Good on the neighbours for asking these folk to move on. We don’t know what took place prior to the video. What we do know is that this church has done street preaching (reading their bibles loudly in front of homes) and going door to door for years. We know there are claims they targeted and drove a lesbian couple out of the neighbourhood and this evening had stopped in front of a gay couples home. We don’t know what bible verses were read.
The 23 member Highfield Road Gospel Church Hall has been at Dundas and Highfield since 1934.
Door to door proselytism and street preaching is not common in most parts of Canada (thank God!).
This Baptist group closed Plymouth Brethren group heads out to local streets Sunday nights. I don’t know which stream of Baptists this group is. A Gospel Haller who doesn’t want to be identified says:
“If it was me, and they were coming in front of my house year-in-year-out with something I didn’t agree with, I’d suggest to them they try further up the street to get their message out.” He says the evangelical group has already toned it down in recent years: “We’re not the only church that does this. We used to spend about half an hour… but we sensed some people were not receiving the message well.”
“I’ll say it again,” he insists, “we do not seek to antagonize or target or stir up strife. We’re there to deliver the message of the gospel, that God loves every soul. God does not discriminate. It’s a grave misunderstanding on the part of the people who say they’re being targeted.”
“I’m very very sorry about this,” the Gospel Hall contact says, pledging to “make it a point to go to different areas, different groups of houses.”
A community member says none of the church goers live in the community. A church member says they do.
The Globe and Mail has good coverage. Congregants say they stand and preach/read where there are no cars parked.
The gay couple who neighbours believed were targeted say:
“I don’t like how the whole issue is being distorted,” said Blair Chiasson, a civil servant who lives with his partner, Paul Collins. “Nothing happened. Nothing happened.”
He added: “I just want this to stop. Stop discussing it. Stop talking about it. It’s really kind of spiralling out of control.”
Update: Thanks to readers who want the facts straight. Corrections have been made to the denomination (closed Plymouth Brethren, not Baptist) and the correct name of the building/group (Gospel Hall, not Gospel Church.)The history of how Plymouth Brethren split into open, closed and exclusive, can be found here, and a listing of Plymouth Brethren groups in the province of Ontario can be found here. Interesting that we the public assumed was this group was Baptist.
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The Bible says ‘He who wins souls is wise.’ Proverbs 11:30
This means that we have to use WISDOM in how we witness to others. There is definitely a right time and place for everything and no two people are alike.
Standing outside someone’s house and loudly reading the Bible is downright obnoxious and will only make Christians looks like brainwashed members of a cult.
Remember that counterfeit Christian cults go door to door witnessesing and their success rate is probably 1 % of the population (if even that) which indicates that the majority of people are turned off by this approach (akin to telemarketers infringing on their personal space).
The Bible says that ‘No man can come to the father unless the Spirit draws him.’ This means that unless the Holy Spirit is drawing them, they will never receive the Gospel message, no matter how loudly you yell, cry and hammer Scripture down their throat. It will fall on deaf ears every time.
What these Baptists should do INSTEAD is pray and fast, that the Holy Spirt would draw the lost people in these neighbourhoods to Christ and do so inside their own church, not on a public street, making a spectacle of themselves.
They could also ask that the Lord would send the right person across each of their individual pathways on a day, time and place that is right for them and then trust that the Lord heard them and will act on it.
As far as driving homosexuals out of the neighbourhood….they will just move somewhere else and carry on with their current lifestyles, so intimidation is NOT the solution to salvation.
I heard someone say once ‘Preach the Gospel and only use words if you have to.’ In other words, show the love of Christ through your ACTIONS because actions speak louder than words.
If those Baptists want to win those homosexuals to Christ for example, offer to mow their lawn or shovel their driveway free of charge with no mention of religion whatsoever…..then they will see there is something different about these people and it may draw them (lost souls) to want to know more about their religion because the Holy Ghost may then get ahold of their hearts and begin an inward witness.
As they say, ‘talk is cheap.’ Better show the love of Christ through ones ACTIONS than words and above all, use wisdom in how you approach and witness to others because if you do it in an obnoxious manner, it may turn someone off from ever wanting to get saved. Imagine if they ended up in hell because you turned them off from the Bible forever by being forceful and obnoxious.
The best way to witness to anyone is to be consistently kind, gentle and helpful to anyone at all times, never repaying evil for evil, not gossiping, not backbiting, and so on. This will set you apart from the average heathen who does all of the above at one time or another. Sometimes it’s not so much what we say that counts. It’s what we DON’T say. We don’t gossip, hate, backbite, complain, take vengence on our enemies, etc.
You people are horrible for actually researching facts. I have been to the church many times and there is over 23 members there. Also, they aren’t Baptist.
Hi Amanda:
Oh good, help us out. In attempting to find Highfield Road Gospel Church in other than news stories about the viral video all I was able to find was a webpage of gospel churches. No clear statement of beliefs or whether this is an independent set of churches or affiliated group etc.
I’d like to have the facts straight. If this church isn’t Baptist, what is it and what does it associate with?
Would you also be willing to give us a more accurate count of membership? Thanks.
I will try not to be too convoluted, but will attempt to decipher this group from my own observation and experience, with my roots, as they are, in the Plymouth Brethren movement.
The church is Highfield Road Gospel Hall — not Gospel Church. The Gospel Halls are the “closed” section of the “open” Plymouth Brethren. While the opens have been quite eclectic and, indeed, often act like moderate Baptists, the “closed” adhere to the “old paths”. They have no settled pastors, are quite strict about women wearing head coverings and “being silent in the church”. They eschew musical instruments, describing them as “wooden brothers” and they take no offerings except at the weekly “breaking of bread” meeting, where they use real wine for the communion.
The “closed” meetings are not part of the “exclusives” however, which are much more centralized in their worldwide structures.
I wrote an OttawaWatch on one particular Gospel Hall leader, Harold Paisley. The link to it http://www.canadianchristianity.com. In the internal search, type in OttawaWatch Harold Paisley. As it happens, Paisley is brother to Ian of Irish Protestant fame. And that piece talks about their relationship.
It used to be that all the opens — both closed and open — were called Gospel Halls. I was part of a family that was in fellowship at Oakland Gospel Hall in Victoria. It was founded by several people, including my grandfather, William Swetnam, in the period between 1907 and 1913. When a new church was built in 1957, up the street and across from the Jewish cemetery, it was named Oaklands Chapel. And it followed the new paths — a settled pastor, organ, piano, blended communion and public outreach services, greatly broadened involvement of women in public leadership.
Today, 50 years from the time I left the Brethren, for reasons entirely unrelated to my warm and happy experience at Oaklands, my wife and I answer ambiguously to the label of Baptisterian evangelicals. But I am still happy to consider Oakland my original church and hope to drop in to see them when they celebrate their centennial.
As to the closed Brethren, they are quaint and in my view, a little awkward in their communication of the gospel. But they are generally good-hearted and do all sorts of very fine things to help others, out of the glaring lights of publicity.
There. I promised to try not to be convoluted, and I know I broke the promise. But it just seemed that the Highfield Road story needed a little more context.
Several other halls and assemblies appear to reference each-other as well as references to Highfield. However, Highfield does not seem to have their own web-site.
For example:
http://unionvillegospelhall.com/other-gospel-halls.php
The National Post has an article with interviews of people from both sides:
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/Church+group+denies+claims+homophobia/3439576/story.html
Thank you Lloyd. Every news article and blog last night called this Highfield Road Gospel Church – makes sense it was difficult to search for and place in context.
I’m familar with Plymouth Brethren and the open/closed history.
Post is updated and fixed.
Thanks Sean.
Thank you for your open view on the situation.
Having been to my fair share of open-air meetings such as the one that got so much attention, I can certainly say that this whole situation was blown way out of proportion.
The assembly may have overstepped by being in a residential area, but I’m sure that it was never their intent to target or anger any of the neighbours. They are following an old tradition of street preaching that may be outdated, but is still legal and innocent nevertheless.
I’m happy that the couple that was supposedly targeted has come forward. It’s amazing how quickly things can spiral out of control when it turns viral on the web.
http://gospelhall.org/
that is the website for the Gospel Halls.
I have relatives that belong to a gospel hall church in the US. It’s just plain weird. Yes, the one person commented about women being silent and wearing head coverings. These people are legalistic and very odd.
Bene Diction, why were you asking Amanda for facts? Why don’t you visit Highfield Road Gospell directly yourself and get the facts directly from the source?
Also, it’s strange to me that sooo many comments sided with a one sided portrayal! What happened to hearing all the facts? The so called ‘targeted’ couple who have identified themselves to the Star have stated that what was being said by the neighbours are not true. They also said they didn’t know the neighbours making these claims and that they never heard a message of hate!
Interestingly, when listening to the voices in this video, it appears that the ‘neighbours’ in the video are the ones who were unwelcoming so much so that near the end of the video you actually hear a woman’s voice say “you are not welcome,” after a man with an accent shouts “get the hell out of our neighbourhood!” This reminded me of footage from the 1940′s/50′s/60′s where some white people would gather on the street to try to intimidate and keep Black people out of “their” neighbourhoods by saying the same sad things this woman and man could be heard saying and the other sardonic things I heard in this video including a man saying “stay on your own side of the street!” Wow!
I didn’t hear hateful words from the people identified as Christians in this video. The hurtful words that I did hear appear to be coming from the voices of those opposing the Christians. These hurtful words and comments coming from the people identified as the ‘neighbours’ would not be tolerated anywhere in rationally minded parts of North America and the world!
As far as I can see there appeared to be daylight. As a Torontonian I’m aware that noise ordinances are in effect starting at 11pm.
What I would be curious to witness is to actually hear what the people identified as Christians were saying/preaching (unedited) before the naysayers gathered and ran them off.
I would like to hear exactly what they were saying/doing that people got so riled up about.
You don’t have the full story if all the facts aren’t there. From what is shown & heard in this video, it appears that the people identified as the ‘neighbours’ were the aggressors and acted like bullies…
I don’t a message of hate from anyone- gay, straight and/or otherwise!
Hi Trish:
Canada is a big place and I’m not in Toronto.
I agree we don’t have the full story if the facts aren’t in which is why I ask. Feel free to add some if you visit.
And like you I don’t like messages of hate from anyone either.