Seeking to live up to our name
Worshippers gather at Evangelical Fellowship Church in Fort Frances, Ont. (Photo supplied)
“Where is Fort Frances?” is a question we hear often. It’s usually followed up by, “Oh, it’s in Ontario. How far are you from Toronto?” Quite far it turns out. About a 24-hour drive. Oh, the dilemmas of living in Northwestern Ontario.
Fort Frances is a small town of about 8,000 people on the Canada-U.S border. It is sustained primarily by logging and mining, and used to boast a large paper mill. It’s scenically beautiful, located where the Rainy River spills out of Rainy Lake, beginning its journey west to Lake of the Woods. But for all its scenic beauty, it’s broken, and desperately in need of the “on earth as it is in heaven” influence of the kingdom of God (Matthew 6:10).
The Fort Frances Evangelical Fellowship Church has been worshipping and serving in this community for around 40 years. We are one of only a few evangelical churches in Fort Frances. With an average Sunday attendance of just over 100 people, we are the largest, which speaks to the lack of Christian influence in our community. Many mission organizations designate a country with less than two percent evangelical Christians as unreached. By that metric, we are slightly above the threshold at around three percent.
In a community filled with skeptics and backsliders, sinners and seekers, we are seeking to be the light of Jesus and the kingdom he brought. Our church family is a unique and diverse blend of ethnicities, theological backgrounds, and socioeconomic levels. But together we are committed to worshipping the King of Kings and making his name known in our town.
And praise God, his name is being made known! It seems almost every Sunday another former skeptic turned seeker walks through our doors. Sometimes it’s due to a coworker’s invite, sometimes to a simple burning in their heart and longing for wholeness, sometimes it’s simply due to loneliness and a desire for community. For whatever reason, people are turning to the church. Jesus is being considered a legitimate option—an option we at the EFC are happy to share with everyone who walks through our doors.
This surge of newcomers has not come without its challenges. We seek to live up to our name, as a fellowship church. We eat supper together once a week at our well-attended Tuesday night prayer meeting. We share a potluck lunch on the last Sunday of every month and partake of the Lord’s Supper. We believe doing life around tables is important, and when we were a small church of 60–75 people, it was doable.
How do we maintain this emphasis, which we love and find important, as a church that regularly has 125 people, many of whom are not yet accustomed to contributing consistently to the flow of food and fellowship? How do we continue to value being together and building deep, genuine relationships, when we simply cannot know everyone in our midst? These are some of the beautiful, sacred struggles we are navigating as the Fort Frances EFC family.
Sometimes we hit the nail on the head. Sometimes we miss the mark and bruise a finger or two. But we always continue to pursue the calling to penetrate darkness with the light of Jesus. To this we are called. To this we will endeavour!
– Alain Reimer
Audio is generated with AI voice technology.