Every Nation Church GTA was launched in 2013 under the leadership of Bert and Sheila Thomson. The church can trace its origins back to the early 2000’s when people who had attended Every Nation Churches in the Philippines began to congregate in the Greater Toronto Area. The first group started meeting at the World Vision Center in Mississauga. In 2008, Toronto natives Jay and Vivian Lee became the pastors of this group. The church was called Catalyst and moved to its present location in downtown Toronto.
The Thomsons have had a long history with Every Nation starting UChurch in Calgary in 1990 which was the first Every Nation Church in Canada. After Calgary, they spent 14 years in Nashville at our Every Nation North American headquarters.
A milestone for the church in 2013 was the addition of Richard and Chantelle Kidger from Cape Town, South Africa. At the time, the Kidgers were on staff at the Every Nation church in Cape Town, and through an unlikely connection found out about the church plant in Toronto and felt called to join.
Over the past few years, the church has grown in size and in ethnic diversity reflecting the diversity in culture of our city. Situated in the heart of Toronto near several universities and colleges, there has also been growth in the number of university students attending. In 2016, Every Nation Campus was registered as an official student organization at the University of Toronto. Many of our students upon graduation have found good jobs in Toronto and continue their involvement with the church.
Our church has always had a vision to be a church planting church and is now in the beginning phases of a second site in Waterloo, ON.
AFFILIATION
Every Nation GTA is a member church of Every Nation, a worldwide family of churches and ministries that exists to honour God by establishing Christ-centred, Spirit-empowered, socially responsible churches and campus ministries in every nation.
Every Nation GTA is part of the Multiply network (formerly C2C), which exists to be a catalyst for church multiplication throughout Canada.