Meet Jean-Pierre & Julie Gagné

Life is often pictured as a marathon race in which we are encouraged to persevere until we get to the
finish line; I prefer to see life as a relay race. The objective of the race (though it might feel like a marathon) is not to simply make it to the finish line, but to successfully pass the baton to the next generation of runners. I have entered the baton-passing phase of my life. 

In September of 2014, I handed the operational leadership of our Regional church planting team over to Jean-Pierre Gagné, all the while coaching him in his new responsibilities. Although I fully participated in the process, Jean-Pierre gave leadership, along with others, to the formation and promotion of our Regional 2020 Vision. He is currently leading the execution of the church planting objectives of this vision. His primary role is to lead the team in coaching local churches as they reproduce themselves and to ensure the assessment, equipping and coaching of the next generation for leadership in church planting in the French Region. He is a movement leader, currently also giving visionary leadership to the Xtension movement in the Granby region of Quebec.

One of the French words for baton is “le témoin” which means “the witness”. How appropriate for our spiritual race, to be passing “the witness” to the next generation. Church planting is a young person’s activity. We need to be continually reaching down and drawing up the next generation into positions of leadership. This transition will be complete in June of 2017.

If Jean-Pierre and I had one prayer request to ask of you as we move forward through this transition, we
would ask you to pray that the Lord of the harvest would send us a new generation of workers from within
our congregations, but also God-called and equipped cross-cultural missionaries from other places to assist
us in completing the task of placing the Gospel within reach of francophone Canadians across this country.