A recent conversation with Pastor Daniel Wallace turned up three stories of God at work at Harmony Community Church in Winchester, Ontario.
Welcome Pastor Dan
When Pastor Dan accepted the invitation to become Pastor at Harmony Community Church in 2020, God used a few words of welcome displayed on the church’s outdoor sign as a stepping stone to salvation and as an open door to disciple-making.
“A man driving by noticed the church’s welcome announcement on our outside sign, and wondered if this new pastor was the Daniel Wallace he worked with 10 years ago. He called the church to find out. Sure enough, it was.”
Dealing with personal problems, the man reached out to Dan. “I need to give my life to God. Can we talk?”
Now a new believer, God is slowly restoring his life, and he has brought along others in need of God’s restoration. Together he and Pastor Dan led one friend to Christ and this new believer is being discipled by them.
“I have been deeply encouraged to see Jesus transforming broken lives,” says Pastor Dan. “My passion is to lead people into the arms of Jesus and help others do the same.
Alpha from the Comfort of Home
“God has been faithful during the pandemic as we’ve been able to use technology as a tool in discipleship and outreach,” says Pastor Dan Wallace.
To continue to connect with others, they decided to host an online Alpha group. They promoted it using personal invitations from members of one of their home groups. The core group of 5 or 6 added to their numbers in this way. They watched the Alpha videos together. Alpha provides questions for the discussion times that follow the videos.
“One person dedicated their life to Christ at the end of a video. When he was invited, he indicated that he wanted to increase his understanding of God. We prayed that God would use Alpha to open eyes, and He did.” Two who attended the online video sessions have stayed and become a regular part of the homegroup.
As mentioned by others regarding online Alpha, Pastor Daniel noted that people seemed quite at ease sharing from the comfort of their own homes. “Were it not for the pandemic, we may never have tried Alpha online, and I do not know if the man who got saved would have attended in-person.”
Finding Christian Community through Zoom
Although Zoom meetings cannot replace gathering together in-person, God in his sovereignty has been able to move. Because of provincial restrictions, Pastor Dan decided to offer prayer meeting in-person and online. Offering prayer online extended the church’s reach beyond those who regularly attended the Wednesday evening meetings. A young woman, new in her faith but with no Christian connections was invited by Pastor Dan to join the weekly online prayer meeting. She did not have transportation, but did have the Internet. Daniel and his wife Candice have since had several Zoom calls with this young believer and she has become a regular at the Wednesday evening Zoom prayer meetings.
“I thank God for technology that allows us to aid in the work of discipleship.”
This article is featured in the Winter 2022 edition of The EMCC Together newsletter
Download a PDF copy of the newsletter and view previous EMCC Together publications here.
