The youth was an “absolute key” to Canadian Southern Baptists during the Convention’s annual meeting in Toronto, on July 6-8, 2004.

“The youth are absolutely key for us,” said Canadian Convention of Southern Baptists (CCSB) national ministry leader Gerry Taillon. “If we don’t pass on the vision and the mission of the CCSB to them, then we’re going to fail in the vision and mission God’s given us.”

According to Tallion, Canadian Southern Baptists are “rearing a new generation of future leaders.”

“Our pastors are young. I go to meetings and sometimes I’m the oldest one there,” he said.

“But there’s even a younger generation -- 25 and under -- and they want to experience what it really means to be on mission. They don’t want to just talk about it. They want to worship, and out of that worship, be on mission and make an impact on the world.”

Among these passionate youth-leaders for Christ were members of The Sanctuary – a congregation from Oakville California. The Sanctuary received the blessings and prayers from the entire congregation, as they prepared to leave on a 2,300-kilometer outreach journey.

Currently, the CCSB account for only 220 churches in the Southern Baptist Convention – in the U.S., the SBC is the largest denomination with more than 42,000 churches. Last year, the CCSB grew with a record number of 37 new churches.