For five years I’ve waited and asked the administration for a church planting course at Tyndale Seminary. It still hasn’t happened. Church planting courses are in our academic calendar, but they haven’t been offered supposedly due to a lack of interest. This semester I decided to enroll as a visiting student to Heritage Seminary for their church planting foundations course way out in Cambridge.
A couple thoughts from my first class specifically regarding demographics between the U.S. and Canada. (Because so often many people try to plant ‘American’ churches in a Canadian context, when in fact many of our values are diverging).
- The state of California alone has more people than all of Canada
- Statistically the values of the most liberal states (New England area) are still more conservative than Canada’s most conservative province (Alberta)
- Where postmodernism is a philosophical system embraced in the U.S., it is intrinsic to who Canadians are - we are almost exclusively postmodern
- Canada has quickly surpassed the UK in secularism
- “In the U.S. it’s legal to bear arms, in Canada it’s legal to bear breasts”
- Some additional generalizations for the U.S. - Risk-taking, money is everything, winner takes all, higher standard of living, and aspiration
- As compared to in Canada - Risk-averse, money is suspect, income redistribution, best quality of life, and accommodation
Much of this and many more stats are found in Michael Adams’ books, Sex in the snow, and Fire & Ice.
For my American friends here’s one of our infamous Molson Beer “I am Canadian” commercials.
For my Canadian friends, who are oblivious to American politics for the most part, check out this awesome speech by Senator Barack Obama who’s in the running to be America’s first black president (though I’ve got my bets on Hillary).
What do you think?
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