Over the next month, we will feature articles and stories from our global partners participating in the Advent Journey. These articles are intended to familiarize the Ascent community with each ministry and to provide helpful insight into your local context. We are delighted to feature TMS Global today. To sign up for the Ascent Advent Journey, please register your interest personally here . If your congregation is interested in participating, please sign up here . Advent with our neighbors Over the years our family has loved throwing Christmas parties. Our kids would plan a party for their friends, usually with a white elephant gift exchange, cookie decorating, and a reading of the Christmas story. In our neighborhood, though, some of those friends had never experienced these traditions or heard much about what Christmas means. Our daughter’s friend Sandhya belongs to a Hindu family that moved from India. Krish’s family were devout Hare Krishnas, and we had spiritual conversations with his parents in their home, learning about their beliefs and sharing ours. Ahmad, my favorite boy, was one of the most joyful kids you’ll ever meet. His Muslim family had fled the civil war in Sudan. Across North America, neighborhoods are changing rapidly, and people from around the globe are living next door. As followers of Jesus, we increasingly find ourselves befriending people whose cultures and religious traditions differ from our own. God is giving us an opportunity to welcome them into our homes and lives. Emmanuel: God moved into the neighborhood  During Advent we set out nativities around our house, many crafted in different cultures. I’ve had wonderful conversations with neighborhood kids about what they know, and don’t know, about the characters in the story. Those stories keep repeating a phrase: do not be afraid. An angel told Mary that God was with her. An angel told Joseph in a dream that Mary would bear a son called Emmanuel. There was reason for the reassurance. Jesus was born into a time of conflict, to parents far from home who depended on the hospitality of others for shelter. His family’s story is distinct from that of modern refugee families, but our Savior is acquainted with grief and draws near to us today. Emmanuel, God with us; therefore, we choose to be with others. Over the years we have shared many stories and meals with our neighbors. We learned how often conflict had driven them far from home. We did our best to show hospitality, and we received remarkable hospitality in their homes. This Advent, we are again reminded that God has drawn near to us, so we follow the way of Jesus by drawing near to neighbors, both next door and around the world. Through the Ascent Movement, we are joining others in reaching neighborhoods where people have been displaced by conflict, economic collapse, political fragility, and trauma. Emmanuel’s presence in Lebanon When Paul stopped in the port cities of Tyre and Sidon, in modern-day Lebanon, local believers cared for him and his companions warmly. Today believers in Lebanon are caring for Syrian refugees and displaced Lebanese families through food, psychological first aid, emergency housing, and opportunities to tell and process their stories. While looking for urgent needs to meet, believers found a family who had fled to Beirut and were living in a tent. Coworkers invited them to a course on processing their experience through stories from the Holy Books. The family later asked to study more in depth from the Bible, then moved back to South Lebanon. When coworkers visited, the family surprised them: “We want to be baptized!” They had read about it in Matthew. TMS Global personnel working alongside Lebanese organizations describe similar fruit: “Story after story poured out of lives changed, families living in unity and harmony where there had once been anger, gossip and slander.” Lebanon is far from our neighborhoods, but these families’ story echoes Ahmad’s: conflict drove them from home, and someone’s welcome made the difference. This season, you can offer that welcome in both places. Next door, invite a neighbor to dinner, or set out a nativity and ask what they know of the story. This Advent, Canadian Baptist Ministries , On Mission Network , Restore Hope , and TMS Global invite Ascent churches to stand with Lebanese believers through the Advent offering. Together, God is present through us, moving from immediate relief to sustained relationship, healing, belonging, and stronger local churches. Join us in reaching our neighbors, next door to you and around the world. Steve Wilson serves as Senior Director of Global Church Engagement at TMS Global . He holds a master's in intercultural studies from Fuller Theological Seminary and is the creator of Who Is My Neighbor , a curriculum for churches that want to begin engaging in spiritual conversations across cultural divides. Sign up for the Ascent Advent Journey as an individual here . Sign up as a church here .

February 24-26 at Old Town Community Church in Alexandria, VA Our second gathering of planters, pioneers, multipliers, and missional leaders is happening in partnership with the Ecclesia Network. This year’s focus will be exploring the formational aspects of the call to multiply, pioneer, and plant. A more developed schedule for Multiply has recently been released with workshops and conversations groups added soon. This year’s focus is on discovering the “Narrow Path” of the kingdom of God that is meant to be found. We’re pleased to welcome Rich Villodas , Lead Pastor of New Life Fellowship in New York City, together with dozens of experienced practitioners from across North America. Here are some of the topics that will be addressed during the Multiply event. · The Narrow Path that is Meant to Be Found · The Narrow Path: The Paradoxical Way to a Spacious Life · Inviting the World onto the Narrow Path · How to Invite the World: Real Stories From Everyday Invitations · The Narrow Path Toward Our Interior Lives · The Slow Journey Toward the Narrow Path Due to the generous support of the EverBless Foundation, the Multiply Summit is offered at the very low cost of $99 for first-time attendees who register during the Early Bird time period. You can find out more and register now here.

Over the next month, we will feature articles and stories from our global partners participating in the Advent Journey. These articles are intended to familiarize the Ascent community with each ministry and to provide helpful insight into your local context. We are delighted to feature CBM today. To sign up for the Ascent Advent Journey, please register your interest personally here . If your congregation is interested in participating, please sign up here. Growing up, one of my favourite events at church was when missionaries visited and shared stories from faraway places. I remember sitting in the Fellowship Hall at Grand Bay Baptist Church on Sunday evenings, watching slides projected at the front of the room. There was almost always a map showing where these missionaries lived and served. The map told a simple, unspoken story. We were here in Canada, and we had the gospel. Mission was something that came from us and happened over there. The arrows seemed to move in one direction, from us to the rest of the world. Without realizing it, I came to understand mission as something that travelled outward from Canada. Of course, there was truth in that story. Our history includes faithful women and men who crossed oceans and cultures to share the gospel and serve in Jesus’ name. Through their witness churches were planted, schools and hospitals were established, and lives were transformed. But it was never the whole story. Even then, God was at work through local churches and leaders around the world. Today, that old map no longer fits. The arrows have changed. In some places, they now move in multiple directions. In others, they begin in places Canadian churches once imagined only as destinations. And in many cases, we are discovering that the map was always more complex than we were taught to see. I see this new reality in the two regions I serve as CBM’s Director of Partnerships for the Americas and Asia. In these contexts, the church is not simply receiving mission. It is originating it, shaping it, and influencing the wider Church. Across these regions, partners are not waiting for direction from Canada, but discerning, leading, sending, teaching, and strengthening one another from within their own contexts. Mission is not one region teaching and another learning. It is partners sharing wisdom across borders and discovering that each voice can help form the others.

On October 4, 2026, Boulevard Church had its first Sunday Gathering at 11:00 a.m. in their new home, Montclaire Elementary in Charlotte, NC. This first public gathering gave witness to their desire to be a community on mission: "Learning to follow Jesus, living as his ambassadors, for his glory." Over 280 people from 23 countries gathered to worship, pray, read God’s Word, and enjoy his presence. Hospitality, service teams, and children’s ministry were also launched on October 4. The joy was palpable from beginning to end for all in attendance. Co-planters Roland Chandler and Jorge Hernandez preached in both English and Spanish (“ping-pong" style) about Matthew 4:12-17: the beginning of Jesus' ministry. The sermon was called “Leaving, Going, and Living,” reflecting Boulevard Church’s journey, the experience of the immigrant community they serve, and Jesus’ own journey from his hometown of Nazareth to Capernaum, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, in “Galilee of the Gentiles.” Jesus’ willingness to leave home was inspired by God-given purpose: to fulfill the promise of being a GREAT LIGHT to ALL people who lived in darkness. Roland also shared several stories of new people coming to faith at this first gathering, including a new volunteer and a worker at the host school facility. A few short days later, in reflecting on the official public beginning of Boulevard, Roland had this to share: “Many stories have followed from people of all ages in the church, and a tangible joy has lingered into this week. Our team is exhausted and still has much to do, but the most present sentiment we share is gratitude. God has sustained our bodies, minds, and spirits to prepare everything necessary for this beginning. He has done so much of it through Ascent, and we can't thank you enough for your spiritual, financial, and time investment in the heart of our church. But we try!”

The season of Advent is a season of giving, not simply because it intertwines with the global celebration of Christmas, but because its heart is found in the gift of the Son from the Father. It is fundamentally a moment when those who have “more” exercise an unflinching generosity to those who have “less.” For generations, Christians have embraced this season as an opportunity to give sacrificially, meeting practical needs around the world while sharing the deeper message behind every act of compassion: God loves the world, and He draws near to His people. The inaugural Ascent Advent Offering carries this spirit of generosity across the globe, bringing the message of God’s nearness to communities throughout North America and across continents, from South America to Asia. Through this offering, we will support a variety of initiatives, including providing clean water, food relief, recovery from disaster and war, support of local churches and leaders in these challenged contexts, and above all, the demonstration and declaration of the Good News itself. Each day of the Ascent Advent Journey, you will catch a glimpse of the difference that your participation in giving will make. The map below provides a visual picture of the places where your gifts will make a difference, connecting our Advent journey to communities around the world.