Pastor David Donaldson will be joining Mimico Baptist Church as Interim Pastor starting on May 13. He will guide us for several months as we discern God’s next steps for us, including the kind of pastoral staff who can help us move forward.
Starting on May 13, you can contact him at david@mimicobaptist.ca.
Pastor David shares;
I’m looking forward to the coming months at Mimico Baptist Church. I firmly believe that change isn’t the scariest part of a growing ministry. The scariest is the gap between the ‘old’ reality and the ‘new’ reality.
This interim between an outgoing and incoming senior pastor is an opportunity to be seized – even a gift to be stewarded. Together a we can look back – appropriately celebrate and God has done and grieve the losses. We can look around – evaluate current reality and re-assess strengths, gifts and mission efforts. We can look ahead – seek, plan and re-envision what God has for Mimico.
It is an unhurried time to carefully and prayerfully expect God’s healing, guidance, direction and leadership. At the end of this interim, we will be healthy, rested and envisioned. When we are ‘ready to go’ we seek God’s chosen leader for our future.
BIO FOR PASTOR DAVID
I made a childhood profession of faith at a Bible camp, then baptized when I was 10. During teen and early adult years, my pursuit of God was often passive, but I had watched too many people burn out from either evangelical fervor, or rejection of their childhood faith. I learned that extremism often leads to destruction; extreme “devotion” can lead to the destruction of those considered outside faith, and extreme rebellion can lead to self-destruction.
After earning a bachelor’s degree (Wilfrid Laurier University) I worked in Christian bookstores for sixteen years. During those years, I married Diane. Together we raised Matthew and Laurel both grown, and now 2 grandchildren. During those years, I was elder and lay leader in many capacities at Harbour Fellowship Baptist Church, St Catharines.
In mid-life, I enrolled at McMaster Divinity College, earning a Master of Theological Studies degree writing a thesis: Empowered Followers: The Measure of Success for Effective Leadership. Shortly later, I was invited to teach a course to Kenyan pastors which led to almost a decade teaching in Kenya at Pan African School of Theology.
I am a published author – regular column in Faith Today (All Things Reconciled, and The Global Village), two memoirs and a novel.
Together with Diane we love canoeing, back-country camping trips and fishing (me, not Diane so much).