Quebecers Reaching Quebec

By Dr. James H. Wigton

When missionary Jacques Brind’Amour started Good Shepherd Baptist Church in French-speaking Drummondville, Quebec, Canada, in 1999, he preached only to his family for the first three months. Today, the church, Eglise Baptiste du Bon Berger (the French name), has 45 people each Sunday morning in its own beautiful building on one acre of property.

Brind’Amour knew that evangelism would be slow and challenging among the French Catholic population of Quebec. Originally French-speaking Catholics, both he and his wife, Carole, are native “Quebecers.”

But Jacques also knew that God would honor faithfulness and persistence. After the first three months, a single man started coming to the new church. Then Jacques reached a retired preacher who enthusiastically began helping the new church. Together they distributed 45,000 French language booklets of the combined New Testament books of John and Romans to some 45,000 homes – covering a population of some 125,000 people living within 20 minutes of the church.

The first person to come to the church was a 60-year-old man named Gustaf. Five years later he still attends every church service. Abused by a priest in childhood, Gustaf never married. He was shocked to learn that Pastor Brind’Amour was married and had children. Afraid of the Catholic church, he started coming to Jacques’ new Baptist church. During an evangelistic emphasis on God’s grace, Gustaf received Christ as his Savior.

God’s call to start Good Shepherd in Drummondville was clear to Brind’Amour. Jacques had a burden to reach his own French-speaking Catholic people of Quebec. Two cities of 100,000-plus population in Quebec had no fundamental church. When a missionary chose the other city (Laval), Jacques was certain God wanted him to go to Drummondville. Drummondville is located about 60 miles east of Montreal and about 100 miles south of historic Quebec City.

After attending Candidate School with Baptist International Missions, Inc., in 1997, the Brind’Amours completed deputation and arrived in Drummondville as BIMI missionary church-planters in December of 1998. While Jacques felt then it was very important to get a church building as soon as possible, to this day he does not know of any church in Quebec ever to get a building so quickly. When God called Jacques to preach, he left a promising career in construction, so he knew something about buildings. God gave a building to Good Shepherd Baptist Church two years ago – three years after the start of the church.

With a crowd of 35 to 45 on Sundays, and 25 for the mid-week service, five-year-old Good Shepherd shows great promise in a difficult mission field.

Quebec is the most politically and socially liberal of all Canadian provinces. One young wife reached by the Brind’Amours was raised literally in a hippie commune. Saved through a video on creationism, she is active and involved at Good Shepherd. But she cannot afford even to take her husband’s name. Quebec has virtually made that too expensive.

It was after high school that Jacques came to Christ at age 18. He joined the military and went to Halifax to learn English. A nearby aunt invited him to attend a Baptist church on Sundays. After going to church with her for a month, on the 5th Sunday he was saved. Today he speaks English very well. The services in Drummondville are in his native French language.

Jacques attended Bible college at Halifax Bible Baptist for four years right after his military service, finishing at age 23.

Uncertain of God’s call to preach, he moved to Boucherville, Quebec, and entered the construction business with his family. It was in Boucherville that he met Carole at church. Eight months later they were married. Carole received Christ as her Savior at age 24 after an evangelistic team from a local church knocked on her door in Boucherville. Like Jacques, Carole was French Catholic. Today Jacques and Carole have three delightful children – Marc-Andre and Catherine are teenagers still at home, and David is a student at Bob Jones University. All three help in the church at Drummondville.

Jacques Brind’Amour knows that he is in God’s will. The clear missionary call of God came through the preaching of BIMI Caribbean director Dr. Pat Creed on Philippians 2:13, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”

“He preached on that verse, and it changed my life,” says Jacques. “His preaching was just for me!” As God would have it, during a missions conference at Jacques’ home church in Boucherville, Dr. Creed was staying with the Brind’Amours.

“Dr. Creed explained everything to me,” says Jacques. He explained missionary Candidate School, the entire process of missionary deputation, how to raise support, etc. This was all new to us. We had the desire – but how do we go about it? Dr. Creed told us, “You agree with God, and He will do it.” So, we launched out in faith, and God opened wide the door.

Jacques said that he had the desire in his heart to preach from age 20 when he was at Bible college. But until God used Dr. Creed to explain to him what to do, the call of God had not crystallized in his own heart.

Jacques walked away from a lucrative job as a contractor. He was making $80,000 annually and would probably be making twice that today had he stayed in the business. While Jacques and Carole have good relationships with their families, at first neither family understood his career change. To keep Jacques in the business, he was offered a guaranteed income of $100,000 over the next six months. He said then, “Give me five minutes, and I’ll call you back.” But he adds now, “My wife said, ‘No.’ I listened!” After that moment, he said deputation was easy – simply a formality. God opened the door to 88 churches in 16 months – with 62 of the churches then supporting the Brind’Amours. His sending church is Bible Baptist in Boucherville.

“We make the calling of God a lot more complicated than it really is,” says Jacques. BIMI president emeritus Don Sisk also helped him to understand the call of God. Says Jacques, “I wanted to see people saved, wanted to preach, wanted to help people. How do I know God is calling me? Dr. Sisk told me, ‘When you start asking these questions, God is calling you.’”

The new church building has been nothing short of a miracle for the Brind’Amours. It was originally advertised at $160,000. In Quebec, normally a new church would need 50 per cent down in order to borrow from a bank. The bank considered a two-year-old church a high risk. When the property became available in 2002 for $110,000, Good Shepherd Baptist Church raised $38,000 in just three months from its own church members, supporting churches and other churches in Quebec. At the time, the church had just 10 members and 25 people.

Current seating capacity for Good Shepherd Baptist Church could expand to 120 in the 100’ x 46’, two-story building. The building’s 9,000 square feet includes a main auditorium, offices, classrooms, a beautiful fellowship hall, and a prophet’s chamber. But the church is the people. And the church now pays its own expenses.

Jacques looks to the future. “We need help – youth, music, a Bible institute,” says Jacques. He has started holding training classes for his people. He would love to expand to a Bible institute. One problem is getting material in the French language.

The Brind’Amours believe it is very much an advantage to be “Quebecers” to reach Quebec with the gospel. They “connect” with their own people. Quebecers are very expressive and out-going. A “monotone” preacher would not make it. Jacques is anything but monotone. Friendly and out-going, he uses some humor from the pulpit and creates a warm and inviting atmosphere at Good Shepherd Baptist Church.

Jacques believes the future is bright. He says his countrymen are “fed up” with Catholicism. Once the dominant religion, its churches are largely empty in the increasingly secular culture of Quebec. Many of the Catholic churches are closing, and their buildings are being sold.

God is using Jacques Brind’Amour in an area that has been called a “preachers’ and missionaries’ graveyard.” Many have quit, claiming the area is “too hard” for the gospel. “The ground is hard,” he says. “People close the door to your nose.” But Jacques believes a missionary must be faithful where God wants him to be. Every land is different. Jacques has a goal to use Good Shepherd as a home base from which to plant other churches in Quebec.

(Dr. James H. Wigton is senior pastor of Temple Heights Baptist Church in Tampa, FL. He has been a pastor for 28 years. Recently he preached a family conference for Jacques Brind’Amour’s church in Quebec.)