After moving to North Carolina to attend seminary, Mike took a ministry position at First Baptist Church Jonesboro, GA, from 2010-2018. During this time, he and Sarah met, married, and welcomed two amazing sons into their family. God was working in their young adult ministry, and they enjoyed a wonderful time on staff at FBCJ.

In 2017, Mike began to feel God stirring in his heart, preparing him for a change of seasons. In January 2018, he prayed a significant prayer: ͞God, don’t ever let me get so comfortable that I won’t follow you wherever you lead. If you have a new assignment for me, please show me. Not long afterward, he received a call from Ashley Austin. He shared with Mike what God was doing in Victoria, and how Canvas Church was ready to plant a second campus on the island, this time on the east side of the city in the municipality of Oak Bay. Mike and Sarah agreed to pray about the opportunity and seek God’s guidance. 

I. God - He is perfect in all His attributes (all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving) and is the one true God. He is Trinity, three persons but one in essence, existing as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

II. Jesus - The Son of God. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, performed miracles, died on the cross, was buried, bodily resurrected, ascended to the right hand of the Father, and will one day return in glory and power.

III. Holy Spirit - He is God, co-equal and co-existent with the Father and the Son. He convicts us of our sin and is the chief agent of regeneration and sanctification. The Holy Spirit indwells every believer, empowering each one to live a godly life.

IV. Scripture - The 66 books of the Bible are God's inspired word, infallible in their teachings and authoritative in matters of life and faith. V. People - All people are valuable because they are created in the image of God and are loved by their Creator. However, all people have a sinful nature and are thus guilty and separated from God, each in need of saving.

V. People - All people are valuable because they are created in the image of God and are loved by their Creator. However, all people have a sinful nature and are thus guilty and separated from God, each in need of saving.

Financial Partners

It costs money to live and do ministry here in Oak Bay, and so we are praying that God would bring churches and individuals to partner alongside of us in this way. Every gift helps and is prayerfully used as God leads. Would you pray and consider becoming a monthly partner with us?

You can also choose to give a one-time gift. There are several ways in which you can do this:

Give Online:

If you are in the United States and would like a tax receipt, you can contribute directly online through our giving portal: CLICK HERE

If you are in Canada and would like a tax receipt, you can contribute online HERE:

Select “Oak Bay” under “Funds.”

Check:

You can also contribute by check. Make check payable to: NAMB. In the memo line put: SRF2NC (Mike Blackaby). Mail check to: North American Mission Board, P.O. Box 116543, Atlanta, GA, 30368-6543.

If you are in Canada you can make a check payable to WestCoast Baptist Association and write “Oak Bay” in the memo. You can mail the check to:

WBA

131 East Kings Road

North Vancouver, BC, V7N1H4

Mike’s family has a long history of planting and pastoring churches in Canada. His great-grandfather, a banker with the Bank of Montreal, planted a church in Prince Rupert, British Columbia shortly after World War II. His grandfather Henry Blackaby, born in British Columbia, later helped to plant 37 churches throughout the province of Saskatchewan. Many of those stories are chronicled in the book and Bible study "Experiencing God". Mike's father Richard pastored a church in Winnipeg for 3 years before becoming president of the Canadian Southern Baptist Seminary in Cochrane, Alberta, for 13 years. This is where Mike grew up, and he remembers often hearing about the need for church planters to go and start Christ-centered, gospel-preaching churches across this vast country.

Along the way, God began to confirm their call in many ways, including several people without knowledge of the opportunity randomly telling Mike that the Holy Spirit had told them this year would bring a new ministry assignment into his life, specific answers to prayers for guidance, and even dreams. In July 2017, Mike and Sarah and their boys visited Victoria to further pray and seek God’s guidance on the island. They came with a condensed list of prayerful questions for God to answer. During their time on the island, God gave clear and specific answers to each question they had. After seeking wise counsel and continuing to pray, both Mike and Sarah were convinced that this was the next step in their story.

In January 2018, Mike and Sarah and their boys moved 2,800 miles (4,500 km) from south Atlanta, GA, to Victoria, British Columbia. They immediately began meeting monthly with a small group in Oak Bay who had been gathering over the previous months and continue to take one step of faith at a time as God leads. In the first months of living on the island, they have already seen God’s miracles in confirmation of their new assignment! For more details on the story, they encourage you to email them at mike@canvasoakbay.ca. God is at work in Oak Bay, and He is calling laborers into the harvest. (Matthew 9:35-38)

Financial Needs

(all prices in Canadian dollars. The US dollar is currently 1.27 Canadian)

If you or your church would like to contribute towards a specific need, here are several that we currently have:

• To rent the facility to have worship services costs $500 per week. It will cost $26,000 to cover an entire year (52 weeks) of worship services.
• Door Hangers to advertise outreach events in the community are $150 per 1000.
• Funds to subsidize a worship leader is $20,000 for the year.
• Instrument cables are $30 each.
• Yearly cost to maintain our website is $80.
• It costs $60 per worker each week for childcare during our services (two workers per week is $120 a week, or $480 a month).
• Yearly Family Festival outreach event is $5000.
  
• Our Easter Festival Outreach will cost approximately $2500
• Our Creative Arts Camp will cost approximately $3000.

Canvas Church started 5 years ago on the west side of Victoria with the intention of multiplying across the city and the island. Canvas Oak Bay is the first of this multiplication process. For 12 months leading up to our arrival on the island, members of Canvas Westshore gathered their family, friends, and co-workers for monthly services at the historic Oak Bay Beach Hotel to build momentum and spread the word of the new church starting on that side of town.

Since arriving in January 2018, we have spent the last year continuing to gather for weekly services, building relationships, doing outreach events, and serving in the community. We have since moved locations to the Monterey Recreation Centre, which is right off of the main street in the heart of Oak Bay’s shopping district. Oak Bay is a very established and stable community, so it is vitally important that we build trust and a reputation as part of this community. We have sought to do this by volunteering alongside other volunteers at several community events, and God has opened many doors for us already as the leaders of Oak Bay have slowly welcomed our involvement. The wrong approach for us would be to make a big “splash” as the “new” thing in town. Rather, we have attempted to build their trust and our reputation as a church that seeks to bless and be involved in the community.

As we have built relationships in Oak Bay as well as with members at the Westshore campus, we have prayed that God would bring together a core group that could become our launch team. The plan is to identify this team by January 2019, spend two months meeting weekly with them for "house church" to train and build a unified vision, then officially launch weekly services on March 31st.

We also plan to be a multiplying church that raises up leaders that eventually go and plant other church campuses across the city and the island.

VI. Salvation - God has provided salvation from our sins through the death and resurrection of Jesus, who provided an atoning sacrifice on our behalf. People are saved by grace through faith, not human merit.

VII. The Church - The church is the local and tangible manifestation of the Kingdom of God, made up of those who have been "born again." They are the "Body of Christ," consisting of many individuals, unified by Christ as the head. The church's mission is to take the gospel of Jesus to all nations.

VIII. Eternity - People continue to exist after physical death, either with God in heaven or separated from God in hell.

IX. Baptism and the Lord's Supper - Jesus gave His followers two visible symbols, the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper. In Baptism, a person publicly and visibly proclaims their belief in Jesus' death and resurrection and His authority as Lord. In the Lord's Supper, believers symbolically remember Jesus' sacrifice on the cross for their sins.

In essential beliefs, we have unity - in non-essential beliefs, we have liberty - in all beliefs, we show love.