One of the neat things about living in a city like Barrie is that it gives you the opportunity to witness so many different streams of Christianity. So far I’ve seen bits of the sacramental stream, the liturgical stream and the evangelical stream. On Sunday I was expecting to see some of the charismatic stream, when I attended Hi-Way Pentecostal Church on Anne Street.
As it happened, it turns out that Hi-Way is a lot less Pentecostal than I was expecting, but a lot more focused on social justice. In fact, I’d say that of the churches I’ve visited so far none have been so connected to the needs of the community and involved in so many community programs. Hi-Way very much has a focus on seeing and meeting the needs of those it encounters.
While I was their on Sunday I met people involved in the Out of the Cold Program, the Coats for Kids program, the Angel Tree program (which seeks to meet the needs of the families of prison inmates), Samaritan’s Purse, Campus Alpha and Christian Business Ministries.
During the service we heard about the work of a missionary family in Costa Rica that is helping people out of drug addiction and prostitution. We also took time to remember the persecuted church around the world, and to pray for both them and their persecutors.
I suspect that Hi-Way is one of the key connecting churches in the city. If you want to know what’s happening in the city, where the needs are, and how they are being met, you could do a lot worse than to wonder down to Anne St. on a Sunday and start asking questions.