Living Hope Community Church meets each Sunday at 10:45am in Theater 5 of the Imax Theater complex in Halifax, Nova Scotia. A core group of approximately twenty individuals greet another ten to fifteen for a time of fellowship and preaching. Pastor Ian McFarlane is assisted by Melissa Gray who leads the music.
The mid-week time of fellowship is presently meeting in the various homes of the present attendees.
LHCC is the only Southern Baptist church in Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia has 700,000 inhabitants of which 350,000 live in the Halifax area. The current statistic report that 94% of these residents are un-churched or unsaved. This number seems unlikely in this day in time, but I discovered that this is very valid figure as I researched the area churches. Rarely do more than thirty to forty attend any of the churches in the area. The influences found in the area include Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, as well as United Baptist. Other non-Christian influences included Coptic Churches (Egyptian idol worship), and a considerable youth involvement in the occult.
With LHCC in a state of decline, the Southern Baptist Convention contacted Bill Jenkins, a recognized trouble shooter and church planter to take on this church as a mission project for repair. His initial visit determined that the Halifax demographics demand a church that needs to respond to the needs of a younger age group. The influence of the United Baptist Church has had a negative impact as well. The general population of the UBC is older and does not provide the atmosphere that the young married couples with children are looking for. The “Baptist” connotation has been extremely negative as we found from local research comments.
Bill’s research also determined that these people are looking for a fresh, up tempo dynamic to the musical portion of any church service that they might attend. This is evidenced in The Rock Church that has the highest attendance (700) in the Halifax area. The youth and young married of the Halifax area are the primary attendees at The Rock Church.
Bill determined the restoration of LHCC should also include a contemporary praise and worship program, along with seminars for the pastors, leadership, and fellowship in the dynamics of personal and corporate worship. Bill’s awareness of my past work in this field prompted Bill’s call to me. We were asked to lead that area of instruction and to network with the musical community in the Halifax area to seek assistance. Bill Jenkins will remain at LHCC during the four month leave of absence of the current pastor in order to maintain the momentum that has begun since our visit..