Author: geoffreyjwright

Montreal has been a part of who we are since the day Jillian and I met 8 years ago. Since then our vision for God’s work in Quebec has continued to develop more and more. Our story began when our worlds (almost 500 miles apart) were brought together inseparably when we met through a summer ministry in Quebec, Canada. Several years later our family has grown (Haven is almost 2 and Elijah will be joining us this September) and our ministry is coming full circle- back to where we met on those streets of Montreal.
Jillian was born and raised outside of Philadelphia PA and I, Geoff, have been living in Maine since 2004. Even though we came from two very different places the Québécois have long held a special place in our heart for introducing people to Jesus since the summer of 2008 when we were both part of an evangelism team in Montreal. Our vision now is to transplant our family to Montreal and see the Gospel spread exponentially through evangelism on a grassroots level.
After years of training and ministering locally in Maine this vision is now being realized in our opportunity to move to Quebec and join Church 21, a multi-parish church network in southern Quebec. When we arrive next March I will begin a ministry leadership residency (Extend) with Church 21 as an associate elder. Through this program our goal is to plant churches in Quebec while using and developing my spiritual gifts for ministry.

After religious dominance negatively impacted the Quebec people they turned from the church and threw out the bath water, and along with it, the baby. The Gospel then, the true center of Christianity, has never been prominent in Quebec and today Quebec is still considered a people unreached by the Gospel. Not only has the Gospel had a scarce presence in Quebec’s culture but has also been scarcely seen in many churches in Quebec. While some churches are faithful to scripture and other churches run culturally inviting programs there have been too few churches that proclaim the Gospel and also live out the Gospel through discipleship and evangelism. To see more and more Gospel centered churches planted in Quebec we are joining the vision of Transform Quebec to see 25,000 churches planted in 40 years.

Against a background of religious disdain Quebec has embraced a very morally liberal culture. While their brand of sin may not be any different than ours the concentrated population in such a culture brings out more publicly expressed, embraced and available lifestyle choices. I put it this way- in Montreal whatever your heart desires you can find enough of it to kill you in only a walking distance. We are all created with an eternal desire to find lasting joy, acceptance and true life. It is our mission to bring the joy, acceptance and life that we’ve found in Jesus to these particular people who have searched for life in everything but the Gospel and still haven’t found it.

From its foundation Quebec has been one of the most predominant Catholic establishments in North America hosting the largest cathedral north of Mexico City and many centuries old monasteries, convents and seminaries. Not only did the prominence of Quebec’s Catholicism influence the religious life of the province but also dominated control of the health and education systems. Social and political turmoil over religious, language and socio-economic barriers in the 1960s and 70s led to a silent revolution in which the people of Quebec walked out of and rejected the dominant Catholic heritage. Decades later the idea of church, organized religion and the Gospel are still a topic of contention among most Quebecers. In fact, only in Quebec, some of the most common swear words are recognizable Catholic/religious terms. To bring the Gospel to a culture with a religious aversion it is part of our vision to share Jesus’ love through personal life on life ministry

Évangile = (the) Gospel
QC = Quèbec
EQC is a ministry called to the people of Quebec with a vision for seeing the Gospel multiply through discipleship and evangelism on a grassroots level.