MSN Presentation — Kevin Vance (2024 02 19)

Kevin Vance’s Call into North Central Regina

In 2008 I was serving as the president of Western Christian College in Regina, Saskatchewan, when God began to move me and my family in a new ministry direction. In the fall of 2008 we started a small kids club in the inner city of Regina, with our friends Daryl & Kristin Steiner, on 13 block King St.  There were only 5-6 kids and they ranged from kindergarten to grade 4.  Within a year the club had grown to 25 members, and in the fall of 2009 we moved it to Wascana School.  By June of 2010 we had 84 kids at the windup and God was certainly up to something.

In the middle of all this, I went through a spiritual crisis in 2009.  I started reading and praying my way through the gospel of Luke, and it undid me.  I was reading my dad’s Bible, a red letter edition, so all the words of Jesus were printed in red.  These were the parts that convicted me.  Several passages challenged me, but I’ll only list three here.

  • Luke 4:18-19, Jesus’ mission statement in Luke’s gospel:

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,
that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free,
19     and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”

  • Luke 6:20-26, where Jesus blessed the poor, the hungry, those who weep and are rejected because of the name of Jesus, and then pronounced woes on the rich, the satisfied, those who laugh and whom everyone speaks well of. It is an upside down kingdom, one the world doesn’t like or understand.  As a Bible college president, I was clearly liking the wrong side of this kingdom – the wealthy – and seeking to be well-spoken of by as many people as I could.
  • Luke 14:12-14. “12 Then he turned to his host. “When you put on a luncheon or a banquet,” he said, “don’t invite your friends, brothers, relatives, and rich neighbors. For they will invite you back, and that will be your only reward. 13 Instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. 14 Then at the resurrection of the righteous, God will reward you for inviting those who could not repay you.”  There is only one reward, Jesus says, and you can only pick one.  Unfortunately I was on the wrong side of this as well.  Fundraising in the world of non-profits is all about going to other people’s fundraisers, so they will come to yours.  The suggestion of inviting the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame – well, that was a recipe for disaster.

My conclusion as a result of all this was that I was a very good church member but not a very good disciple of Jesus.  I could go to church every Sunday, even attend small group each week, but not really obey Jesus.  Each chapter of the book of Luke seemed to indict me every time I read.  My conviction grew the more I read, both that I wasn’t doing what Jesus was commanding, and also that I was in fact doing what he specifically said not to do!

By the end of 2009 the Holy Spirit’s conviction was so strong that I couldn’t ignore it any longer.  Coupled with what was happening in the kids club through the year in 2009, God led me to this: He was calling me to leave my job and move our family into North Central Regina.  In 2010 I quit my job at WCC, in 2011 our family moved into the inner city, and Gentle Road Church of Christ was born.  Since then, following Jesus has been at the heart of it all.

Throughout it all, Luke 6:40 was a key verse that struck me deeply: “40 The student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher.”