Matthew Lahey Matthew@mileonemission.ca

What led you to plant/ replant/ revitalize your church?
Take a moment to visualize the area you live in. How many gospel-centered churches can you count? 5? 10? 100? For our neighbourhood in Newfoundland, Kilbride Community Church (KCC) is both the only gospel-centered church and the only church for our community of 8,000-10,000. What’s more, if anyone were to travel 3 hours south of Kilbride, not a single biblically grounded, gospel-centered church would be found. For a province that has had some form of Christianity on its shores for the better part of 500 years, there are still large areas of the population that have no gospel witness. This is our reality. Added to this, my personal journey of coming to saving faith starts in this area. I came to faith in a town 60 minutes south of Kilbride. For the first 24 months, I was without gospel community, without a local church, and without a group of believers to disciple me and spur me on towards Christ. It wasn’t for lack of choice, but, rather, because I had no choice. There are no gospel-centered churches. It’s easier to get a drink at a bar than it is to hear the Gospel preached in our area. While living overseas, the Lord put it on my heart to move back home and plant a church in an area that desperately needs the Gospel.

How have you seen God working in your church?
We began laying the roots of KCC in the fall of 2019. With our small core team, we set out to bring some Gospel light into a community drenched in darkness. Over the next two years, we watched as the Spirit moved throughout our community to open doors, relationships and provide us opportunities to not only share but to demonstrate the Gospel. We’ve not only watched as God brought people to saving faith, but open doors for us to serve and give in ways that our community has never experienced before. We also watched God bring us people to help with KCC all the way from the USA. And we are currently watching Him do it again with a couple from Tasmania. And, maybe more miraculously, God opened the doors and allowed KCC to have its first worship service in June 2021; in fact, this was the first time in nearly 130 that Kilbride had the Gospel preached in its four corners..

What is your connection to Northview Community Church?
My connection to Northview Community Church is mostly through Steve Bray and Mark Burch. Northview has a been a real blessing to us as we strive to give shape to our budding church plant. We are so thankful to not only call them partners, but friends.

Church Mission and Vision.
KCC exists to help imperfect people become mature followers of Jesus one life at a time Our vision is to not only see Kilbride and the Southern Shore saturated with the Gospel, but for it to experience and know authentic and vibrant Gospel community.