Pope Francis has chosen October 2019 to be Extraordinary Missionary Month, and The B.C. Catholic is shining a spotlight on disciples and evangelizers making a difference in their parishes. On Oct. 26, the Archdiocese of Vancouver will launch Proclaim, a movement to equip Catholics who have a personal relationship with Christ to go into their communities to spread the Gospel. Proclaim will be unveiled at the Upper Room event at the Vancouver Convention Centre Saturday, Oct. 26. Click here to register.
It’s amazing what God can do when you say “yes,” says Tim McKinnon.
More than 12 years ago, McKinnon didn’t have much time to say “yes.” He was running a successful business, which he had created from nothing and had grown to a worth of about $20 million with offices in Vancouver and Toronto.
A few poor decisions later, in 2007, his business went bankrupt. “I took my eyes off some important things,” he said. When the business went south, “what I had put at the centre of my life was gone. The security, my whole self-image, was connected with my business and my success and my reputation.”
He downsized, sold his home, and suffered a serious illness, all the while feeling a loss of a sense of purpose. “God was always a part of my life, but he wasn’t at the centre of it.”
In those difficult times, he started to rethink his life and made a decision to say “yes” to anything his parish, St. Matthew’s, needed.
He picked up teaching religious education again (after having dropped it to expand his business), joined a Bible study, became the leader of a Bible study, and joined the Parish Education Committee. He also started a network of business owners who would meet once a month to talk about good strategies and how a strong faith can help a person become better at their job.
Then three years ago, he and his wife attended a meeting with about eight other people to discuss offering Alpha – a program with weekly meals, videos, and group conversations about the meaning of life, death, and the Christian faith – at the parish.
“I said: ‘I’ll do it,’” said McKinnon. “I don’t know why I said it. I didn’t want to do it. I was already busy. It was new [to the parish], I had never done it before, and I already had a ton of work.”
He followed through on his promise. St. Matthew’s hosted its first Alpha series in 2018, with about 90 participants. When it was held a second time the following year, the crowd grew.
“I love seeing the difference it makes in people,” said McKinnon. The effort has borne fruit, leading people from the introductory-level Alpha program to seek a deeper relationship with Jesus through the Rite of Christian Initiation program or the Discover Discipleship faith study series.
“You get into a small group and you see people change,” he said. “They have these conversion moments where all of a sudden Jesus becomes more important to them. They become happier, they become more excited about life, they are more open. People meet and they hug. It creates fellowship and it’s all built on love for faith, love for the Church, love for each other.”
He has no regrets about saying “yes” to everything his church community asked of him. In the midst of it, he experienced his own conversion moments, deepened his faith, and even started talking about religion with clients in his job as a business coach.
McKinnon plans to offer Alpha again in March 2020, and hopes more than 100 people will turn up.
“When people develop that relationship with God, they can’t help but change. I love to see it.”
What does evangelism look like in your community? Write to us at news@rcav.org.
