Of course, if we had just been in a silo and not connected to other church plants and other planters, you can kind of be suffering in silence in a sense and not realize, wait, this roller-coaster ride—it's common. It's more normal than you think. There is seasons, and obviously in church planting, that sometimes happens more than in more established churches and corps and we learn from that. And we've continued to grow. I mean, we started with about 20 of us. Now on a Sunday we'd see more like 80 of us, so we've continued to grow. But it's just the seasons of people that, some come and stay for long term; others, there seems to be a season. I think another lesson for me, and anyone who would know me—I'm a doer. And I think when in Salvation Army culture itself, it’s often cultivated: we're doers, we get things done, we want to advance the mission, and we want to do it quick. We want to win the world for Jesus and let's do it in a week. And with church planting, one of the lessons we've learned—and I think this could be transferable, no matter what ministry you're in—but certainly in planting, slow and steady. There can be this temptation to feel, we need to get to this step. We need this program in place. And we need things for kids, and we need things for youth, and we need things for adults, and we need Bible study. And there's times we probably went too many steps ahead and we've had to make steps back and say, We need to slow down. We need to wait on God. And I think—
Melissa Haas
What is God's direction? Not Brent and Melissa. You know, what is it that God wants? Not Brent and Melissa.
Brent Haas
And our culture is not really a waiting culture, right? The quicker we can get through a drive-thru and the quicker we can get something—that's our culture. And I think at times—Wait on God. Waiting time is not wasted time. And I think that's one thing we continuously have to remind ourselves because we've learned to slow down, but the temptation continuously comes back to kind of ramp up.
Melissa Haas
What’s the next thing?
Brent Haas
What's next? Where are we going? And—let's pause. Let's wait on God. Let's seek him.
Melissa Haas
And so, in our second year of Encounter when we started in September, that's exactly what we did. We slowed down. And instead of launching our Encounter groups, and instead of launching, you know, the set programs that we do have like our kids ministries and stuff, right out of the gate in September, we paused, we slowed down, we actually gathered thoughts and—
Brent Haas
Season of prayer.
Melissa Haas
A season of prayer before we dove in. Yeah, so this season’s been a pause. Going slow.
Brent Haas
So, lesson learned.
Kristin Ostensen
Yeah, that's very good. I love what you said about “waiting time is not wasted time.” You know, that's brilliant advice for any of us, right. And you've alluded to some of your youth ministry. And actually, the first time I ever heard about Encounter Church was seeing a post about your Parking Lot Pizza program on Facebook, which is so cool. So, of course, you serve pizza to high school students every Wednesday. Yeah, I would have liked that when I was in high school. But yeah, you have lots of really neat youth initiatives. So, can you tell us a little bit about that? What are you doing? And yeah, how is that working for you?
Brent Haas
Yeah, I think one thing that's very important to acknowledge is we are sandwiched around schools—there are schools all around us. So, when we came to this location, and we started to look around and get to know our community, we knew we had made connections with children and youth because, obviously, it's a conviction of ours at The Salvation Army. But forget that for a moment. If we're going to reach a community, we've got to reach that demographic because we're surrounded by schools. So, we started to think, like, how might we do this? And we've got an amazing partnership with Youth Unlimited, or formerly known as Youth for Christ, where they run a youth drop-in in our building two days a week. At the same time, they're running a drop-in, we're running a gaming outreach, we're also running a study cafe. So that was kind of some needs in our communities and ways for us to connect and build some relationships. We run Encounter Connect for youth where that is for youth from eight years right up to about 17, where everyone comes and have supper together—that image again of bringing everybody around the table. Everybody has supper together, and then they break off into their groups. And it's amazing to see, not just what's happening in these individual groups when they split off, but watching the relationship between the generations just, you know, mentoring and just that connection. And so it's amazing to see that happen.
Melissa Haas
And it's also an opportunity for youth to serve the younger ones. Some of them come and they go in the kitchen and they help, and they help the younger ones, and so it's just a neat relationship.
Brent Haas
And Parking Lot Pizza has probably been—I mean, William Booth said soup, soap and salvation. We would say pizza, soup and salvation. We've replaced out our soup for pizza. There's no outreach that we have done in our two and a half years that have reached more people—and not just the students, but we've got families, we've got staff from the school. There's numerous who are now part of the Encounter Church family. One individual, back in December, gave her heart to Christ, shared her story or testimony a week later, and shared how she found out about Encounter Church because the students in the hallways were talking about their “Jesus pizza.” And that's what they call it, Jesus pizza.
Kristin Ostensen
[laughs] That’s awesome.
Brent Haas
And she heard about Jesus pizza—and she’s like, “Jesus pizza? What’s Jesus pizza?” They’re like, “Well, pizza that we get at a church.” “What church?” “Encounter Church. It’s a Salvation Army church.” And she went on Facebook. And she found out some information about us and saw about a Sunday worship gathering, came about a half a year ago, has been connected ever since, and gave her heart to Christ back in December, just a few weeks ago. And we can draw the lines back to that Jesus pizza, from Parking Lot Pizza, that is why was the seed that was planted that resulted in her encounter, yes, with Encounter Church, but more importantly, a transforming encounter with Jesus Christ. So, there's so many of those stories, that we can draw the line in the sand right back to Parking Lot Pizza.
Melissa Haas
And while Parking Lot Pizza is also about breaking down barriers, right? So, you know, the church is not known as a trusted space, you know, is discredited, very much so. And so we're trying to reach an age to say, look, this is not a bad place; you can come as you are, you are accepted, we love you, we’re going to serve you, and you're not a project to us. And you can come and we will love on you. And that's exactly what happens here from week to week. And they will come up and have conversation and just come in as they are and sit around with their pizza on the couch and have a chat and they'll tell you about your life. And sometimes we have 200 or 300 students, coming through our doors. And they're sitting on the floor in the foyer, you know, in their little groups, and they’re having conversation, and it really breaks down barriers among them as well. You don't know who the wealthy is; you don't know who's struggling is; you don't—you know, even if there's bullies there, they all come and they're under one roof. And it's known as the safe space now, so much so that we even have a few students who are being bullied in school, and they take their lunch, and they come here every other day to eat and eat their lunch in our space because it's a safe space. No one never really told them they can do it. They never really even asked. They just showed up. And we're allowing it to happen. So they come in and we're having conversation with them. And if we're having a meeting, they'll sit on the other side of the room and eat their lunch. But it's being known as a safe, trusted space, and that’s the barrier that we're trying to break down.
Kristin Ostensen
Wow, that is so cool. And yeah, man, I mean, how many churches can say that you feel that safe and that comfortable that they just show up and eat lunch there? That is truly incredible. And I do think you know, a lot of us who've been in the church for a while, there's a lot of conversation around, how do you reach youth? And it seems like you've really discovered something. What would you say to other churches that are trying to reach youth?
Melissa Haas
Yes, open your door. Just, you know, make sure the door is open—like, literally, I mean physically. Sometimes our door is latched open and I'm freezing. I'm like, can we close the door? Our door is literally open to people all the time, all day long. And so, like I said about this Parking Lot Pizza, I didn't even know it was happening. So, I went into our admin and I'm like, “Who is this person sitting and eating lunch?” And they're like, “Oh, this person (named the name) is being bullied at school and just showed up to eat lunch because this is a safe space for them.” And I'm like, “Oh my goodness, this is like the absolute best thing.” And now there's more that come, there's more. So, just being welcoming, and open the door, and accept them for who they are. They come and, you know, they come in all forms and we just love on them. You know, I comment on their hair all the time. If someone’s got purple hair, I’m like, “I love that”—because I love purple and I would love to have purple hair. You know, “I love your hair.” You know, or “I love that outfit.”
Brent Haas
And I think it comes back if you listen, and this is not rocket science, we say it all the time. But the key again, is not just saying it, not just putting it on our paper in our, you know, commitment statement, but it's living it, it’s relationship. It's being relational with, and I think children and youth in particular. And I would say to any corps or church, it takes time. It takes time with anybody. but children and youth and many they don't have a connection to church. I know numerous who’ve said, “I've never been inside a church before.”
Melissa Haas
“This is a church?”
Brent Haas
“This is a church?” I mean, it's a different day. There are people growing up—I mean, obviously statistics and stories tell us the majority of people do not go to church. So they're not connected in any way, shape, or form. So building those relationships. Again, going back a moment ago, waiting on God. Sometimes if we don't see the results we want in six weeks, it’s like, well, this is a waste of time, this is a waste of money. Like—wait, wait. Relationships. And Melissa made a statement, I think this is key, too. People are not a project. This is not a project. This is about setting the table and making a place at a table for people to encounter each other and encounter God. So Parking Lot Pizza—I know it seems like we're talking a bit about this. But it really embodies the vision.
Melissa Haas
Well, there's no agenda, there's no, like: I'm doing this to get them in the pew on Sunday. Our first year that we did it, we had a youth that went home and told her parents that she was at a church for lunch. And the parents were like, “You don't go there. Church is bad. You know, nothing good is going to come out of this. I don't want you to go back to her anymore.” And she's like, “But they're not like that. It's not that kind of church. You can trust them. It's safe.” You know, and continues to come. She hasn't missed. So again, it’s breaking down that barrier. They're not projects, there's no agenda, we just love on them. And that's like study café. We offer study café, we have a tutor who is a retired teacher. And he comes and he offers his services for free. And he comes and the students love him. They love him.
Brent Haas
And that teacher is not from our church. He's from another church. And so his partnership—‘cause sometimes, too, you start to say, Well, what would you say to another corps? Well, we don't have a teacher. Partner. We didn't have a teacher, a retired teacher that was able to take this on either. We put out the call and now we do and as a partnership. So, don't look at what you don't have. Look at what you do have and build on it. And yeah, God has honoured it over and over.
Kristin Ostensen
Yeah, it's amazing. You know, as I'm talking to you, I mean, your passion for this ministry is just so obvious. But I'm wondering, what do you enjoy most about church planting? What makes this meaningful for you on a personal level as officers?
Melissa Haas
For me, I like the creative process of it—you know, from start to finish. Yes, I know, within The Salvation Army, there's so much that's already created for you. But there's still so much that you can create. And right from our logo to our name to building programs or, you know, what is the church going to look like? All of these barriers that we talked about—how can we rip all those down and beat down all those walls and make it a welcoming space?
Brent Haas
There's a lot of appetite to try new things. Those methods, those negotiables—we have a lot of fun with him. And we try new things and outreaches, and doing, you know, worship around tables, doing worship in the park. And 98 percent is on board, and is like, what are we doing next? What's the next adventure? So that is good. I think for me, too, it's been exciting—and it's kind of connected—to be a part of God doing a new thing. And I think ultimately, it's been very exciting and overwhelming. And I've had to trust God in a way that I've never before. And amazingly, God has proven in this journey and convinced me more than ever, that he's worthy of all of our trust—just fully trust, fully lean in. And, yeah, that's been exciting.
Kristin Ostensen
Yeah, that's fantastic. So we've talked about so many things that you folks have been doing and learning through all this. And as we start to wrap up, I'm wondering if you could give, say a few key takeaways that maybe other Salvation Army corps, other Salvationists could use in their own context to grow and share the gospel, what would those takeaways be?
Melissa Haas
The main thing I think, for me, and that I thought of, when I read this question is, you really have to narrow down your target audience, your focus group. Who is it that you want to reach? What does your community look like around you? And who's living there? And, if this is who you want to reach, what do you have to do to reach them? So, ours is unchurched people. So we've narrowed in on unchurched people, whether they've never been to church, whether they grew up going to church, but got disconnected somewhere along the way, or. Yeah, just an unchurched person. And so we've really focused in on that. So all of our team leadership meetings, all of our strategic planning meetings, conversations, thoughts, budget planning, hiring, innovation grants that The Salvation Army puts out that we, you know, apply on—anything in that regard, everything we do, it's, how can we use it to reach unchurched people?
Brent Haas
Yeah, mission—I know, certainly in Salvation Army contexts, it’s like, mission, mission, mission. And it is! It's a very good reason why we're continuously being reminded: mission, mission, mission. And any passion you hear today—it's for mission. And I think it's important for corps to know your mission. Know your mission field, know your community. And a word that has come up in this conversation over and over is intentional. And I don't believe there's any corps or church out there intentionally not reaching their community, or waking up and saying, “We don't want to reach anybody today. We don't want to see anyone's life transformed. We don't want to reach our schools.” But the question, the Encounter question would be: What are you intentionally doing to reach that school? If the answer is nothing, change that answer. You know, what are you intentionally doing to reach that seniors complex that's your neighbour? If it's nothing, change the answer. What are you doing to reach that apartment building that is right there? If the answer is nothing, change that answer and be intentional because God will bless your intentionality when it’s to advance his mission. So that's one takeaway. I think a personal one I would want to say, too, if someone is looking to see change and transformation, here's the reality that I have experienced: it starts with me. And it starts with you. If you want to be a part of God doing a new thing, it starts with a posture of surrender and saying, “God, not my will, but yours—your kingdom come. Not mine, your kingdom come.” And I would have to say in looking in the rearview mirror—and I think, you know, my wife, partner in ministry, best friend could attest to this more than anyone—there's been no more transformation in anyone's life in this journey than in mine. And at times it has been painful. There's been sacrifice. Uncomfortable. I have been out of my comfort zone more in the last two and a half years than I have ever in my life. And God has honoured it and blessed it and he's transformed. There's so many things I said I would never do, including planting a church. And here I am. Many times, I put methods before the mission. I look back in that rearview mirror, and I had to sacrifice some of those methods in order to fulfil the mission for today and reach the unchurched today. So, I would really encourage and challenge people to allow that work to start in you. And it's almost like a book I read years ago: If you want to walk on water, you gotta get out of the boat. And if you want to see God do a new thing, it's got to start in you. And surrender—get that posture of surrender. Catherine Booth said it best: if you're want to better the future, you must disturb the present.
Kristin Ostensen
Well, what a brilliant place to end. Wow, just so inspiring hearing what you folks are doing there. And I just want to say such a huge thank you to you both for taking time to come on the podcast and share what God is doing in your church. And just want to say God bless you in everything that you're doing.
Melissa Haas
Thank you.
Kristin Ostensen
Thanks for joining us for another episode of the Salvationist podcast. For more episodes, visit Salvationist.ca/podcast.