If you are like Bruce Reimer, you want to see young people thriving in relationships with Jesus and others. You want to see them contributing significantly to God's Kingdom.
The trouble is, the world has a lot of advice that leads young people away from God and his church!
Before passing in Dec 2021, Bruce Reimer expressed his concern for young people. Perhaps you share his concern. What will come of young people as they transition into adulthood? Will their faith grow? Will they find their place in the church?
The Bruce Reimer Discipleship Initiative will create a discipleship program serving young people within the Evangelical Covenant Church of Canada and beyond. This program will help young people thrive!
Here are three things you can do in the early stages.
We want to see young people in a spiritually rich and vibrant community, sharing their faith, meeting the needs of their community and contributing profoundly to the church. We want to prevent young people from straying away from God and living a life for themselves.
With a great plan, our worry and anxiousness for our young people will be turned into hopeful expectations.
The Beginning
It all began as a Christmas gift for Bruce Reimer. First two, then a few more, then many more joined together on this gift. One of the things that Bruce shared with a number of people was a deep desire to see young people have a discipleship experience. It was great to see him get so passionate as he talked. In light of his cancer diagnosis, he didn't take the conversations anywhere and this is where Erik and Jon began inviting people who shared Bruce's passion to pledge.
About 10 days before Christmas Bruce was gifted with seed money (pledges) for an initiative of discipleship. The conversations went from just talking to a fervent effort to establish some ideas, values and other elements for an initiative going forward. Just after Christmas on Dec 28, 2021, Bruce Reimer passed away due to complications from his cancer. We now continue, inspired by Bruce's passion and desire to see action taken.
Pledge or Donate
At first, we asked people to pledge. Once a plan is in place, we will invite those who pledged to fulfill their commitment. The Evangelical Covenant Church of Canada has agreed to receive donations in trust until we establish a plan.
The Plan
We are forming a plan for a discipleship experience for young people. Once a plan is in place, we will share it. For those who have pledged, understanding and supporting the plan is an essential part of honouring their pledge with integrity and wisdom.
"We will create a discipleship program that will serve young people within the Evangelical Covenant Church of Canada and beyond. The initiative must be sustainable fiscally and with ongoing participants. The program must value community, unique experience, adventure, biblical learning from teachers and fun. Resources for the design are limited to plans to acquire resources. The design for the discipleship initiative will be completed by a planning committee along with the necessary organizational governance to maintain integrity, transparency and accountability."