Rob Chartrand (00:01.25)
Well, hey, we're excited to have Chad McDonald with us. He is the pastor or one of the pastors at Port City Church in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Chad, welcome to the podcast.
Chad MacDonald (00:11.79)
Thanks, Rob. Appreciate you having me on.
Rob Chartrand (00:15.17)
Well, you are one of the pastors at Port City. And I'm glad you're here with us today because we're gonna talk about mission and church planting. And I think it's important for our listeners to know that your church was launched just before this past Easter. So like March 26th. So, I mean, you're still in its infancy toddler stage. So why don't we start with, why don't you tell us what led you to plant a church in Halifax?
Chad MacDonald (00:42.422)
Sure, yeah, great question. Definitely a good place to start. Well, I think there's some of the basics that is good to know about me is I'm from Nova Scotia. My family's from Cape Breton Island. I'm not from Halifax, but I am a Blue-Noser, as we say, and born and raised in Nova Scotia, but spent many years away in Ontario and then in BC. So I would start with that, is that the Lord called me back home.
almost 10 years ago to work in ministry, particularly church planting catalyst work. And it sort of started there. And we ended up in Halifax when we moved back from Vancouver and just really had a desire to see more churches. Obviously I was doing catalytic work and church planting. And one of the things that you do as a catalyst, as a good catalyst does, you pray Luke 10 too. You pray for more harvest workers
the region and particularly for the City of Halifax. And I mean, if you're going to pray that prayer, you better be ready to ask that of yourself. And it took a while, but I realized, I would say that I had a holy discontent for what was in our city. I'm not saying that the church that we planted is the only great church. There's lots of great churches in our city, but I definitely saw a need for a particular kind of church.
Um, and just had a holy discontent for what, um, I was a part of in BC and really felt like, um, it would be amazing to see something similar here. So that, that would be kind of the quick answer to what kind of led to that.
Rob Chartrand (02:28.238)
Well, let's get into that a little bit deeper, but I do have to ask you, what on earth is a blue-noser?
Chad MacDonald (02:33.482)
Yes, so a Blue-Noser is a Nova Scotian. So if you pull out your 10 cent coin, your dime, and you inspect it carefully, it will have the Blue-Nose on there. That's a schooner boat that we're very proud of. It's housed here in Lunenburg and so we get coined Blue-Nosers. So if you're from Nova Scotia, you may not know that, but you're a Blue-Noser.
Rob Chartrand (02:47.499)
Okay.
Rob Chartrand (02:53.178)
Okay, okay. I did not know that and it's nothing like a brown noser. It's a blue noser. Okay. Okay, well, so let me ask you this. Why did Halifax need another church?
Chad MacDonald (03:00.082)
No, no.
Chad MacDonald (03:09.566)
Yeah, I think honestly, I think every city and town in our country needs more churches. So some may disagree and some may say, well, there's lots of churches with empty seats and empty parking spaces. You know, I would contend that all of our cities across Canada and all of our towns need more churches. I mean, we have not reached a point where everybody has heard the good news of the gospel.
and the Lord uses lots of different types of churches and different denominations and different theologies and doctrines to reach his people. So I think for that reason, but then also I think Halifax is a very strategic city. We're, according to McLean's magazine last year, we were the fastest growing or second fastest growing city in Canada. I think, I think, yeah, I think we were second to Bowmanville, Ontario of all places.
Rob Chartrand (04:01.515)
Wow, didn't know that.
Chad MacDonald (04:06.494)
And so Halifax is definitely not the city that it used to be. It is growing at a very rapid rate and there's a lot to say about that. So it's just strategically, just quickly, like Port City has been planted in Halifax, which is the second fastest growing city in our country. But we're also in a community called Bedford, which is the fastest growing community within Halifax. So we are in a very strategic place there.
And so there is a need for more churches. I think all of our fellow pastors and friends here that are doing ministry together, I don't think anyone would disagree with that. And it's a very strategic city. I mean, with the amount of students we have and education that's going on here, the industries that are growing, the tech sector that's growing, the nations are coming to Halifax now as far as immigration goes.
And there's been a lot of movement since COVID and during COVID of people moving, particularly from Ontario to Atlanta, Canada to Halifax. So we often say, you know, our name is Port City Church. And one of the reasons we named it that obviously we're in a port city, but we would say that one of the greatest goods that we can export is the gospel. And so we want to be an export of the gospel as a church. So.
Rob Chartrand (05:29.146)
So, you know, wanting to find a central location like that, particularly for your province and for your city. Does that tie in then to your philosophy of the purpose for your church, like kind of a reproducing strategy?
Chad MacDonald (05:45.79)
Yeah, it does. I mean, we really spent a lot of time praying and thinking and strategizing over where we should be geographically within the city. Some have said, I'm surprised that you're not on the peninsula. So the peninsula we refer to is more the downtown core. We're more in a bedroom community. We're very centrally located. And we're doing a lot of work with students.
Rob Chartrand (06:01.426)
Mm. Yeah.
Chad MacDonald (06:10.922)
post-secondary students. So some people have wondered why we're not more strategically down there. And we really just sense that the Lord was calling us to be more regionally located for the purposes of gathering on a Sunday, but then we wanna be scattering into our communities and our subsidies throughout the week. So we've done that or trying to do that strategically through groups. And so...
Yeah, that's brought some of the strategy to where we are. And then also quite frankly, there's a shortage of spaces. And so where we've ended up, we feel is God's grace. We feel like we're very, very happy where we've ended up. We're renting a school, a private school on Sunday mornings. And it was literally the only option that we had on the table. So in some senses, it made that pretty easy.
But we did spend a considerable amount of time praying and thinking through, were we going to be more regionally located or more strategically, more neighborhood located?
Rob Chartrand (07:16.538)
Okay, okay. Well, I'm gonna dive into your missional strategy in just a minute before we do that. I thought I wanted to ask you, you know, one of the things that was interesting about your church is the way that it was planted. I mean, you guys used what, you know, for lack of a better term, a team approach to planting. So I wonder if you could talk to us a little bit about that and tell us why is it that you decided to plant the church that way?
Chad MacDonald (07:42.502)
Yeah, so the why as opposed to the how we did that. I would say, well first of all, I think it's the biblical model. I think it is really when you look at who we are as people and how God has gifted us, I think that there's many things that God has given us the ability to do and other things that we're not as gifted to do. When I really think
that speaks to the whole body of Christ working and functioning as it should together and the different gifts that he's given us. And so I think the why behind planting in team is, I just think that is the best use of the gifts that God has given us or has not given you and maybe has given somebody else. I would also say, Jeremy and I, Jeremy's my co-planter, my partner in crime, I guess you could say.
Him and I, we have over close to, I think, 15 years of ministry experience prior to Port City. And in the beginning, we just said we don't want to necessarily do the things that we've done in the past. Now, we have both had very healthy ministry experiences, but we would say we ran ourselves fairly dry or we got to a place where...
we were burning the candle at both ends. And we just said, like, does it have to be done this way? Does it have to be done this way? And what would it mean to share the load, you know, to plant in team, to round out the gifts of this team and to do it in such a way that allows us and affords us the ability to have a different rhythm than many pastors and a different way of looking at ministry in that regard.
And then also I would just lastly say on that question, like to plant a church alone and to sort of find that rare unicorn individual that's got all these gift sets and can preach and teach and do marketing and budgets and administrate, raise up team and fundraise and network. I mean, the list is so long that it's just like, that person is not out there. And I just think...
Rob Chartrand (09:59.283)
Yeah, for sure.
Chad MacDonald (10:05.238)
you know, to be most effective and to do ministry for the long haul, not ministry that is short-sighted and that might last five, 10, 15 years, but thinking beyond that, I think you've got to set yourself up in such a way where you recognize what you're good at and what you're not good at and who do you bring around you to, to undergird that.
Rob Chartrand (10:27.414)
Yeah, yeah. So, you know, yours is a bit of a unique story because of who you've planted with and who came along with you in the journey of planting. So tell us a little bit about that story. How did it all come together when you planted, you built this team?
Chad MacDonald (10:45.518)
Sure. Yeah, it started as you referenced earlier, Rob, we launched the church just this past March, March 26th, but we've been meeting with our launch team since the previous August. But basically the timeline, the tape rewinds close to three years ago, where I'm currently still working for Send Network Canada, and I'm a church planning catalyst with Send Network. And so I received an email.
about three years ago from a guy named Jeremy Dagger from Mercy Hill in North Carolina and Greensboro, North Carolina. And he just emailed out of the blue and said, hey, I heard you're the church planting catalyst in Atlantic Canada. My mother is born and raised and is from Prince Edward Island. And I spent all my vacations on the island and really have a heart for Prince Edward Island and feel this burden to go and to plant a church and to step out and do that.
and that conversation began and we began to chat more and more and our wives began to chat and meet and we realized that there was a very special unique relationship. Going back to that gifts kind of conversation realizing that our gifts were both very different, very complementary and really just began to strike up a strong relationship and passion for a similar type of ministry and so it started there.
you know, I don't want to take too long to unpack what all that looked like, but over time, we just said, hey, would you pray about not planting in PEI for now? But would you would you consider coming to Halifax? And we just said, we think this is a more strategic spot for you, for us. We think we can plant a healthy church here and we'd love to plant more churches in the region, including Prince Edward Island. But this, I think, is the best place to start. And so.
Jeremy and Julianne said yes to that, and they've got five children, and they packed up over time and eventually made their way here to Halifax. But with that also, there was several individuals and families that felt that call as well to sort of put their yes on the table and come to Canada. And so probably about 20%, 20 or 25% of our launch team came from...
Chad MacDonald (13:08.402)
the United States, North Carolina, South Carolina, also Kentucky. And so that's a really unique story and a situation. So really just people that are just sold out for the mission of what we're doing. So that's kind of how that unfolded. And then that team began to form and build, like I said, last August. And here we are just a little over a year.
Rob Chartrand (13:20.237)
Yeah.
Rob Chartrand (13:31.65)
Wow. So you gave me a percentage. I mean, how many bodies would that be of people coming in from the US?
Chad MacDonald (13:39.15)
Uh, that was about eight or nine, not including the daggers. So they're a family of, they're a family of seven. Yeah. About a dozen, I would say about a dozen. Our, our launch team was including kids was about 60, 63 people in total. Yeah. So it was a, yeah. And it was, it was great because it, we, we had a portion of those people that came from.
Rob Chartrand (13:45.978)
Okay, yeah, yeah.
Right.
Rob Chartrand (13:52.223)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Rob Chartrand (13:59.498)
Wow. Okay. That's a great, that's a great launch team number.
Chad MacDonald (14:08.282)
United States, but I would say a vast majority of that launch team was local or Canadian in some way.
Rob Chartrand (14:13.494)
Yeah. How did the Americans do at translating the gospel in a Canadian context? Not just a Canadian, but like an East Coast Canadian context.
Chad MacDonald (14:26.474)
Yeah, well, we're still working on that. No, I'm just kidding. They've done fantastic. I think really it's the heart and posture in which you come is probably the most important. Just having, as we all should, whether it doesn't matter where you're from, just having a posture and a heart of humility, recognizing that God can use anyone from anywhere.
Rob Chartrand (14:28.95)
Okay.
Chad MacDonald (14:54.378)
in any context, but you're right, we're dealing with a unique context in Atlantic Canada. It was one of my concerns around church planting and a planting with Jeremy, who's American and his family and that launch team. And I would say a concern that was quickly alleviated when you get to know these people and realize their heart for the gospel and their heart to contextualize and their heart to know the region. And that's a big part of it is
Rob Chartrand (15:19.766)
Yeah, yeah.
Chad MacDonald (15:24.186)
is knowing the history of our region and knowing the context so that when you do come in, you have a heart and posture of learning, as we all should have, whether you're from North Carolina or you're from Moncton or from Halifax. So they've done extremely well. Actually, if anything, I would say the spiritual maturity of the individuals and couples that have come up from the United States has been such an immense help.
Rob Chartrand (15:40.026)
That's right.
Chad MacDonald (15:54.058)
with others that have been here. And I know their spiritual maturity, their growth in Christ, their relationship with Jesus has been a tremendous encouragement to many here. So that's been huge for us.
Rob Chartrand (16:09.002)
Yeah, well, I mean, that's a, it takes a lot of humility and listening and discernment to be able to translate the gospel into a different culture. And I mean, I did my doctoral dissertation in Kentucky. I've also been out to the East Coast and they are very different cultures than say, where I'm sitting right now in Prairie, Saskatchewan or where I pastored in Edmonton, Alberta. There's a significant difference, but I think
Chad MacDonald (16:37.644)
Yeah, you can't buy unsweetened tea here in Halifax.
Rob Chartrand (16:41.558)
Yes. Oh man. Yeah. I mean, you just have to be willing to, to learn what's there and be able to, there's just a lot of surrender in that too. Like, and surrender your own cultural assumptions about the gospel and being able to say, okay, I'm not going to get my sweetened tea. How am I going to learn to love the beverage of choice there in Halifax instead?
Chad MacDonald (17:04.707)
Mm-hmm.
Rob Chartrand (17:11.79)
So speaking of culture, like every city has a different culture. I mean, cities have different values, demographics, and even different parts of cities have different values. I mean, if you're in the burbs as opposed to the city center, I mean, there's a bit of a different culture. But I mean, generally speaking, when you think of Halifax, how would you describe it? Like, how would you describe the culture of the city? And maybe tell us a little bit, how does this inform your missional strategy?
Chad MacDonald (17:12.004)
Yeah.
Chad MacDonald (17:39.378)
Yeah, Halifax, yeah, it's like I said earlier, it's changed tremendously. Even I've been in Halifax now for almost 10 years and there's been a significant shift even in that amount of time. So it's now hard, it's a little harder to define than it once was. I would still say Halifax is a big city with a small town feel.
So that's one of the reasons I think people really appreciate Halifax is there's a lot of great things about it. You know, we're on the Atlantic Ocean. We have white sandy beaches nearby. We've got a great food scene and all of those things that matter to people. And there's a great work and life balance here. And that's why a lot of companies have been moving into Halifax and people have been excited to move here. There's more that like.
that's still the traditional laid back lifestyle that would be still very much a thing, even though things are growing and changing. It's always said that the Maritimes and particularly Halifax as a big city would be at least 10 years behind most of the major cities in Canada, you know, around everything, you know, certain decisions that are being made, things that may be implemented in a city like Vancouver a long time ago that we're just talking about now.
whatever that is, it could be Uber or bike lanes or I mean, you name it. So typically it's a further behind city. There's some definite, some charm to that, some frustration to that. But overall, I mean, now with the nations coming to Halifax, you know, the Canadian government has opened up a significant amount of entries for new immigrants specifically to come in through Halifax in this next several years.
And so we're seeing a massive influx of new immigration, and that's been exciting. So the streets of Halifax look very different. Doors are being run by people that are not from here, and that's exciting. But overall, the other thing to know about Halifax and the Maritimes is that change is not easily accepted. And so in the past...
Chad MacDonald (19:59.43)
And so we're just trying to sort of catch up with all of this recent change. And we're seeing that in our city as well. So how that impacts our missional strategy, we're still trying to figure that out, if we're honest. We do know that we have a heart for students, particularly post-secondary students. And we've got Jimmy Contino on our team, who's our student director.
And we just really feel like Halifax is a very strategic city for post-secondary education. And so that we know we've kind of said like, okay, let's point some artillery at this area and let's focus in that area. And then I would say, as I mentioned earlier, even where we're located in a very fast growing community within our city, I think is strategic. And we're seeing
to come to Port City that are new to Halifax. You know, they're either Christians looking for a church because they moved or, you know, they are far from God and from the gospel and they're asking questions and they're new. So I think just like where we're located, obviously the demographic of people that have been attending has been critical to that sort of strategy.
Rob Chartrand (21:21.902)
So you talked about one of your team members is working with young adults. Are you doing any particular programs or ministries for the emerging generations?
Chad MacDonald (21:32.99)
Yeah, actually, just this past Sunday, we started our young adults Alpha. So we've partnered with Alpha Canada. And so again, it's kind of utilizing great tools that are already out there and that already exist. Obviously many listening to this podcast, we agree Alpha is an organization that's trusted and has a great track record. And so that would be one, we just started that this past weekend, we were so encouraged, we had
13 individuals, students come out to that, and we held that at a coffee shop downtown. So that'd be just one example of that. But you know what? I guess we're really passionate too about, we don't wanna create a division between the local church and ministry that happens on campus. So, you know, there's great ministries that take place on campus, great pair of church ministries, and that's good, we're happy for those.
But our desire is to reach students and disciple students into the ways of Jesus, but also incorporate them into the life of the local church. And whether that's for two years or four years, or they stay in Halifax, I just think that's really, really important. We're not trying to create a separate university ministry. We're trying to reach university students and bring them into the community of Port City Church, young and old, student and senior.
or whatever example you want to use.
Rob Chartrand (23:02.222)
Yeah, yeah. Well, this isn't actually the... This isn't... We'll cut that out in post. Well, this isn't actually the first church that you've been involved with. You were actually part of a church plant on the West Coast. So, I mean, you've got a bit of water under the bridge, some experience in this. So why don't you tell us about that and maybe talk to us about how your understanding of church planting maybe has changed since then.
Chad MacDonald (23:33.558)
Yeah, I was had the joy and privilege of as a very young individual, I was probably in my early 20s when I was a part of a church in Vancouver that was planted in 2005 and then went on to plant other locations and campuses and some standalone church plants. And I was a part of that ministry for almost 10 years. And it was I was young and it was exciting. And it was fast pace.
did a great work to be honest through that ministry. And we saw many come to faith in Jesus and saw many baptisms and planted churches and catalyzed leaders and built apprentice programs and just led alongside amazing, godly elders. And it was just a really sweet season that I think the Lord obviously was giving me and preparing me for where we are today as he does.
And so, yeah, I just feel like I owe a lot to that time, to those leaders that I was under and owe a lot to the Lord for what he was doing in my life. And so I would say I've learned a tremendous amount of things that have prepared me for where we are today in Halifax. And I think one of the biggest areas is just realizing, again,
again, going back to the question about planting and teen, this idea of pace and realizing, you know, as I'm now 43 years old, I'm realizing like, what am I capable at this stage of my life? And what was I capable when I was 23 and what are the differences? And so just wanting to be, to plant a church that's around, something that's lasting and something that's healthy.
Rob Chartrand (25:12.026)
I'm out.
Chad MacDonald (25:29.502)
And something as I often say, my children's children could maybe attend and be a part of some day. And then the other thing I would say I've learned is just, I would say I've softened a lot over the years. I used to be a lot more rigid and a lot more black and white and a lot less grace filled. And when it comes to dealing with people and people of different ideologies or different doctrine or whatever the situation may be, even just leading in team, I mean,
it's really difficult to be rigid and black and white all the time when you're leading a team and making decisions together. And by God's grace, I still have a long way to go in that, but I do feel that the Lord has really softened me in those areas. And I think that comes from just a place of realizing, like when you really start to truly believe that it's the Lord that builds his church, you know, it's like, he's going to do this with or without me.
And it's just freeing to know that we don't have to have all the right answers or have to think that we know the best play in every scenario, that we can just trust him with that has been tremendously helpful. So those are just a couple of things. I mean, there's a long list of things that the Lord has done in my life over the last several years, which I'm thankful for.
Rob Chartrand (26:46.978)
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah. But when I planted a church, Crosspoint, I was in my late 30s and now I'm in my early 50s. And I know that if I went and planted, my wife, of course, Karen would say, we're never planting a church again. Unless the Lord speaks, you know, scroll from heaven. Oh, and of course, yes. But I mean, I would do it a whole lot differently now than I would have back then.
Chad MacDonald (27:09.674)
Mm-hmm.
Chad MacDonald (27:15.488)
Yeah.
Rob Chartrand (27:18.482)
energy-wise capacity and you know I was spinning my wheels a lot of times I lacked wisdom but I had a had a lot of enthusiasm there were a lot of things I did that I probably will do differently for sure. So it's nice to have the second time around I mean like to be in it again and you you're not making the same mistakes.
Chad MacDonald (27:28.642)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Chad MacDonald (27:37.194)
Yeah, and to be clear, I wasn't, yeah, and I wasn't that lead planter back in 2005. And so I was, and I was able to, I was led well, and I had great parameters put around me. And I was, the other thing is I was, I was allowed, I was given freedom to try things and fail at things. And I would say even now at 43, you know, it's very important that
Rob Chartrand (27:41.91)
Yeah, that's right. But you're a part of it. You're able to see it.
Rob Chartrand (27:57.869)
Yeah.
Chad MacDonald (28:03.754)
we try things and we're okay, you become more and more okay with failing at them. And I would say if you're not failing at anything, it's probably because you're not trying and taking risk. And so even now there's things that we try and that I try in my leadership that don't always work. And you just, it's not that you don't, it's not that you fail less, it's just that you get more okay in your identity with who Christ is, that when you do fail, there's more grace.
for yourself in that moment.
Rob Chartrand (28:34.37)
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, so much in your early years are about establishing yourself and, you know, building and developing and creating. Whereas I think in your older age, you're more about leaving a legacy and seeing it done through others. I mean, you're just, your mindset changes a lot in your second half of your ministry career, which you're just stepping into. Your conversations change a lot too. A lot of conversations with peers are, oh, you have that same problem with your body?
Chad MacDonald (28:51.542)
Mm-hmm.
Chad MacDonald (29:02.958)
Mm-hmm.
Rob Chartrand (29:05.075)
You all get together and that's seems to be what you talk about a lot in your middle age. Hey, you planted in March. It is now October. I mean, you're still in your first cycle, your first year, but tell us, I mean, how have you seen God at work in your church since launch?
Chad MacDonald (29:10.794)
Yeah.
Chad MacDonald (29:19.726)
Mm-hmm.
Chad MacDonald (29:26.41)
Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, this is the fun stuff about these podcasts, just getting to see and remember and look and watch what God is doing. And we've just seen so much of that in seven months. It's been seven months, which is hard to believe. And we've just seen, well, we've seen a couple of things. I think I'll get to the most exciting stuff at the beginning, which would be we've baptized 12 individuals. We've had two baptisms.
Rob Chartrand (29:53.05)
That's great. Praise God.
Chad MacDonald (29:53.954)
Yeah, one on Easter Sunday and then one just a few weeks ago. And so just really excited. I got to baptize my children in that, my three children. I have a son who's 14, my daughter's 12, and my youngest son is 10. So that was amazing. I mean, obviously, like, we're doing what we do as a church and any ministry does what we do for the sake of those to come into a saving knowledge of Jesus. And so baptism is the...
Rob Chartrand (30:05.726)
Awesome, way to go, yeah.
Chad MacDonald (30:23.51)
the crux of what we get to do as a church. And so really wanted to highlight that and celebrate that. But we're just seeing also God do a great work and people are coming to the church and we're seeing a lot of new people week after week. And we've seen fairly quick growth for Atlantic Canada's standards and Canadian standards in general. And so that's been really encouraging and we've been working really hard to, obviously we're not.
looking to be a church that just moves people around in our city from one church to another. But obviously when you're a church that's in a city that's growing quickly, there's a lot of newcomers to our city. There's like I said a lot of students, a lot of people who are asking questions about faith in God. So just seeing people come. And then we've been really encouraged just by our group's ministry. So we'll say like we gather on a Sunday morning for the worship and proclamation of the gospel and for teaching and for community, but then we scatter.
kind of Monday until the following Sunday in our city. And so we've just done our best to form groups, and the gospel's on display through groups. That's where mission happens and evangelism happens and discipleship and prayer and all those things. And so we've already sort of established six groups and those groups are very full. And so we're seeing a lot of just buy-in from the people of Port City to do that. And so that's been super encouraging to us.
And then also just healthy signs of, or healthy markers of church health. So, you know, our desire is to plant a healthy church. We're not going to get into what defines right now a healthy church, but I just know there's a lot of churches that are unhealthy. And so we want to plant a church that's healthy and one that's lasting. And so we're just seeing those things.
whether that is people serving or people giving, people being involved, people discipling one another, those are all some marks of health. And so we're thankful to see those signs so early on.
Rob Chartrand (32:33.546)
Yeah. So you're a pop up church. Tell us a little bit of what that what's the facility and like that you're in
Chad MacDonald (32:40.286)
Yeah, we rent a seventh day event is school and they are just wonderful people and a great tenants and it's just a humble little elementary school. You know, it's nothing flashy. But we have a bunch of stuff there. We have a big sea can out there on the property where we can store a bunch of our stuff and yeah, we transformed the gym as best we can into
Rob Chartrand (33:01.466)
Okay, that's great.
Chad MacDonald (33:06.97)
worship space. We have a lot of kids a part of our ministry. We have on average 28 to 32 children in our kids ministry on a Sunday morning. So yeah, so it's converting that space. But we also recognize that we would love at some point to when the Lord allows it to see if we could get into our own space. And that's a bit of our vision for kind of the future and our praying into what God would do there. So.
Rob Chartrand (33:14.242)
Yeah, that's healthy. That's healthy.
Rob Chartrand (33:31.736)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Chad MacDonald (33:34.614)
But for now, it's working great and we're very thankful for that space. And we're in a very strategic location right off the highway and a fast growing communities, as I mentioned. So.
Rob Chartrand (33:44.502)
Yeah, I love that about Seventh-day Adventists. I mean, they make their facilities available for church plants, not just schools, but like their school, their church buildings, because I mean, Sundays, it's available space. And so planters out there, if you're looking for a place, try and find your local Seventh-day Adventist church in your area, because they're very open to other church planting movements using their spaces. So, you know, when you go to your website,
Chad MacDonald (33:56.782)
That's right.
Chad MacDonald (34:02.09)
Yep. Or school. Yep.
Chad MacDonald (34:09.004)
Yeah.
Rob Chartrand (34:12.898)
and I will put, we'll put the link up in the show notes, but, um, one of the things you'll notice is that nobody has the title of lead pastor. And we already talked about this team approach a little bit. So, I mean, it's, you, you kind of have a more of a shared leadership between you and Jeremy. So I I'm interested in knowing how do you navigate that relationship together? I mean, and more particularly, I mean, what happens if you have disagreements and, and maybe you don't, like, maybe you're always on the same page, but some point,
You might have a disagreement, Paul and Barnabas. So, I mean, how do you guys navigate that?
Chad MacDonald (34:49.694)
Yeah, okay. So yeah, we do have a shared leadership and those titles are very, at this stage, very strategic. We say that we've essentially founded or built at this stage, if we can say that from human hands, Port City together. We've built the values, the vision, the mission statement. Every decision that we have made so far has been in lockstep. Now that's not easy.
And we would argue that there's more cost involved in that upfront. And so it's not easy to lead with somebody else and make those kinds of decisions. And there'd be some who say it's impossible. I've had other pastors say to me, like, it's not going to work. You know, eventually the buck needs to stop with one of you and, or, you know, it's just not going to work. So, you know, I think.
Rob Chartrand (35:33.838)
Right, right.
Chad MacDonald (35:47.37)
We all come from different leadership experiences and where we've seen that either work well or not work well, but so far, we're just very, very thankful that I would say it is working to this point. And our desire is we believe in a plurality of elders. So the decisions in time will not be made with Chad and Jeremy. They were made in plurality as an elder team and we have...
somebody that's going through our elder process right now that will be our first lay elders. So that I just want to say upfront, it's not the Chad and Jeremy show, it will be the elders that are sort of making decisions in plurality. But yeah, we have just found that it is worth the work, worth the work, the relationships, the meetings, Jeremy and I spend, the kind of the joke is like.
It's like we're like each other's second spouse, you know, kind of a strange kind of way. You know, it's like we spend so much time. Yes. So much time with one another, you know, even this morning before this podcast, our bi-weekly meeting, which is close to three hours long together, just helping make decisions. But yeah, what do we do when there's kind of an impasse? And I think the way that we would answer that right now is just to say, you know,
Rob Chartrand (36:48.282)
workspouses.
Chad MacDonald (37:11.082)
you both have to come into this with a great spirit of humility and an understanding of what are the things that are essential and what are the things that we like to make essential that maybe are not. And so when something's brought forward it's a humility to say like, is this something that I feel that is essential that I need to fight for to use that language or
you know, I'm going to default to Jeremy or for him vice versa is going to default to me. And sometimes that is knowing our strengths and our weaknesses. So there's areas that I'm gifted in and strong in that he's not. And vice versa, there's things that he's very well gifted in and strong in that I'm not. And then trusting just based on his leadership experience, the gifts that God has given him, that there's going to be some areas that I need to default to what he's bringing forward in that regard. And then we also
include our wives in a lot of this stuff too. And their opinion really matters and they're a significant part of this ministry. And then there's our greater team. So there's the staff team as well that we like to include as much as we can in these decisions. So hopefully that gives you a little bit of a window into how we're doing that. Definitely not perfect, but.
Rob Chartrand (38:30.35)
Yeah. So let me, yeah. Let me press in a little bit further. I mean, you have a team. So when you have a team meeting together, who chairs that team meeting?
Chad MacDonald (38:42.858)
Yeah, it depends on the type of meeting. So a good example would be we have our staff meeting every Tuesday morning and that meeting is two and a half hours long or so and it's with the five of us. And so, at the beginning, Jeremy and I were taking turns doing that. And then, you know, I have, I come from more of like an executive pastor background and have those abilities and eventually he just felt like he was like, Chad, you know, you do this.
Rob Chartrand (38:45.155)
Okay.
Chad MacDonald (39:11.342)
more naturally than I do. And he was like, I think you should be leading these meetings. And so it was like, but I'm like, well, I enjoy it when you lead these meetings, too, it gives me a break from having to do them all the time. So if I'm away, or I prefer not to lead a meeting, he's like more than competent to do that. Jeremy's very, very gifted in that as well. So it's kind of figuring out like, okay, you know, what are our sweet spots? So Jeremy will often be the one if
a meeting about maybe our upcoming series or what book are we going to want to be studying next. Jeremy's bringing a lot of leadership to that. Now, it doesn't mean that I don't have a voice in that. It doesn't mean that I can't bring ideas and push back, but it's depending on what area of ministry that we would say, hey, you know, this is an area that I think you should bring leadership to, but also we both have equal say and equal voice in that.
Rob Chartrand (40:08.95)
Yeah, yeah. Well, I can imagine that as your church continues to grow, you're gonna, you're gonna have to get more crystal clear on some things like just because it as an organization grows, you're hiring more specialists, right? And so as you do that, you're gonna have to multiply at least that that's my hunch. So it'd be interesting to see how this evolves over time in this framework. I'm not saying okay.
Chad MacDonald (40:30.097)
Mm-hmm.
Chad MacDonald (40:34.39)
Yeah, and it has already, it has already. So even in the last several months, like we've picked more lanes or buckets that we kind of bring oversight to within our team. But in the early days, especially with building the launch team, we wanted it to be very much, if I would use the term, like I don't want it to be confusing, but like almost to confuse our team.
Rob Chartrand (40:45.334)
Yeah, yeah.
Chad MacDonald (41:01.058)
Like, okay, who is like this week, Chad seems to be leading. And the last meeting, Jeremy seemed like, I'm a bit confused and we were good with that. We actually wanted that kind of like healthy confusion, if I can use that language. But as we've planted, we do realize like, yes, there is specific lanes that we're going to take. Yeah.
Rob Chartrand (41:05.037)
Right.
Rob Chartrand (41:13.687)
Yeah.
Rob Chartrand (41:22.53)
Yeah. I mean, and I can imagine doing that in the beginning is good because then they're not making assumptions about who's in charge and they're not, you know, picking sides or anything like that. They're just, oh, they are actually leading together and doing this. So yeah, good on you. I mean, I, I know that I, to have a shared leadership role for me would probably knowing my personality would be challenging. I mean, I love team. I love leading with team.
Chad MacDonald (41:28.652)
Yeah.
Chad MacDonald (41:34.327)
Yeah.
Rob Chartrand (41:50.678)
And then I say on my teams, like, there's a millimeter of difference between me and the rest of the team. Like, so, I mean, if I have to call the shot because we can't agree, I'll do it. But otherwise, we all, you know, we all make the decisions together. But I think I'm much more of a structuralist. Maybe that's more my church background or my personality. So I'm accountable and we know who's accountable and all of that. And so to do the team thing, I know it would take a lot of humility and surrender and listening.
But I think I'm maybe more of a bull in a China shop kind of guy. So I'd really have to work hard at it.
Chad MacDonald (42:26.382)
Well, when you say like, what are some of the things you've seen in your own life that have changed from doing ministry in Vancouver, I would say that is a big one. I don't think I would have ever thought I could do this 10 years ago, nor would I even say it's even the right way to do it. I probably would have been one of those guys that says it's impossible to do it this way. And who knows?
We're figuring this out day by day, month by month by God's grace, and maybe we'll be proven wrong in another year or something. That's okay, too. Like, we're okay to give this a go and see what the Lord does with it. And if it needs to change, we're both willing to do that.
Rob Chartrand (43:13.75)
Yeah, that's great. Well, I think of like Dave and John Ferguson, you know, the exponential guys and their church. And I mean, they planted that church together and they did together and there was, you know, clear division of roles and all of that. And, you know, they made it work. So I think the model, like it has legs. Like, I think it's, it's a, it's gonna be a really effective model with the right people doing it. So, yeah, good on you guys. Hey, why don't you share with us some long-term plans or dreams for your church?
Chad MacDonald (43:18.222)
Mm-hmm.
Chad MacDonald (43:22.645)
Hmm.
Chad MacDonald (43:29.274)
Mm.
Chad MacDonald (43:34.218)
Yeah. Thanks. Appreciate that.
Chad MacDonald (43:42.854)
Yeah, we were talking about a little bit about that this morning just about we're dreaming and thinking ahead and obviously we'd love to be a church that's multiplying and planting churches, but we were saying this morning like greater than raising up church planters is we want to raise up leaders within our church. So we really feel like leadership development, whatever you want to call that, discipleship, leadership pipeline, there's all kinds of terms for it.
Rob Chartrand (44:03.598)
Hmm.
Chad MacDonald (44:12.298)
We feel like church planters are naturally going to come out of that group, but greater than that, we would say is our call as pastors and shepherds to raise up leaders in general. Um, so although we're passionate about church planting, we really believe that, um, you know, raising up great disciples who are stay at home moms, who are accountants, you know, who are doing, working in the marketplace, that is equally important. Um,
as raising up church planters and planting new churches. And so that's what we say to our people is that we want you to know that you're a part of a church that desires to raise up leaders in general, men, women, poor into both men and women for significant roles of ministry, whatever the Lord would have for them. And then our hope is that obviously the Lord would bless that and provide us people who are called specifically to vocational or convocational ministry.
with us. And so planting churches is a big part of that. We are already starting to think and dream about actually doing something on the peninsula. So I know it's really early days, we're only seven months in, but we are. I don't want to give too much of the goodies away, but we're starting to just think like, okay, Lord, what would that look like in the next year, year and a half to do that? And so we're doing that. We have a church planter.
Rob Chartrand (45:20.346)
Okay.
Chad MacDonald (45:37.762)
that's going to be joining us. A guy named Mike is coming over from Nigeria and to join our church planting residency. And so we're looking for leaders. We have an opportunity and we don't want to close the opportunity for who the Lord may bring us from as far as Nigeria or as close as Dartmouth. We'll see who that could be. So planting churches, raising up leaders, we would love to see at some point.
Rob Chartrand (45:45.55)
Wow.
Chad MacDonald (46:07.578)
a permanent facility. We love where we're renting right now. Church out here, it's kind of a strange deal like in other major cities in Canada. I think if you're renting from Cineplex or you're renting a school, you can kind of still be seen as a legitimate church. In Atlantic Canada, it's different. It's like, you know, until you have your own building and your own parking spaces, you're kind of seen as maybe a little bit, I don't know.
maybe I think there's like just question on whether it would last or be around for a while. And so there's some of that too. So our desire would be to have a space, not for that reason alone, but we would love to be in a position where we can multiply healthily. And sometimes that comes with having space if that's helpful. So we're praying into those things. We're praying into multiplication, raising up leaders.
Rob Chartrand (46:42.401)
Yeah.
Chad MacDonald (47:06.518)
residency program to see who the Lord would send us. So those are just a few aspects of the things we're thinking and dreaming into.
Rob Chartrand (47:14.966)
Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, we were portable for eight years. And it's, it's a it's a lot of work. It's a lot of drain. We had a trailer though, that we had to drive from one site to another every week is big, huge monster trailer full of equipment. It's good you have a site. But I mean, that we were always struggling to find locations for midweek types of ministries, because we were kind of bound to the facility. So we
Chad MacDonald (47:23.236)
Mm-hmm.
Chad MacDonald (47:28.513)
Yeah.
Rob Chartrand (47:39.002)
you know, if we want to do Alpha, for example, or whatnot, we always had to get a community center or something that was large enough, or our youth ministry. I mean, we rented a community center every week just to host our youth ministry. Yeah.
Chad MacDonald (47:50.762)
Yeah, yeah, we rent an office space and that's not cheap in Halifax. And I mean, we dream of doing something that if we had the opportunity to build something, it would not be a typical church. We would love to partner with the city and consult with the right people to see something that is used and rented and blesses the city. And so I think there's creative ways that you can do that where.
Rob Chartrand (48:09.571)
Yeah.
Chad MacDonald (48:20.63)
You can think outside the box and it takes some consultation, but you can do it in a way that I think is a little more effective for the sake of mission, but also for the sake of the city and its benefit.
Rob Chartrand (48:31.898)
That's right. Yeah. And I mean, there's always that danger of the, the building becoming the mission rather than the building, um, being a tool for the mission of God. Right. And so, so many churches get trapped in this, well we've got to build the building and all the mission is becomes about building this building and, and missing out on what's the building for, you know, ultimately at the end of the day. And I love, I love churches like yourself that are saying, well, let's, let's create a building that
Chad MacDonald (48:53.806)
Right.
Rob Chartrand (48:59.382)
where this auditorium doesn't sit empty six days a week, but let's create a multipurpose black box kind of space that can be used for so many different things.
Chad MacDonald (49:08.906)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I think churches become handcuffed with big buildings and big mortgages and I would never want our desire to plant churches and multiply be hindered by decisions that we make and I would rather remain small and nimble and agile to be able to make those decisions without feeling the pressure of mortgages and things like that.
Rob Chartrand (49:38.242)
Yeah. And I mean, I want to be careful not to cast shade on traditional church buildings. That's, that's not what I'm saying. I'm just, um, cause I think a lot of churches even now are saying, well, how can we make use of this big auditorium and open it up for the city for like high school graduations or other events that might go on. And, and, you know, I, I know that the church that I'm attending in Moosejaw here, that's what they've done. They said, well, we got all this extra space. How can we serve the city and serve the community with the use of our building?
Chad MacDonald (49:44.032)
Mm-hmm.
Chad MacDonald (49:55.775)
Yeah.
Chad MacDonald (50:06.41)
Yeah, yeah, that was a bit of our story in Vancouver. We purchased one of the largest performing centers downtown Vancouver and got to see that space used for worship and for the glory of God and then to also just reach the city and bless the city. And it was pretty neat story. So I'd love to, Lord willing, see some of that happen here in Halifax.
Rob Chartrand (50:28.17)
Yeah, yeah. Well, church planning is not easy. I know that from experience.
What are you doing to take care of yourself? Like, how do you manage self care? I mean, you got you got family as well. I mean, you've got a marriage to take care of and all of that. What do you what have you been doing with your self care?
Chad MacDonald (50:43.01)
Yeah.
Chad MacDonald (50:48.886)
Yeah, I have a family as I said, my son Keele's 14, my daughter, Emmy's 12, my youngest son Jude is 10, my wife Linda, we've been married for almost 19 years. She works almost full time as a accountant and bookkeeper. Our kids go to school. We have a new puppy. So life is busy, you know, between the dog, that's right, training the dog. So all of those things are school, there's afterschool programs, there's group midweek and
Rob Chartrand (51:07.359)
Oh man, the dog.
Rob Chartrand (51:13.129)
Thank you.
Chad MacDonald (51:18.342)
all of the things that we do around family and church and ministry. So it is definitely, definitely busy. To answer that question around self-care, I think it goes back to our early part of the discussion. I mean, to be planting in team affords you to do self-care differently. Just practical example, last weekend I was preaching and
Jeremy and his family, they decided to go to Cape Breton for the weekend. And I said, go, go to Cape Breton, take the weekend off. You know, the team and I, we've got this. I was away the week before in the States because I was traveling for Send Network work and he went away and did that. We had a great Sunday. Um, he was away. And then this Sunday is Thanksgiving weekend. And I'm actually going to be away with my family in Cape Breton this weekend. And so just practically that is only possible because we have.
Rob Chartrand (51:51.491)
Wow.
Rob Chartrand (52:10.85)
All right, yeah.
Chad MacDonald (52:17.278)
team and we can work with one another and have each other's backs in that. So it affords us the ability to self-care better. I mean there's just practical ways that we do that as a church and as a leadership team. We've been practicing and teaching a lot on Sabbath over this last year and so the importance of stopping even as a church planter like we turn things off for 24 hours. We power down phones. We do all of those things where we
or with family and to say that that's not possible in a church planting scenario, I would completely disagree with and say, you know, it's needed and the church does not rest on us. You know, the church is the Lord's and he's going to build it with us or without us. And I would just say like, yeah, to have proper self-care in place at this stage is important. We want to see a church that's around for more than just a few years, which is
unfortunately, a common statistic within Canada. So yeah, so there's some self care pieces, I've alluded to some of those things like Sabbath, things like getting away, taking some time off. And just I think overall, just realizing like, there's seasons and ministry is in seasons. And so there's hard seasons that are heavier, and harder and require more. And then there's other
Rob Chartrand (53:20.61)
Yep.
Chad MacDonald (53:45.354)
one of the values as a staff team or one of the things kind of our internal team will say is, you know, we want to work hard and we want to play hard. And so we work really hard, but we also play really hard and we want to do that well.
Rob Chartrand (54:02.242)
That's great. Yeah, I can see that being an advantage of the team approach for sure. Because when I planted solo, I mean, it felt like the family restaurant, you could never leave it. Like it was it was always open and you always had to be there. And so if I was going to be away, I'd have to beg some of my pastor friends to come in and preach for me because I didn't have a bench at the time. Like I had all young leaders and I didn't have any preachers in the house. And so you felt just shackled sometimes to the
Chad MacDonald (54:11.788)
Yeah.
Chad MacDonald (54:17.868)
Yeah.
Chad MacDonald (54:22.263)
Right.
Great.
Rob Chartrand (54:29.422)
to the ministry and it was very, very difficult and challenging those early years until we could build up the bench, right? But if you could start out the gate with somebody else, I mean, that's a huge advantage for a planter.
Chad MacDonald (54:33.738)
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah.
Yeah, we have four preachers on our team. So there's myself and Jeremy does the bulk of it. And then we have Jimmy, our student director, he's in the pulpit in a couple of weeks, just a phenomenally gifted young guy. And then Josh Stockstetter, who's our pastoral resident and has many years of ministry under his belt, is a very gifted preacher. And so, yeah, we feel very blessed in that regard. Yeah.
Rob Chartrand (55:08.586)
Yeah, awesome. Hey, if people want to know more about your church, where did they go?
Chad MacDonald (55:15.626)
Yeah, kind of all the regular outlets. We're really active, trying to stay active on social media. So Instagram, Facebook, and then our website, portcitychurch.ca. But yeah, you can reach us in any of those ways. You can DM us or send us an email. But yeah, portcitychurch.ca is kind of the main driver, but you can find us on Facebook and Instagram as well.
Rob Chartrand (55:38.39)
Right. And they can email you through that Port City website as well.
Chad MacDonald (55:41.342)
Yeah, absolutely all of the contact is there. Pretty easy to get a hold of us. I think our website is pretty easy to navigate and find us.
Rob Chartrand (55:49.422)
That's great. Well, we'll make sure that we have it in the show notes. Chad McDonald, thanks for being with us on Church in the North.
Chad MacDonald (55:56.278)
Man, thank you for having me, Rob. It's just a privilege to share a bit of our story of what God is doing in Halifax. Thank you.
Rob Chartrand (56:02.794)
Yeah, all right. We'll catch up a little bit in the future. Yeah.
Chad MacDonald (56:07.006)
Okay, take care, Rob.