Matching Funds Key to Canvas Church's Impact

Canvas Church is a multiethnic, multigenerational congregation located in the highly unchurched community of Westerville, Ohio, just north of Columbus.

"As the values and demographics of the Midwest continue to shift," says Pastor Tim Walk, "we are excited at Canvas Church to present and represent Jesus in a beautiful and relevant way."

Focused on their mission to Reach People, Reveal Jesus and Replicate Disciples, Canvas is seeing people in the community, including those who have been hurt by religion, give church another try.

Canvas Church was gifted rent-free space in Oakstone, a local charter school in the community that focuses on autism integration. Because of the Matching Funds available, the church was able to purchase sound and stage equipment that met the need for both the church and the charter school.

"We met with the school's music and theater program and coordinated upgrading their program as we bought equipment for our church," Walk says, "We share a stage, microphones, speakers, and pipe and drape weekly, all purchased with the Matching Funds."

Canvas Church has strategically purposed to replicate church plants and church planters. Walk is already discipling a person to lead the first plant, once the congregation reaches 200 at Canvas.

A few weeks after the Walks launched Canvas, a woman who had started coming asked Tim if she could still come to church because she was a witch. His response was, "That guy over there is an attorney, so we will take everybody." She kept coming. Tim's wife, Kelly, started discipling the woman, and she committed her life to Jesus. She was the first person baptized at Canvas Church.

Tim and Kelly realized the woman was gifted in the prophetic, and the enemy has hijacked this gift. They are continuing to mentor her, and she is growing in her gift and commitment to Jesus.

"I pray that the seed AGTrust partners invest will not only bless Canvas Church," Tim Walk says, "but will be multiplied over and over as we plant churches that plant churches and make disciples who make disciples. Thank you!"

To date, more than 500 churches have been planted across the United States with the help of Matching Funds, thanks to AGTrust in partnership with Church Multiplication Network.

“The Matching Funds you provided allowed Canvas Church to accelerate the launch of the truth and contributed to church growth —something that could have taken an additional 18 months of fundraising to accomplish," Walk states.

According to Chris Railey, director of Church Multiplication Network, from January 2017 to mid-2018, Church Multiplication Network saw over 500 new churches planted in the Assemblies of God.

“We praise God for that, but we believe for even greater results in 2019 as we pray for 500 churches to be planted in one calendar year — for the first time in the history of our AG Fellowship,” Railey says. “None of this would be possible without the generosity of our AGTrust partners who provide the Matching Funds for new church plants like Canvas Church."

On Sunday, Sept. 16, 29 new AG churches will launch in conjunction with the celebration of National Church Planting Day in the AG.